“So, two new notches on your belt?” Meg asked, her finger twirling around some of Liam’s sweat dampened hair. Liam laughed, his voice slightly shaky. His hand reached down and squeezed Meg’s firm rump, reveling in the fact he could feel her again. That he could feel every inch of her pressing to him. Her nipples, her pubic feathers, her wings. Being able to breathe her in with every panting, gasping moment. She nuzzled his chest. “I’m offended. Here I was, in jail, being tormented by vicious brutish lizardmen, and here my philandering husband-”
“Fiance,” Liam rumbled.
“-was fucking a goddess. And his Hierophant! The scandal! The shame!”
“Wait till you see the form I used!” came a voice.
Liam was too tired, too spent, and too deliriously happy to really give a damn about Loki barging in on him after sex again. He simply grunted and opened one eye. Loki was laying on the half of the bed that Meg and Liam didn’t occupy, by dint of the fact they were so tightly entangled it’d take a crowbar to extract one from the other. A crowbar and superman, considering Meg’s strength.
“What was it?” Meg asked. The fact she had enough energy to sit up after the round she and Liam had just gone through - not to mention having shattered her own prison with her bare hands (well, and a soup bowl), flown a marathon, fought pirates, then dueled her grandfather, - left Liam rather impressed. And incredibly nervous.
Loki chuckled and a flash of light surrounded her. Liam had thought explaining her first form would be difficult but Loki was a master at finding new and fascinating ways to leave him squirming.
Loki looked like Meg. Everything was perfect: long blonde hair, bright glowing blue eyes, porn-star body, all of it.
Meg blinked. “Sorry, Loki, not buying it. Liam here is a grade A self-hating pervert-”
“I’m not self-hating,” Liam muttered, letting his arm rest over his face.
“You said you were going to feminist hell!” Meg said, giggling.
“It was a joke, you over-titted pigeon,” Liam muttered.
“-but!” Meg continued, forcing herself back onto the conversation, her finger thrust into the air. “He’s also a creative grade A self-hating pervert. No way he’d have a shapeshifter on his grubby hands-”
“They’re not grubby,” Liam muttered.
“-grubby hands!” Meg barreled over him, laughing. “And not make her turn into something freakishly bizarre.”
Loki smiled, slowly. “You two should go on the stage. You have the timing down perfectly.”
Meg smiled. “We’ve had a year of practice.” She paused. “You know, though, I have to say...” Her finger rubbed along her chin as she considered Loki. “You are quite attractive.”
Loki smiled, rearing up onto her thighs. Her hands went to her blonde tresses, pushing them back over her shoulders. For a moment, Liam was delighted to see two perfect pairs of tits, both of them filling his field of view as Meg and Loki loomed over him. Then Meg leaned forward and captured Loki’s mouth with her own. Now, there were two perfect pairs of tits, mashing together as wings flared and hands caressed. Liam held perfectly still. This moment had the feeling of a soap bubble.
The wrong move might cause it to pop.
Meg drew back, her tongue and Loki’s tongue still touching. Loki panted softly.
“So, how am I going to tell you two apart?” Liam asked.
Loki’s grin grew wicked.
Her sex spread and with a slow, wet, slick slurp, a cock as long and thick as Liam’s own emerged. In fact, it looked identical to his. It thrust into the air, glistening with her arousal as Loki leaned back, her pussy lips glinting beneath her new shaft. Thanks to a great deal of hentai, Liam was less shocked than he would otherwise have been. But it was one thing to watch an anime girl grow a gigantic cock and fuck a green-haired high school student silly…
And another thing entirely to see someone do it in real life.
“Now I've got the best bits of both of you,” Loki said, smugly
Meg oohed softly. “Can you change other people?”
“Nah,” Loki said, her hand going to her shaft, stroking it gently. “Ah, it’s been too long since I’ve had a cock.” She shivered slightly, which set off the most fascinating jiggling in her tits. Liam licked his lips.
“Dang,” Meg said. “I always wondered what having a cock was like. And what it’d be like to fuck a girl.” She grinned at Liam. “And Liam, honey, you’d be fine with being a girl.”
“Nooo?” Liam asked, eyeing Loki's replica cock. It looked a lot bigger and scarier when it wasn't attached to his body.
“Don’t be transphobic,” Meg said, her voice prim.
“I’ve created a monster,” Liam groaned. Meg laughed loudly, then leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth. Their tongues met and played. Rather than aggressive bids for domination as had been the case with Loki, they simply shared themselves. Then she drew back, breathing steadily and true.
“I know you’re not transphobic,” she whispered softly.
Liam smiled.
Meg shifted, swinging her legs up and over Liam’s hips. Her sex pressed to his cock. It was still soft – Liam was still in his early twenties, but he had been well and truly fucked over the past hour. He smiled at Meg apologetically. She pouted.
