Chapter 304

Chapter 304

In an eyeblink, Aktab’s large dark-metal axe came down with a blinding flash of Unholy light - slicing off the head of an insectoid azag warrior. Within the ocean of blood, the headhunters of the azag hive clusters were truly the superior hunters here and had made quick work of many of the other groups they’d come across - but Aktab’s tribe and the other orc tribes of the Green Hand had been at war with the azag clusters for untold millenia. He knew a thing or two about killing the beasts, and a feral grin spread across his masculine face with his lower fangs protruded when he curled his lips.

Speaking through the red fluid around him, his eyes pierced the ocean and into the very soul of another one of the creatures - brandishing his axe. “Come.”

The azag mantis screeched and used its wings to propel itself through the blood at rocket speed - six legs spiraling and four outstretched mantis blades out wide for a pincer strike. The yellow eyes of the other participant widened in rage at seeing its mate killed, but despite the martial art it propelled itself ahead with - the headhunter was no match for the orc barbarian.

Aktab swatted the mantis’ strike with his pauldron and armored left forearm, batting them away before exposing his dark green skin and the rest of his unarmored body with his knee smashing into the azag’s left wing.

There was a crunch and screech, and the mantis blurred left with a blinkstep - sending out a jet of acid from its mandibles.

Aktab merely laughed and launched himself up through the ocean and into the air - where he could see his other comrades finishing off the rest of the mantis without much problem. He raised his axe on high, summoning a green pillar of lightning from the skies to smash into his axe before flinging the blade at the monster who’d followed him into the air.

There was a resounding CRACK, and the smell of charred flesh met his nostrils as he landed on the nearby island with the gore remnants of the beast splattering around him. He stood smiling and proud, bald head catching much of the gore as it fell, and grinned at his wife who stood with a spear in hand not far off. “Not bad, right?!”

Aktab flexed, expanding his already large muscles and teasingly wiggled his eyebrows at the huntress, who pretended not to be impressed with a snort and an eye roll. But he could see how she looked at him from the corner of his eyes, and Aktab knew that he would be rewarded for his display in front of the others soon enough.

Killing in front of his wife Citri was always a way to turn her on. It made him look fierce, and brought honor to the clan. Even if he was a bit silly whenever he did it.

One of the two other orc warriors laughed and came to slap Aktab on the back. “It was a good kill, even if Citri won’t admit it!”

“Thank you Brother Fram! I can always count on you to call out a good thing when you see it!” Aktab replied, smugly waltzing over to where the other azag bodies were. More importantly, where their blood tokens and spatial bags were - as Citri and the final member of their team were now rummaging through the luggage with abandon.

“Heads, heads, and more heads.” Citri muttered, her head shaking in dismay as she continued to pull out the collected heads of numerous other descenders that’d fallen prey to the mantis pack. “I’ll never understand their obsession with collecting skulls.”

“It is a tradition of theirs, for worthy enemies.” Aktab said, nudging her playfully with his knee and getting a scowl from the kneeling orc huntress below him. “For others, they use their bodies as egg incubators. You know this, you’ve been to their recently conquered worlds on the outer rim of the Pajaji.”

“Yes… truly disgusting creatures.” Citri said with dismay. She got up, and handed one of the spatial sacs to her husband. “Perhaps you’d like to finish going through it? I don’t feel up to the task now that-”

A scream from Brother Fram caught their attention, and the other three orcs quickly whirled around to see him get dragged through some kind of spatial rift in a snap-second of time. One moment he was there, being pulled into the darkness with thick, sticky nets of unholy energy - and the next he was just gone.

It’d happened so fast.

Aktab barely had time to blink before a long red spike covered in black lightning crashed into the other orc warrior still with them - coming from another direction and taking the man through the stomach. The protective wards and defensive life-saving treasures didn’t even last a moment, shattering on impact. Critical energy rippled along his exposed abdomen and ripped an enormous hole through his gut, before spreading up into his chest where his heart burst in a spray of blood. The orc warrior’s eyes went wide in wordless shock, before his body was flung off its feet in a spinning arc. His smoldering remains were sent skipping like a pebble upon a lake, crashing over the island and ending with a splash in the blood ocean nearly a hundred yards away.

