Elysium's Multiverse

Chapter 247

Chapter 247

Chapter 247

The compromise Gluttony and Riven had come to was that - yes - Riven would feed on something. Anything, really, and given Athela’s incredibly high vitality along with her passive trait that required all three of her forms to die before she was only banished back to the nether realms - it made her an easy target for them to settle on. Even if it didn’t necessarily fit the requirement for ‘mortal blood’ his vampiric side needed, it still satiated Gluttony’s cravings when Riven began draining his lover - and it’d very quickly escalated when Athela had mentally agreed to it on one condition.

She, of course, wanted to make it kinky.

Riven was already in a ravenous state at that point and he’d satisfied both Gluttony and Athela at the same time, having literally thrown Athela into a nearby rental room for privacy during a moment of clarity between urges. After fifteen minutes of very rough and loud sex on a previously semi-clean bed, after having drank what seemed to be gallons of demonic blood, with a lot of hair-pulling from Riven and screaming on Athela’s part; Riven found himself having finished and on top of her while she dug her nails deep into his back.

Blood was everywhere. It was all over his face, her body, and the bed they were on. There were also bite marks all along her neck, arms and torso from where he’d been draining her, but by the way she was shuddering in orgasm she’d very much liked what had happened.

“I didn’t know you were into that kind of stuff...” Riven said, panting, only to get a forceful kiss after she groaned. “But I’m glad you enjoyed it!”

She gave him a ‘Duh’ look.

“Please let’s do that again.” Athela said, huffing herself with deep breaths of air and occasional shudders. “I’m serious. Super cereal.”

Super cereal? Had she been watching Earth-based TV shows on Comedy Central somehow?

He merely chuckled at the reference that he had no idea how she knew, and began spooning her - wrapping an arm over her shoulder and wincing at his own wounds that she’d inflicted on him during the epic battle they’d undertaken. Riven looked around at the mattress drenched in red, and let out a content sigh while watching the wounds on her body fade away - as if his fangs had never even been there.

She put one hand on his, smiling and glancing over her shoulder with raised eyebrows - still breathing deeply to catch her breath. “Fay’s going to be jealous about this one when I tell her.”

“Is that so?”

“Ooooooh definitely. Let’s include her in the next bout.”

“Do you think she’d be able to take that kind of damage though?”

“Uhm... not that much, but to a lesser extent she’d certainly like it. Plus we have some things to show you from our own time experimenting whenever you’re not around you know - we have... a plan!”

“That sounds ominous.”

“Very much so! Damn, I wish she were here and not still banished! She needs to stop dying!”

They laughed and Athela snuggled up next to him, turning over and putting her head against his chest with an amused expression. “How much time do we have left until we fight for the town? If the locals don’t attack you first, anyway...”

Riven pulled up the timer. “A little over 8 hours.”

“Hmmm. Want to try again? You’ll have to tell Azmoth that we’re going to be busy. But we NEVER get time to do this because you’re always getting into trouble!” She pounded a fist into his chest with a playful but simultaneously menacing glare. “I want more Riven time! And that picnic was nice, but you never actually took me on a SOLO date like Fay had!”

Riven clicked his tongue, and brushed away some of her black hair to put a hand on her cheek. “You know what? You’re right. How about we go get another drink, have another romp, and then find a good date spot here in town before the monster wave. Surely there’s something here like a good restaurant, or a petting zoo, or something like that. Or we can just go explore together and buy you some new clothes!”

“Like the time we went clothes shopping in Brightsville!?” Athela’s eyes widened in excitement, and she clapped her hands together before cackling mischievously. “That was when I started crushing on you, you know.”

“Oh stop!”

“WHAT!? It was! I told my mom and the rest of my clan about how kind you were when you said I’d look good in that dress... It made me very happy to hear.”

She booped him on the head with a finger. “You’re pretty cute, you know. I’m a lucky girl, and my mom really, REALLY thinks so now that you’re Gluttony’s chosen. They want to worship you, or something. Don’t give me that look, I'm being cereal! Do you know just how many system messages my clan has paid for to expedite communication outside the normal nether realm visits? And they’re all useless messages too! Ones like ‘Athela you a lucky, hot, crazy bitch!’”

“There is zero chance your demonic clan sent that message to you.”