And then Loki leaned forward.
“Let me try something,” she said, then kissed Liam. Liam felt a spark leap from her tongue to his. His back arched and energy jolted through his body. It felt like taking a hit of caffeine after going without for decades. His nerves sang and the meaty slap of his cock surging to full hardness against Meg’s cunt made his heart race. Meg lifted her hips ever so slightly, then drove herself down, hilting Liam inside of her.
Liam grunted, deep in his throat.
Then Meg screamed. “Oh fuck, yes!”
Looking over Meg’s shoulder, Liam could see, well, Meg’s face, grinning and wicked. Loki kissed Meg’s cheek, then looked right into Liam’s eyes as she started to grind her cock along Meg’s ass. Meg whimpered, her eyes half closed. “W-Wait!” she hissed. “I’ve never, ah, done it like that before.”
“And you call yourself a Hellene,” Loki said, her voice dripping with scorn.
Meg snapped her head back and glared at the goddess. Loki cut off whatever Meg might have said by leaning forward. Her tongue thrust into Meg’s mouth and Meg moaned into the kiss. Liam, feeling not at all guilty, helped the goddess with a slow, gently thrust. His hips pumped up and Meg bounced and moaned louder through the kiss. Her eyes rolled slightly back into her head as she chose to continue the kiss rather than draw back to breathe.
Loki broke the kiss first. Panted. Grinned.
“Let me show you what you were missing.”
Meg moaned again as Loki kissed the back of her neck, her hands cupping Meg’s firm, perky breasts. The goddess used her fingers to tease and twist Meg’s nipples as she kissed down her spine, leaning forward more and more. Meg’s wings spread wide, giving Loki plenty of room. Meg started to look confused, then her back went completely straight, her eyes wide with shock. Liam laughed, slowing in his thrusts as Loki’s tongue coiled and twisted and teased and explored Meg’s ass.
“What-” Meg stopped, her mouth opening wider. “Oh! Oh! Nnh ah fuck that’s wrong.”
Despite her words, she started to press back against Loki’s mouth. Liam grinned.
“You know, I could have done that,” he said.
“P-Pervert!” Meg laughed. Her sex clenched on his cock as a climax shuddered through her body. That seemed to be all Loki needed for encouragement. She reared up, her own wings spread to match Meg’s excitement, then paused.
“Say pease,” Loki purred. And in that instant, she sounded exactly like Meg, from tone to delivery to the wicked gleam in her electric blue eyes.
“Fuck you,” Meg hissed.
“Close enough,” Loki said, laughing as she drove her hips forward with the might of a goddess. The sensation on Liam’s end was nearly indescribable - the massive girth and length of, well, his own cock pressing against him, with only Meg’s sex seperating the two. It was incredible. Meg trembled, her face a mask of pure pleasure.
“Meg!” Liam groaned through gritted teeth.
“We need to do this more often!” Meg gasped out... She leaned forward and pressed her breasts into Liam’s chest, kissing his neck, sucking on his skin as she moaned happily. Her hips bucked against Loki’s thrusting and Liam felt his own body responding despite himself.
His hips slammed upwards into Meg, and each thrust that he made put a new counterpoint to the swaying of her breasts. He reached up, cupping them. Squeezing them. Finding her nipples and taking advantage of her tougher constitution by twisting them.
Meg squealed. “Ah, yes!”
Loki bit down on her shoulder, muffling her own cries of pleasure as she fucked faster and harder, making Meg tremble.
Meg reached back with one hand, her other hand on the bed. Her wings were folded to her sides, so she was able to take hold of Loki’s cheek and turn her head upwards. Their mouths touched and they kissed with the desperate passion of those deep in the throes of lust. Their tongues wrestled and the two made muffled but eager moaning noises as they continued to thrust and bounce. It was clearly too much for Loki. She broke the kiss, screaming her pleasure, her wings flaring wide as she came and came hard. Liam felt the force of her cum filling Meg’s ass. The sensation – as well as the warmth dripping on his own balls – sent Liam over his edge too.
He had less to give, thanks to the earlier session, but Meg still clenched and quivered and gasped with the pleasure of it.
Then, suddenly, Liam found the downside to being in a threesome with a woman and her duplicate.
Both Meg and Loki were lighter than they seemed, due to being in the form of valkyrie.
That didn’t matter when both let themselves go limp and started to squash him. The fact that it was four of his fiancee's pillowy tits suffocating him only added insult to injury. Then Meg and Loki both squirmed, shifted, and settled down to either side of him. Liam blinked and looked down. Neither had a cock. But then he spotted cum dripping from the girl on the right and knew she was Meg. He smiled at her.
“I love you,” he said.
“You love Loki?” The other Meg said, sitting up.