“IT’S A TRAP!” Aktab roared, activating all his boosting skills and turning to the spot where the spike of energy had come from - but then he saw the look of horror on his wife’s face as she stared at something behind him. She was reaching out with one hand, a spell taught to her by one of the dark shamans in their village on her lips as she frantically cast to summon the magic to her fingertips; but the look she had told him that Citri would doubtless be too late.

Aktab needed to act.

With all his power, he swiveled and swung - unleashing everything he had directly behind him with a triple-enhanced crushing blow from his axe. The dark steel sang with bloodlust and his body swelled, muscles building, until his strike blindly slammed into something solid.

There was a crash of power, and the cold sensation of something entering his chest. He felt his heart stop in that instant, a tugging sensation that screamed wrongness, and blinked in horror as he beheld a strange, red-eyed man staring back at him. It was a vampire, as pale as day with strange black sclera and simmering unholy tattoos littering his mostly bare body. A vast aura of what Aktab could only describe as supreme, unrelenting hunger blasted from the man’s body, and Aktab was forced to take a knee as his skin started to freeze and his wife screamed his name in horrified denial.

As he hit the floor, he came down to the level of the man’s hands - which cupped Aktab’s still beating heart in his bloody fingers. Aktab felt his body sway from side to side as the sound around him faded; and his vision turned to black.

***

“AKTAB!” The orc woman screamed in horrified dismay as Riven took a bite of the beating heart, savoring the flavor on his tongue as the scent of his fresh kill radiated through his nostrils.

It tasted so, so good… and a thrilling, tingling sensation ran up his spine when his fangs sank into the meat.

Riven’s mind was completely focused on that overwhelming, overpowering sensation, uncaring of anything and everything else, as he let his knees hit the sand while gorging himself on the organ with ravenous abandon.

“YOU MONSTER!” The trembling, green-skinned woman let out a sob - and then without delay she flung some kind of plague-cloud in his direction similar to what Fay often used.

The cloud never hit.

In an instant, Riven was behind the woman. Coating his arms and hands in gauntleted claws of crimson, he smashed her weak body into the ground.

He felt the crunch of bones and heard her pained scream, but above all he felt the pulsing ravenous call of the need to devour. He didn’t even register her as a person, ignoring her sobs as he suppressed her mana and delivered a clean, quick killing strike to her forehead by smashing in her skull. Because although he was uncontrollably hungry, he was not intentionally cruel. He did not prolong her suffering, and with her wails gone and everyone in the vicinity very dead - he settled down to eat.

Hands trembling with delight, smile spread literally from ear to ear, and fangs extended, he felt Gluttony’s overpowering presence consume his thoughts. He began digging through her muscles and organs without another thought or care in the world, gorging himself on the dead huntress and rapidly stripping her bones of flesh as he tore pieces of her off and shoved them into his mouth. Often swallowing whole and not even bothering to chew, he only barely acknowledged Athela’s presence in the background as she watched.

He only barely acknowledged her sadistic smile, only barely registered the ocean of blood around him that began to stream up into the sky like pillars supporting the heavens, and didn’t register the faint words that left her mouth as she tapped a curious finger to her pitch black lips: “My man is finally growing up… That blood farm is going to have to come along sooner, rather than later.”

***

A calm, slowly rotating vortex of blood covered the sky for miles around Riven in all directions - soaking up blood from the ocean as it formed tiny, concentrated threads of power that wrapped themselves together and reached for him far below. The tingling sensation he felt as these threads condensed and needled their way into his black tattoos was a euphoria, adding to the content sensation he had while he continued to devour his victims, and as the bloody threads of extremely condensed blood energy intertwined with the ancient language on his skin.