“I swear it on my princess tiara!”

“You’re lying.”

“Nope! That was my mom.”

“Doubtful.”

“Well, ask her when you see her next then!” Athela humphed and snorted, angrily slamming a long pitch-black leg over his own. She tucked it inbetween his knees to pull her body against his. “Now shut up and accept it! And give me more snuggle time before we get another drink; like I said - I don’t get enough!”

***

Fay hadn’t been happy, being blown up in the underdark in a painful and unexpected explosion that’d blasted her back into the nether realms. Deepnests’s detonation wasn’t something she’d seen coming. However upon arrival and after realizing that Riven was, in fact, ok... she’d first-hand witnessed through her connection alongside with the rest of her entire clan what was akin to a miracle.

And not the type of skill, but a genuine miracle in the way one talked about when a one in a five-hundred-trillion chance happened right in front of you.

She hesitantly glanced at Fay, not sure how to address her now with the new dynamic changes of the clan. “Uhm... Lady Fay! I am sorry to interrupt all of you, but some of our guests from Clan Razok have arrived.”

The four of them abruptly stood, and Saemi summoned two more large couches when dark figures shifted into the nether realm around them from shadows on the floor.

Clan Razok was entirely full of arachnid variant demons, of which it had a good number of different types - but they were all related to spiders in some form or another.

Athela’s mother, Vorindi, was strangely beautiful in a very sinister way. It was very close to how Athela looked - only slightly more menacing in her humanoid form. She had three pairs of mandibles coming out of the sides of her throat along a slit that likely opened up into an additional mouth, had smaller red markings across her otherwise pitch black and patchy white skin, and had four red eyes instead of two. Otherwise the athletic outline and the six blade-like arachnoid legs sticking out of her back were the same. Vorindi was also accompanied by four others: two very high-level enforcers that took the form of enormous, red, spined spiders which shifted in and out of existence; sometimes even in multiple spots at once using the same body. The other and last of their clan was the Clan Razok patriarch, a male dryder of dark gray skin - having the upper body of a very handsome drow man and the lower body of a large black widow.

Vorindi looked to the patriarch amidst the awkward silence, and the patriarch nodded to Athela’s mother to give her the stage with the clicking of mandibles.

Vorindi then took a step forward, with the lower ranking succubus leaving the private area of the library, and shut the door behind her on the way out.

“Saemi of the Sojavi Clan, Fay of the Sojavi Clan. We of Clan Razok greet you.” Vorindi bowed low in a customary manner to both Saemi and Fay - no doubt taking the lead and being granted the first chance to speak here by their patriarch due to her abruptly heightened standing; considering she was Athela’s mother, and Athela was the other one of two love interests concerning Gluttony’s Reincarnation.

Fay was surprised by the immense respect shown her by the direct address of a demoness far above her own stature, still not used to the idea of what her position as a girlfriend - or in her mother’s words, ‘Concubine’ - of Gluttony’s Reincarnation really meant. She in turn bowed low while matching her mother’s own bow, but let her mother do the talking.

“We greet Clan Razok as friends, and hope you find yourselves comfortable within the nether realm we have built for ourselves.” Saemi finished her own bow and smiled warmly. “It is good to finally meet you in person, Vorindi. I hope the incursion into your home was met with brutal and swift death.”

The arshakai shook her head with a sly smile of her own, following Saemi’s gesture and sitting along the couch while the three others of her clan remained in the back for now. “The incursion was swiftly dealt with, indeed. Invading a nest of assassins wasn’t the brightest idea those firebrands had, but they were also extremists from the Church of Wrath; so it wasn’t entirely surprising. And the pleasure is surely mine. Do we know when Lillith will be arriving?”

The others in the room shifted nervously as they thought about it, and Saemi retook her seat - motioning for the others to do the same while shaking her head. “Unfortunately I am not sure. I believe she will be here within the day, but that is just a guess and I am entirely unsure as to an exact time. Would you like refreshments meanwhile? I’ve been wanting to discuss our shared daughter’s man long before he became such a prominent figure, you know how it is with us old gossipers!”

“Mother!” Fay hissed under her breath, to the amusement of her sister Nitidi and her brother Tupper.

To Saemi’s relief, Athela’s mother Vorindi only paused for a moment to consider her words before chuckling good naturedly.