“What?” The Meg that Liam was speaking too scoffed. “I’m the real Meg, she’s Loki.”
Loki scoffed – and looked like she was about to continue fucking with them. Liam decided to cut that off by reaching down and plunging both of his fingers into Loki’s sex. Loki moaned, her body clearly still sensitized by her recent climax. She spread her thighs, her wings thumping against the bed as she arched her back. Then Liam drew his fingers from her pussy lips, holding them before Loki’s eyes.
“None of my cum,” he said.
“Dang it,” Loki purred. “I didn’t cum again.”
Liam laughed. “We do have a world to save...” He paused, then added under his breath: “Tomorrow.”
Meg grinned as she watched Liam go to town on Loki.
“It’s good to be home,” she said.
***
New Athens.
Liv watched the city grow as her small ship rose and fell on the waves.
New Athens was the second finest thing that the Hellenic people had ever built on Purgatory. The first, of course, being Sparta. And nothing made Liv feel quite as confident as seeing that standard - the lambda - flying above and ever so slightly to the right of the Athenian one. The walls were festooned with hoplites and other soldiers, and as they sailed closer, Liv stood and lifted her sword above her head.
“I am Livianna of Sparta, daughter of Ares! I come bearing news of the enemy!”
As she spoke, Eerika remained by the body, her hand resting on the sail cloth they had used to cover Vulkis. It was the most they could do, but the boat had already started to smell sickly sweet.
“Enter the harbor!” a voice called down from the walls. “Welcome home, Livianna of Sparta!”
The dinghy bobbed into the harbor before the mighty defensive works moved into position. The walls had been built to block the harbor off – an immense sheet of bronze had been crafted to serve as the gate. Green with rust and barnacles, it had been blessed by Poseidon and crafted by Hephaestus. It would hold. As the harbor gate closed, Liv saw the greeting party approach. Men and women with spears and shields and - worse - officials.
Liv sighed.
This was going to be fun.
***
“If I had known being a queen was this annoying, I’d have... well, I'd still have killed grandad,” Meg grumbled as she tossed the two valkyrie to the ground. Then, louder, she continued. “If I hear either of you insult a landling again, I will kick your fucking ass. This tribe’s going to change, and if you don’t fucking like it, challenge me.”
The two valks shook their heads as they stood, rubbing where Meg had smashed their skulls against one another.
“Now,” Meg said, waving her hand dismissively. “Wing along.”
The valks took to their wings and soared off. The tribe was restive and grumbling – not happy about having to work with landlings. Tough. Meg would get them to understand that people were people, and that her grandfather was wrong. Fortunately, Mary had lent her not inconsiderable powers of persuasion to the task. She was the gentle, guiding, nurturing focus who could connect valkyrie to landling and bring about new understanding.
And Meg was there to kick the people who were too rock stupid to understand things had changed in the head.
“We make a good team,” Meg said to herself.
“Queen Megara of Olympus!”
The young man – dressed in the official uniform of the Cross Guard’s messengers – who ran up to her was cute enough to be slightly tempting. But Meg had to restrain herself. Even if her irritation at her own people was kicking up the urge to work stress out through fucking.
“Free Lord Liam Godkiller requests your presence, and the presence of a member of your tribe,” the messenger said. “He says the name is...” He paused. “Sunchaser?”
Meg’s brow furrowed and only a monumental effort kept her from asking who the fuck Sunchaser was.
It took her a few minutes to track him down. He was in the docks, helping to unload a ship. He was easily the weediest, runtiest looking valk that Meg had ever seen. He strained with every crate he lifted off the ship, and his skin glistened with sweat in the daytime sun as he worked. Meg walked towards him. Sunchaser held up his hands.
“I haven’t done anything!” he said, quickly. “I’ve stayed on task, I’ve been working hard, see, proof!”
He gestured to two goblins who were working beside him.
One of the goblins laughed. “The kid’s been as eager as a pup, m’lady.”
Meg smirked. “You’re not in trouble... Sunchaser, right?”
Sunchaser nodded. “That’s my name, Pure- uh, Meg. Queen Meg. Queen Megara! Q-Queen Megara of-”
“Meg’s fine,” Meg said, crossing her arms under her breasts. She deliberately shelved them, arching her back slightly. To her interest, Sunchaser didn’t even seem to notice.
“Well, uh, Meg, my name is Sunchaser. What do you need me for?”
“No idea,” Meg said. “But Liam Godkiller has a plan. And the last time Liam Godkiller had a plan, he blew up a big chunk of this city.”
Sunchaser looked less than thrilled.
When the pair of them arrived in the Free Lord’s manor, they were escorted by the head servant Mutt to the meeting rooms. Liam had replaced his desk with an elongated table, where everyone could sit and be heard. Loki, Neb, Laurentinus, Vani, Mary, two men that Meg didn’t recognize and Liam all sat at the table. Liam beamed and stood as she walked in.