[As a pureblooded vampire, you have finally come to embrace your predatory heritage and have fed on enough prey to expand your bloodline. For further expansions, you will need to continue feeding on mortals, and will expedite the process by increasing both the amount of blood you drain - as well as by increasing the variety of races you feed on. Please choose one of the following for the trait Bloodline Expansion 1:

Increased Regeneration

Improved Vampiric Perception

Blood Golem Creation

Enhanced Thrall Minions]

The vortex in the sky dissipated, as the last lingering remnants of it were drawn into Riven’s body. The notification disappeared into his status page, and closed, as he began to regain his self awareness.

Riven exited his fugue state in a haze of bliss, blood covering his entire front and meat hanging from his mouth. Two skeletons, stripped of the majority of their flesh, were on the sand nearby, and Athela was still wearing her bikini and watching him with puzzled amazement only a couple feet away. She had one hand supporting her chin, the other tapping her knee, and gave him a loving smile when he finally acknowledged her presence.

“Hey babe!” She said sweetly. “Enjoy your meal? I’d been wondering what would happen when a pureblood like you unlocked their first bloodline expansion! Quite impressive stuff! But you know, Fay isn’t going to be very happy with you if you don’t hurry up. It’s been more than ten minutes.”

Riven stared at the demoness, horror slowly creeping in, as he realized that she’d witnessed his actions. He looked down at his messy chest, and blood covered hands, before spitting out the meat in his mouth off to the side. “Athela… how much did you see?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

She gave him a knowing grin, scooted over across the island sand, and put a gentle palm against his stained cheek. “All of it.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

He blanched.

What would she think of him?

Was she disgusted?

Did she-

His thoughts were interrupted when she leaned over and pressed her forehead against his. Sighing and stroking the back of his neck, she opened her eyes again and seemed to peer into his soul - as she opened the floodgates of emotions in her mind. Through their link, he only felt sympathy, love, and acceptance.

And a good bit of lust but he ignored that part, because frankly he was too overcome with emotions of his own. She didn’t care one bit that he was a monster. Did she?

“You’re not a monster, Riven.” She said, pulling back and giving them just a bit of space, but patted his hair down to clean it off of gore. “You’re my monster. And I love you. How long were you going to keep this a secret from us?”

Riven felt a sinking feeling of guilt settle into his stomach, though it was still overwhelmed by the sense of relief he had that she didn’t think any less of him after witnessing what he’d done. “I’m not sure.”

“Do you not trust us to love you anyway?” She asked, genuinely curious. “Genua told us about your condition. Fay and me. We’ve known since the last floor, and Gluttony himself has been hinting that you need to expand your bloodlines by adding more variety and volume to your feeding.”

He didn’t bother replying, but cast his gaze to the ground.

Athela tisked, and drew him into a warm hug. Embracing him with her warm body pressed against his, she just held him there for a long, long time, until he eventually took her in his own arms and gave her a loving hug back. “You don’t need to hide anything from me, Riven. Not ever. I’m your princess, remember?”

Riven, who’d kept his composure up until that moment, hugged her tighter and let out a quick sob of laughter. Burying his head into her neck, he continued to let rolling tears stream down his face as they laughed together. “Athela, times like this remind me why I’m so lucky to have you.”

“Yes, yes, I am great!” She said with a swish of her hair. “I’m pretty damn awesome, I know, I know! But very seriously, are you done eating now?”

Riven sniffed, then nodded - continuing to smile. “Yes.”

She nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Then it’s time to tell you a secret of our own.”

“You have a secret you haven’t been sharing?”

“Definitely! And you can’t be mad. It’s only been a little while anyways, a few days.”

Riven pretended to scowl. “Alright. Why haven’t you told me yet? Is it something serious?”

She pondered his question for a bit, and shook her head. “Nothing that will harm you directly. But we might have… bent the rules, a little bit. We both wanted to do it, it wasn’t just one of us.”