“Indeed you’re right.” Vorindi stated, amused - clicking her mandibles thoughtfully while putting a finger up to her chin. “I’m glad our daughters worked out their differences the way they did, and it pleases me that they found such a unique summoner. As you said yourself, I’ve been rather curious about the opposite perspective even before Riven became the reincarnation of the great maw... I would have no qualms with sharing in some gossip while we await Lillith’s arrival. So let us speak on it!”

***

Outside the pub and on the streets of Outpost #84, Gragle the scarred gnome had been more than happy to get the hell out of there and away from the vampire who was a self proclaimed vampire prince of the Blood Moon Requiem. What was worse was that he’d claimed to be the host of Gluttony, a universe-ending entity that many demons literally worshiped.

If not for the presence of the blood priestess, if not for the ancient unfamiliar tattoos on Riven’s body that gave off extremely potent negative energy, Gragle may have just blown them off. But when they were both present, and having been accompanied by a very recent multiverse-wide announcement about Gluttony’s return, Gragle could only pray that the vampire was just playing some kind of sick joke on him.

Because even as immensely unlikely as it was that the vampire was telling the truth, even as preposterous as the idea was, if Riven was the real deal... Gragle and everyone here were in very real danger. That was even putting aside the fact that a blood priestess was here that would no doubt sacrifice him for bonus points to their god given a chance.

So he’d taken up the offer to lead Azmoth and Nora around town when they’d asked to leave, none of them wanting to listen to the two extremely loud lovebirds in the other room. This was even despite the fact that Azmoth himself was incredibly scary to the gnome, and the reputation of Hellscape Brutalisks was not one to be scoffed at.

Though after Azmoth had paid the barkeeper three times what he’d been given earlier as an apology for Riven’s actions, the large demon had - oddly enough - very politely taken his leave and followed Gragle out to explore the town.

“What’s that?” Nora asked, ignoring the swarms of panicking people who were actively constructing barricades along doors, windows or streets in anticipation of a monster wave possibly clearing the stone walls surrounding Outpost #84.

Gragle’s head swiveled, ignoring the looks he was getting parading around a huge demon as well as a woman with an odd hood very likely related to the integration questline they’d all been flung into. “That? The thing with pipes coming out of the ground? It’s a well.”

“For water?”

“Yes, we use magic to pump water out of it and into the four basins surrounding it. We just keep the basins covered to stop air pollution or soot from getting in, something that may not be needed as much now that we’re not actually on Mesini anymore...”

“Mesini being... what?”

“The planet we were abducted from for this stupid event.”

“YOU THERE!” A husky voice bellowed out over the crowds, and to Gragle’s immense relief - a squadron of armed guards in leather armor wielding spears pushed through the crowds to stand in front of the gnome’s two companions.

It appeared that either Azmoth had drawn their attention, people escaping from the pub had alerted the authorities, or both had happened.

Though Gragle had to admit, the feeling of relief and safety quickly vanished when reality set in. These guards wouldn't stand a chance against a hellscape brutalisk, there was almost literally a 0% chance of success in a fight, but at least if a fight did happen - it’d give Gragle a chance to escape during the carnage that followed.

The guards seemed to be very aware of this too, but their eyes kept flitting towards Nora’s hood that identified her as a system quest participant and a Chalgathi Non-Cultist.

“Ahem, sorry to bother you - but we have some questions that need to be answered.” The forefront man stated, likely a guard captain, while nervously eyeing Azmoth up and down. He turned his gaze on Nora. “Is this your summon?”

“You betchya.” Nora lied.

The captain accepted it readily, not willing to dig further into the matter as Azmoth hadn’t started killing everyone on sight. For him, the equivalent would be like an average Earthling watching hungry tigers parading down a pre-school cafeteria while not eating all the inhabitants.

“I’ve been told by the warden of this town to fetch you, along with the blood priestess we heard about, after reports from a nearby pub suggested you’d know more about what is going on here.” The captain stated - regaining a bit of his resolve in the process. “Where is this Priestess of the Blood God, if you don't mind me asking? Is she still at the pub? And if it’s ok, could you and your familiar accompany my men and I to talk to the warden? We don’t have long before the monster wave of this system event hits, and we need to know all the details you can give us if we’re to prepare for the worst.”