“Meg, thanks,” he said. “This is Sunchaser?”
“That’s him,” Loki and Meg said at the same time. Meg glared playfully at Loki. Loki stuck her tongue out at him.
“All right!” Liam said, then walked forward to the table. “Everyone be seated. Today, we’re going to begin discussing how to win the war. Night-time observation and telescopic reconnaissance makes it clear. Within two or three days, Sysminor’s entire army – about ten thousand lizardmen, ten thousand huscrals, and assorted support staff from Olimurias – are going to arrive at New Athens. If they manage to hold off the initial assault, we are looking at a siege. If not, then the Hellenic league may fall as quickly as the Aesir.”
The table looked grim.
Neb leaned forward. “The Pesedjeti are going to stand with us. The instant I rose from my sickbed, I prayed to Anubis, and heard a direct confirmation. Ra, Anubis and Set are sending their armed forces to Babylon. That’s almost fifteen thousand men and women.”
“On Earth, Egypt used chariots,” Liam said, sounding uncertain.
“No,” Neb said, shaking her head. “Not chariots. There are too many jungles, and charioteers are too expensive. Archers, mostly.”
Liam nodded. “Integrating them into the Cross Guard may be tricky. But we can use the infantry and the archers. Guns are great, but until you hit really modern guns, bow and arrow beats them for speed and range.”
Neb smiled.
“It’ll still take us weeks to get there,” Laurentinus said. “More by land, less by going over the ocean. But the ocean is swimming with Aesir warships that are going to challenge and raid us the entire way.”
Liam leaned back in his seat. “There are three people here that you may all be wondering about, by the way,” he said. “Sunchaser, Tefan and Paul.”
The two new men nodded to the rest of the group. Sunchaser just looked confused.
“It was an honor to be invited here,” Tefan spoke up, his voice soft and lilting despite his grizzled, sun worn face. His fingers were knotted with age, but still seemed quite graceful. “But, ah, I’m a potter, not a soldier. I don’t know how to win the war.”
Everyone, on hearing that, paused, then turned to look at Sunchaser. Sunchaser looked terrified. Meg elbowed him.
“I've no idea why I'm here!” he exclaimed. “I want to get to the sun! I’ve never tried the straight shot - even at night, that's suicide - but I’ve been further up than anyone else. The air gets thinner. The ground doesn’t pull at you. It’s fascinating!”
Liam smiled. “That’s exactly why I wanted him here. Sunchaser, you say the ground doesn’t pull anymore?”
He shook his head. “No. The pull gets less and less, and eventually, you reach an area where you... you feel like you are falling, but you stay in place.”
Liam’s smile turned predatory.
“Isn’t it hot that close to the sun?” Neb asked.
“Very,” Sunchaser said. Then, his cheeks darkening. “I, ah, may have stolen a few amulets of Ra, to uh, not, um, die.”
Neb growled softly.
“Sorry!” Sunchaser said, quickly, snapping his wings forward to cover himself.
Liam nodded. “The problem with any strategic movement in Purgatory, at this range, is concealment. Brax will know, the instant we move out. He’ll know we’re mustering. He’ll know the direction of our attack. He’ll know everything until we get within the curve of the horizon.” He leaned back in his seat. “But what if there was a way to get the entire army to within a few dozen miles of New Athens in less than a day.”
The table looked at him.
“You don’t mean...” Meg said, slowly.
“Yes, I do. A straight shot. But not with just one valkyrie, but a whole army,” Liam said, slamming his fist into the table with a grin.
“But how?” Neb asked.
Then she gasped. Her paws went to her muzzle and she looked at Tefan.
Tefan looked confused.
Until Liam started to explain.
And slowly, the entire table started to grin.
***
Liv got to the thirteenth Athenian bureaucrat before she broke one of their noses. Honestly, she was rather proud of herself. Every moment from arriving in the harbor to meeting the guard, to demanding that they give Vulkis the viking burial at sea that he’d want, to arguing with the city guard, to arguing with the city guard’s superior, to working her way through the senators and councilors who infested the defenses of New Athens had been a measured attempt to drive her insane.
Now?
Now Liv just stepped over the groaning woman’s prone body, threw open the doors to the inner chamber of the Dodekatheon temple in the heart of New Athens, and put her hands on her hips.
“Father!”
There were three gods within the temple. Apollo looked his luminous self as he lounged back on the seats that ringed the central dias. He was watching his father Zeus, who was watching Ares, who was looking at Liv as if she was an unexpectedly pregnant mortal and he was Zeus. It was an oddly specific expression, and one that was common across the entire Dodekatheon. She had even seen it on Artemis’ face once when a pregnant and very beautiful Coptic woman arrived in town.