O-Oh…” His features slowly fell, and a look of worried jealousy settled in. He nervously began to fidget, looking across the ocean to where their own island had been settled and where Fay’s illusions kept the majority of it obscured. “You… You and Fay didn’t…”

His voice trailed off, and a sinking feeling of dread and hurt began to rail against his mind. There was no way they’d do something like that. No way… right?

Athela raised an eyebrow in confusion, and turned his head back to her by gently realigning his chin - meeting his eyes. “We didn’t what?”

Riven pursed his lips. He felt stupid for even asking, hypocritical in some ways, but the way she’d phrased it… he had to ask. “I hope you’re not saying that you two cheated on me.”

Before she had registered exactly what he said, he quickly continued to clear the air. “Not that I ever thought you would! And honestly, in many ways, I don’t even have room to talk because I know you’ve both made large exceptions for me… WAIT! Wait, don’t say anything yet.”

He held up his hands as she opened her mouth to speak. “No, I need to finish talking first before you reply.”

Taking in a deep breath, he avoided her gaze - shame-faced. “I know it’s completely hypocritical of me to even ask this. I remember how hard it was when you two had it out for one another, and how you both settled the differences by sharing, but I had thought it was just us three. If I’m not enough, if this isn’t enough, or if one or both of you need something more, and want to move on, then let me know.”

There was a very, very long lull in the conversation after that.

Slowly, composing herself, Athela leveled a steady gaze his way - hands clasped on her lap as she knelt beside him. “You know, you did sleep with Kathrine. You even intend to marry her because of The Blood Moon Requiem’s mandates to create more with the gift of Malignant Prophecy.”

“I don’t have to do that.” Riven adamantly said. “Not if you two don’t want me to. I can tell my great grandmother to fuck right off and never see Kathrine again.”

Another pause.

“You impregnated Genua.”

Riven grimaced. “We weren’t even together back then. None of us were. Sure I slept with Fay that day too, but-”

“And yet I’m still with you, and have to watch you raise another woman’s children. Do you realize how that must make me feel?” Athela held up a hand to his lips, irritation being obvious on her countenance. “What if I did tell you that we’d cheated on you? What then?”

Riven’s face paled, he remained silent for a time, and tears began welling up under his eyes as he looked away. It took an even longer amount of time to compose himself than it had for Athela. “I’d be extremely hurt because you’d have done it behind my back, the trust would have been broken. I’m not sure what I’d do. And so, I’d very much like to know if that’s what happened. If that’s what you’re hinting at, being your secret.”

Athela evaluated her boyfriend in silence, and finally shook her head. “This conversation has been enlightening, but no. Neither Fay nor I have slept with anyone else other than you and Genua. But you already knew about Genua, and we felt like it was ok to do because you've also slept with her and she’s your thrall.”

Riven still averted his gaze, but he visibly relaxed from the tense posture he’d been in and let his shoulders slump. He wiped his eyes. “Ok. That’s good to know.”

“I want you to know, Riven, now that we’re on the subject… Eh. How do I put this?” She scratched her chin thoughtfully, looking up at the star-laden sky. “It was… It was very hard for me, at first, to accept Fay. Harder than it was to realize that Genua has your child inside her. Back when you’d initially chosen me as the one you wanted to be with, I chose to open myself up to having a relationship that included Fay because I knew it would make you happy. But since then, I’ve discovered that I’m very much into her too, and it’s opened up an entirely new avenue of experiences I’d never explored before. I would never hurt you, Riven, I would never cheat on you, and if I ever wanted to introduce someone else into the relationship I’d talk to you first. But also know that I’m very aware of how fragile men’s egos are.”

She gave him a wink. “I would never do anything that I even thought would make you jealous or upset. I am truly in love with you, Riven, and if having Fay around makes you happy - then I’m happy. If you choose to once again explore things with Genua, then I’m fine with it. You’ll be taking care of her two kids soon anyways, and she is acceptable. If you choose not to do that because you’re content with Fay and I, then all I can say is great - and that I’m happy as long as you’re happy. Same thing with Kathrine.”