She had never gotten the full story on that.
But then something impossible happened.
Ares’ face shifted from shock to cool delight. He nodded and turned back to his father.
“Ah, good!” he said. “My daughter has returned. Liv, tell us of the approaching army. As you know, father, I have been using her skills to learn more of the enemy. It is thanks to her that we knew to destroy those foul teleporter shrines before the enemy could take advantage of them. And, further, thanks to her that we have an alliance with Babylon and can rely upon Liam Vanderbilt of Earth and his stalwart army.” He slapped Liv’s back as she walked up to him.
Liv gaped at her father.
He looked down at her. If you don’t back me up, his voice rumbled in her mind, resonant and strange, as if it came from within her ears and throat. No one else seemed to hear it. Then I will beat you to death in this very temple.
Liv blinked.
She looked at her father.
She looked at her grandfather.
Zeus nodded to her.
She coughed. “Y-Yes,” she said, her voice hitching. “The, uh, the enemy are coming.”
Zeus frowned. “We knew that,” he rumbled.
Liv shook her head. Survive the moment, worry later. She coughed. “Uh, Brax the Golden is the enemy’s general. He’s extremely talented. He’s attacked using magic and teleport shrines-”
“We’ve destroyed all of the local ones, using the notes Ares gave us,” Apollo said. If he saw anything was odd, he hid it well. Liv gulped and nodded.
“Well, uh, he’s also used aqueducts and sewer systems. It doesn’t matter how large nor how small the entrance is, if he can find it, he will.” She bit her lip. “His infantry are well drilled and able to do a forced march for weeks on end without being tired. So, he can split detachments away from his army to harass neighboring city-states with ease. Do we have Poseidon’s aid?”
Zeus frowned. “My dear brother sees fit to protect Neriad and his wife. He claims that he will send his fleet. Once the enemy has become ensnared by our defenses.”
“Hades?” Liv asked.
Apollo rubbed the back of his neck. “No message. But, ah, according to Persephone, Hades...” He trailed off. “Fell over laughing?”
Liv scowled at Zeus.
“So much for familial loyalty,” he muttered.
“Yes, Hades has no reason to resent you at all,” Liv said.
“I know, I’m his brother,” Zeus said, seeming to miss the sarcasm.
Liv wanted to beat her head against a pillar.
“Well,” Ares said. “The enemy will be here before the next kindling. I shall discuss the matter of our defenses with my daughter.” His hand went to her back and he pushed her towards the exit of the temple with him. Liv only skidded a few feet before her legs started to move. As she walked, she puzzled over what had happened.
How is no one else noticing? she thought. The Ares of her youth and most of her adulthood had been brutal and direct and, well…
He had been literally afraid of the sight of his own blood.
He had failed to seduce Aphrodite. Aphrodite.
He was ugly and crude and kind of dumb.
Nothing at all like the confident, smiling god who walked her through the corridors of the center of New Athens. She walked with him in silence until they came to a set of side chambers. From the neatness and the spartan accouterments, she assumed they had to belong to Ares. There was a battered collection of armor hanging on a post beside the wall, while several spears rested in arming racks, waiting to be used. The only thing that looked even slightly decadent was the pile of fruits on a small bowl.
“So,” Ares said, pushing the door closed. “We need to have a talk, daughter.”
Liv stepped away from him, then turned. “You've turned traitor on Sysminor,” she said, slowly. “Let me see if I have this straight. First, you work with him to try and steal Liam’s iPod back in Olimurias a year ago. Then, you send me to work with Brax while Liam needed me the most. Now?” She spread her hands. “Now you’re, what, a double - triple? - agent? You're not going to sabotage a thing in the New Athens defenses, are you?”
Ares chuckled. “Sabotage?” he asked. “I’ve strengthened them. Apollo and Zeus don’t even know about the magical wards.” He stepped forward, looking down at her. “You’ve done everything I needed you to do, my daughter.” He caressed her cheek.
Liv lay on the ground. Her head rang. She blinked colored spots from her eyes and tried to figure out what had happened. Her mouth bled sluggishly and she felt something rattling against her lip. She shook her head and sat up – and then almost choked. She coughed and spat a wad of blood and a single tooth onto the ground. Her tongue probed and felt the jagged remainder in her gums. She looked up.
Ares almost glowed with fury.
“You are a whore,” he said.
Liv panted, then growled. She sprang to her feet. “Bastard-”
Her sword was in Ares' hands before she even reacted. He brought it down to his knee and snapped the bronze blade in half. He tossed it aside.
“That’s what you won’t be having. Get an abortion before talking to me again, and I may think of you as my daughter again.” Ares turned away from her, slapping his hands together to brush the bronze dust from them. Liv blinked, looking down at her fingers, then up at Ares.
“How do you...” She trailed off.
Ares looked over his shoulder. His eyes looked a mix between pitying and furious.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer to.” He waved his hand and the doors swung open behind her.
Liv had retreated from many battles. It was a simple truth of being a warrior. But she had never been beaten before. She had always hurried off, knowing that she could come back, turn the tables. Sometimes, it had even been within the same day.
Now, she fled. She ran and ran and ran as fast as her feet could take her.
***
Liv came to Apollo’s chambers in the dead of night. She had moved as quietly as she could, her mind focused so intensely on stealth that she barely felt the ache of her regrown tooth. The priest who had performed the healing hadn’t asked any questions. She was glad.
Apollo slept without guards – the casual confidence of a god whose sanctum was a safe distance away. He didn’t wake as Liv padded forward to the bed, his face remaining relaxed. Peaceful. He still glowed faintly, even while under the blankets. The room’s pale gold radiance made Liv feel only more nervous, not less. Apollo glowed because he was the god of the sun, of healing, of life and music.
His glow was…
Normal.
And it just threw everything Ares had done into sharper relief.
Apollo’s eyes snapped open as Liv reached for his shoulder. He tensed – then sat up. “Liviana?” he asked, his voice soft. “What in Purgatory are you doing here?”
“Apollo, I need you to focus,” Liv said, kneeling beside the bed. “Something is wrong with Ares.”
Apollo’s brow knitted. Then, slowly, he said the words back to her. “Something is wrong with Ares.” He blinked. “Something is wrong with Ares.”
“Good, you see it. When did it start?” Liv hissed.
Apollo shook his head, his golden tresses bouncing slightly. “I don’t know. But even now, it is hard to focus on. It is as if every memory I have screams at me, tells me that Ares is Ares. But...” He bit his lip, and then laid back in the bed. “It was within the last year, I believe.” He shook his head. “We need to learn what is causing this, lest we clasp a viper to our bosom.” He frowned, then focused his eyes on Liv. “There’s only one choice. We need to seek answers at the Oracle. Only she can divine this.”
“Oracle?” Liv asked. “What fucking Oracle?”
Apollo chuckled. “The Oracle of New Athens. We haven’t called on her for centuries, since she stopped speaking to us. But while she spoke, the Oracle was never wrong. So the legends say.” He shrugged. “As you are Ares daughter, you may be able to divine more than I. And, well, if you go, you will not have your loyalty torn between father and city.”
Liv’s loud snort spoke volumes.
“We have little choice,” Apollo pointed out. “If Ares means ill-”
“What if New Athens falls?” Liv asked, standing and putting her hands to her belt. “What then? Where do I go with any information I find?”
Apollo sighed.
“You take it to Babylon.”
Liv snorted. “Fucking great. Oracles. Traitors. What’s this war going to bring next?”
***
“The heat shield cracked,” Neb said, tossing the chunk of blackened, cracked pottery on Liam’s desk. Her tail twitched from side to side and her snout quivered with annoyance. As the most well read woman in Babylon, she had become the de facto head of the project that would end the war with a Purgatorian victory.
Hopefully.
“Well,” he said. “At least the gliders only crash half the time now.” He pursed his lips. “Maybe if we add water to the mix?”
“Then we get mud, Godkiller,” Neb said, putting her hands on her hips.
“Not during the construction – we add water when we put it together,” he said. “Valks can carry it.”
“Then we have a gigantic cloud of...” Neb blinked. “Oh. I’ve just figured out how we solve the camouflage problem!”
She turned and hurried off.
“I believe it was me who solved the camouflage problem right then, you... you walking cumdoll!” Liam shouted after her.
“Safe word!”
“That’s not our safe word...”
***
The Hellenes didn’t leave the beaches undefended. Several regiments of Athenian archers and hoplites were waiting on a raised patch of ground behind the boats. They opened fire with arrows sheathed in golden light, which flew unerringly towards the longships approaching their shores. The huscrals within lifted their shields up, but it seemed every arrow found a gap and a opening. Arrows thudded into armor and leather and cloth and flesh. Blood started to coat the decks before the second volley was even in the air.
The huscrals hit the beaches, howling with fury and charged towards a line of hoplites. The Aesir’s normal discipline had been broken – a strangely high number of the arrows had hit officers and veterans. The remainder were furious and their line was made all the more ragged by the fact they had to leap from boats.
The hoplites were, by and large, little better. Athenians hewed to the traditions of pre-Macedonian Greek warriors. Warriors who were, in truth, little better than militia. They tilled their fields, they debated their politics, they enjoyed their plays. And once or twice a month, they practiced getting into a line and pretending to murder one another.
It didn’t matter some were fat or old, that some were women, that some were goblins or elves or lilin. All that mattered was that they stood in a line, held their shields and advanced with their spears at the ready.