Athela held up her hands in a shrug. “I used to be a very jealous person, but I know you care and I’ve had a lot of fun with the way things are right now. I would never ruin it. But if it made you feel better, you could always give me a minion’s mandate, ordering me to never do something like that.”

“I don’t ever want to force you to do anything, Athela.”

“Then don’t. But I wouldn’t mind, if it gave you peace of mind. You’ve never ordered me to do anything against my will except in jest, like when you forced me to keep hitting myself the other day as punishment for stealing Fay’s snack.”

She grinned, and the two of them laughed together as she nudged him and snuggled up against his chest.

“I suppose that was well deserved though.” She eventually said, as he otherwise sat in silence. “No, the secret that Fay and I had was something else entirely. We were going to surprise you with it on Christmas, but if you want to know-”

“I don’t want to know if it’s a surprise present. Save it for Christmas.” Riven said, holding her close and leaning into her. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be such a pussy, just the thought of you with another man really sucked. God I feel like such a hypocrite saying that.”

“With another MAN, huh? Oddly specific. Your feelings are your feelings.” Athela shrugged, leaning back into him comfortingly and stroking his back. “It’s not something I’ll ever need. I can’t speak for Fay, but that’s how I feel about it anyways. And she’s obsessed with you, she’s literally waiting or you to go pounce on her right now - so you should probably oblige her before she gets huffy!”

Riven rolled his eyes with a wide smile, and ran his hand through her hair. “Yeah. She’s been rather aggressive lately.”

“Indeed. Also, I should probably ask - what do you think of Kara? She’s rather nice. Isn’t she?”

“Of course she’s nice. She seemed absolutely crazy at first, but I think she’s just had a rough life from what little I know about her. Why?”

“Do you think she’s pretty?”

Riven scoffed. “Yes, but not as nearly as pretty as you or Fay. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Good answer!” Athela giggled, and pulled his face towards her and plant a kiss on his lips. “Which leads me to another question. I realize you said that you’re jealous when it comes to other men. But would you, theoretically, be jealous of other women? Say, perhaps, if we got permission from you first - would you be angry if Fay and I experimented with other females outside our relationship?”

“Outside of our relationship? That completely depends on the dynamic of that other relationship.” Riven replied. “If that’s what you want, I truly would be a hypocrite to deny you that. Honestly seeing you date other women wouldn’t bother me that much as long as you asked first, and as long as that woman - whoever it was - didn’t try to steal you away from me emotionally. I want to be first priority, just like you and Fay are mine.”

“Nice!” Athela fistpumped.

“What do you mean, ‘nice!?’” Riven asked with a laugh. “Did you have someone in mind, perhaps Kara - since you brought her up? Aren’t Fay and Genua enough for you?”

“Oh they’re more than enough! But as long as you’re alright with it as long as it’s women, we wouldn’t have a problem expanding our horizons!” Athela replied smugly. “I’ve developed a little bit of a crush on Kara. We were going to bring this up together, but since we’re already here talking about it I might as well get it out. We didn’t think that you’d be jealous of other women and it appears we were right, given our relationship dynamic and your earlier reaction when you found out that Fay and I were using Genua. We wouldn’t have pursued it if you weren’t comfortable with it, but now that we know you are… it makes things rather exciting!”

“Is that right?”

“It is! But there’s one small problem.” Athela held up her fingers and pushed her thumb and pointer finger together. “Kara doesn’t want to be a thrall.”

Riven blinked. “So? I don’t want her to be a thrall either. Thralls are mind slaves, and I like Kara.”

“Yes, but how are Fay and I supposed to seduce Kara if she's not a thrall?”

“The old fashioned way?”

“But she’s not into girls.”