The hoplites and huscrals crashed together with a sound not unlike death. Splintering wood, shuddering mail, shivering spear. Screaming men and women, several of them dropping and trampled into the sand. The huscrals tried to close – but not a one got past the spear tips.
It was astounding.
Heroic, even.
A repeat, in some ways, of the battle of Marathon, where the Greeks of Earth drove the Persians into the sea.
A shame, then, that a single fight was not a battle.
The first moment the hoplites knew something was wrong was when they started to die. Spears slammed into unprotected backs and sides. The remaining huscrals were falling back, and the hoplites were already loudly discussing who would be grabbing some armor from the slain to make a trophy. Then screams. Cries. Pain.
They turned, trying to bring their shields around, but the detachment of lizardfolk who had swum ashore while the huscrals had distracted the Hellenes had claimed the hill. They had short spears and a lot of javelins. The hoplites tried to reform but then more lizardmen came rushing from the sea. They had waited, clinging to the bottom of the longships. Now, they screeched and leaped, landing in the center of the hopilte formations, hewing about themselves with heavy bronze blades. Wading from the surf were sorcerers who added the final stroke of terror to the utter rout.
Lightning surged from their palms, incinerating men and women alike, leaving entire ranks blinded and deafened by the strobe-brightness of their attacks.
The Athenian hoplites broke and fled, panic rearing its head through their formation. They fled or died or were captured.
By the end of the morning, the entire fleet had landed on the beach – ten miles east of New Athens.
By the end of the day, they were encamped around New Athens and their fleet was ringing the harbor. The huscrals – uncowed by their losses - began to loot the countryside. As the sun settled into darkness, smoke started to rise from the burned and burning farms.
And along the high, stony walls, the remaining hoplites stood, grim-faced and ready for the next attack.
None noticed the dark figure who moved from brick to brick, her bare feet pressed to the wall, her fingers quivering with the weight of her body.
Liv hit the sandy dirt around the base of the wall, her hand going to make sure her blue-black face wrap was still in place. She had raided a few clothing shops to find the right mixture of clothing that would make her vanish in the darkness of Purgatory. She had gotten a few knives, rations, and a new sword.
Would be nice to have Liam's sword, she thought, then grinned to herself. One of them at least.
She stole towards the lizardmen camp.
They had set up in the same pattern she remembered but there were some differences. The old camps had been set up to move at a moment’s notice. This one already had fortifications starting to sprout around it, the sound of ax blades slamming into wood and the calls of officers ordering men to place supplies here, there, and everywhere filled the air. In the chaos and confusion, Liv was able to spot a pattern and slide in through it.
When she was in the camp, she slipped her clothes off, reattached a collar around her throat, and strutted right up to Brax’s tent.
Anix blinked as he saw her, while Vazt simply held out his hand.
Anix sighed. The big lizardman slapped down a few copper coins into Vazt’s palm.
“Gambling?” Liv asked, unable to stop herself from grinning.
“I’d have thought you’d want to have seen the last of this place,” Anix muttered. “There you go, ruining my future retirement.”
“You let an Aesir barbarian smash a hunk of chamber pot over your skull for the General,” Vazt said, shaking his head. “I’m not sure you’ll get to retirement, Anix.”
Liv walked past the two of them.
Inside the tent, she saw Brax kneeling beside a scroll with Fizit. The shapely lizardwoman was wearing very little and her tail had lifted up in excitement, exposing the slit of her sex to Liv. Liv cocked her head, then coughed loudly. The two lizards turned and Fizit snapped to her full height.
“Wow, your tits are huge now,” Liv said, casually.
Fizit growled. “What are you doing here? You were supposed to be warning the Hellenes! We smashed straight through them.”
“That was just one detachment. They volunteered to slow you down,” Liv said, quietly. “Ares thought if you could be slowed down, then the whole army could muster and destroy you. Didn’t quite work out that way.’ She shook her head. “Brax, something’s wrong.”
Brax listened as she outlined what had happened. Once she was done, he shook his head.
“I don’t like any of these options,” he said. “Ares turning against Sysminor is good but an Ares with impossible powers?” He shook his head. “Trusting oracles? Fizit, tell me about this Oracle.”
“The Oracle of Athens,” Fizit said. “It operated from the years five hundred AB to six hundred AB, but then ceased giving any answers. It was discovered in some mountains north of the city, and has never been easy to reach. However, unlike the Oracle of Delphi, it was said that it required neither medium nor interpreters. Rather, it stated its answers clearly to those who asked of it.” She sighed. “That’s the extent of what we know – most of the books from that time were destroyed in various wars and sacks.”
Brax grunted.
Liv shrugged. “So, what do we do?”