Riven snickered at the unamused expression Athela had. “Well that’s tough shit for you then. Find another girl to date. Maybe Kathrine would be into it, if she manages to survive whatever she’s going through right now. I hope she’s alright, anyways.”

“Yeah me too.” Athela stated with a small frown. “But as you’ve said many times now, we can’t help Kathrine and can only hope. Back to the moment though! About Kara - she isn’t into girls, but she is into you.”

Riven raised an eyebrow. “I said she’s pretty, but I’m quite comfortable with the status quo. I don’t want to have another girlfriend, Athela.”

“Oh come on!” Athela pleaded, a sly and seductive smile on her lips as she backed up with a fake pout. “Do Fay and I a solid! Be our wing-man!”

“You’re seriously asking me to wing-man for you two so that you can sleep with Kara?”

“Yes!” Athela nodded aggressively. “Using you to fish for straight women is the equivalent of using catnip for cats, or crack for a crackhead! I mean just look at this handsome jawline! You’re fucking beautiful!”

Riven straight-faced her as she pinched both his cheeks and wiggled them around.

“Weren’t you just saying that you were hypocritical and acknowledged that Fay and I had made big exceptions for you!?” Athela pressed, an eager light filling her eyes. “And you even said you’re not jealous of other women as long as they don’t try to take us away from you, right? Come on, Riven! Be our wingman and help your bisexual girlfriend out a bit! Add her to your harem!”

Riven for his part, pursed his lips - unamused. “I’m not getting another girlfriend, Athela. I can barely juggle you two as it is, and the Kathrine thing is only in name because of the requiem.”

“Ok well what about occasional flings!? It would be fun to spice things up from time to time, wouldn’t it?!”

His eyes narrowed. “Well… perhaps I can see that. How do you know she’s not into girls though? Have you even tried pursuing her yet if you were going to ask me for permission first?”

“More or less dropped a couple hints and felt out the waters.” Athela replied noncommittally. “I didn’t actually do anything though, not without you saying I could. I fell flat on my face with the flirting too, so to speak, but she oggles you every chance she gets with big puppy dog eyes. You’ve had to have seen it.”

Riven couldn’t necessarily disagree, after taking note of things when Allie had pointed them out the first time. “Ok, but how are you going to use me to get to her?”

“Simple! Fay and I already made a bet with her, one that we lost on purpose!”

“The bet you two had when you were whispering at the beer pong table?”

“Mhmmm!”

“You’re such a degenerate. And what did that bet entail?”

Athela cackled and tugged her knees up to her chest, but didn’t deny the accusation. “We told her that we’d get you drunk and rope her into a foursome with us later today if we lost. And of course, we lost intentionally so that we would have the chance to sleep with her too.”

“That’s so fucked.”

“I’m not fucked yet, but I will be if you agree!”

“Seriously Athela, do you have no moral compass?”

“You saying that while rolling your eyes and smirking doesn’t really drive the message home. But no, I do not have any moral qualms about what we’re about to do as long as you’re not jealous or upset about it. She’d be into it if you were there, no harm no foul!”

Riven snorted, and proceeded to get up. “I’m assuming that Fay is waiting for me and you’re going to show up shortly afterwards with Kara then?”

Athela beamed a smile and gave two thumbs up. “You got it! I let them know you’d be late when I saw what you were up to. Just make sure to do a good job for Kara so that she feels satisfied whenever its my turn. Ok?”

“You’re putting a lot of pressure on me here. I’m not sure I can perform.”

“Oh, Riven, Riven, Riven… Of that, I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll do quite fine. More than fine, actually. As I’ve said, you’re quite the catch - and I’m honestly baffled that you’d ever be jealous of any other man given who you are and what you look like. Now - let’s get going so we don’t piss Fay off anymore than we already have! I’m excited!”

“Mhmm. Oh, and Athela?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t tell the others what you saw here. I don’t need them knowing specifics.”

“Of course, Riven. I would never do something like that without your say so.”