Brax looked deeply thoughtful. “As much as I...” His voice became ragged. “As much as I want you here, I cannot have you stay. Sysminor is arriving in two days with the first supply convoy, now that we’ve secured the area. If he sees you...” He shook his head.
Liv reached out. Her hand ruffled the frills along the tip of Brax’s head. He leaned into her palm and there was a moment where the mask fell away, and there was no General Brax - there was just a man who needed that touch. The memory of him, driving into her, filling her, kindled Liv faster than anything she had thought possible. She drew her hand back before she simply shoved Brax backwards and mounted him then and there.
Fizit could watch for all she fucking cared.
Brax shook his head. “Go. The siege is going to last some time. Fizit, I want you to go with her.”
Fizit hissed.
“No,” Brax said, cutting her off. “You’re getting further and further along with child. Soon, even an idiot like Sysminor is going to notice and, again, ask questions. The last thing we need is Sysminor to get his hands on Liam Vanderbilt’s child-”
“Wait, what?” Liv asked, her eyes bugging almost out of her head.
Fizit’s entire muzzle turned bright red with a blush.
Brax chuckled. “She told me, after you left. She, ahem, encountered Vanderbilt during an orgy. As he was the only one who, ah, finished inside of her.” Now his muzzle was covered with a blush, shining through the gold plating. “She is fairly certain the child is his.”
Fizit nodded. “I think when Sysminor used the Codec, he made us all fertile too by accident. Cross-fertile even.”
Brax sighed and drew the conversation back on track: “We need you both out of this camp. The excuse is going to be that you, Fizit, are going to be setting up the conversion networks. And, well, you were never supposed to be here in the first place, Liv.”
Liv smiled at that. Her heart squeezed. The urge to push Brax onto his back and ride him became nearly overwhelming.
Fizit’s tail lashed from side to side. “Do you want me to actually try and set up a conversion network?”
Brax laughed. “What? Try and convince the Hellenes living in villages and towns and hamlets to stop worshiping the Dodekatheon and instead pray to a walking pile of psychotic boulders? It’s the stupidest damn idea I’ve ever heard.” He grinned. “I want you to pour money into trying.”
Fizit grinned wickedly.
“So, we’re definitely onto the final stage of your plan,” Liv said, quietly.
Brax nodded. “Fizit, get ready.”
Fizit bowed, then turned and walked off.
As she left, Liv looked back at Brax. He had turned to the scroll – a map of New Athens, she saw - but she could see his eyes weren’t moving. Liv took a step closer.
“You should go with her,” he rumbled.
“It’ll take her time.” Liv’s fingers were on the collar.
Brax grunted.
Liv’s fingers slipped down. Several soft thumps filled the tent – the only noise. Even Brax’s breathing had stopped. Brax didn’t turn around. Liv’s finger slipped along her collar again. The only piece of clothing she wore. Over Brax’s shoulder, she could see his hardness.
“My father called me a whore,” Liv said. “And said that I should be ashamed. I think he sent me with you to spy on you. I don’t know how fucking magic works...” Her hands went to Brax’s shoulders. She could trace every muscle through his scales. Her fingers rubbed along the place where his neck met his back. “But Tethis said that things that were similar worked together, or something. If I needed a spy, and had weird magic powers, what better way to look around than through a daughter?”
Brax breathed in for the first time since her loincloth hit the floor. His eyes still remained locked on the map. Not moving.
“Likely,” he rasped.
“Well,” Liv said. “Do you know what I want to do, my General?”
Brax shook his head mutely.
“I want to piss my fucking bastard of a father off.”
Liv dragged backwards. Her strength sent Brax onto his back, his head thumping into the carpeted floor of the tent. He opened his mouth, but before he could, Liv sat down on his face. Her thighs clamped around his muzzle and she leaned forward. Her nose flared as she breathed in his musk. His cock curved slightly as it thrust into the air, wobbling with the slight movement of his thighs. She fixed that by closing her mouth around the tip of his shaft, tasting his salty pre-cum.
Liv hadn’t realized how much she had missed the taste of gold until she tasted him again.
She pushed forward and smoothly took his massive cock into her throat, forcing herself past the gag reflex. Her lips touched his scaled belly and she felt her nose resting against the firm curve of his golden balls. Meanwhile, Brax felt like he was finally starting to realize the position he was in. The long lick that he delivered to her aching cunt was tentative.
Hesitant.
Then his clawed hands gripped her thighs. His fingers dug into her, as if she was a chunk of driftwood and he a shipwrecked mariner. Thanks to her blessing, his claws felt glorious rather than painful. She started to rock her hips in time with his licks, which went from the base of her sex to the very top, then teased her taint. Liv’s eyes rolled almost back into her skull as she bobbed her head up and down the massive golden cock that filled her mouth. Her tongue swirled around his member and she planted her elbows to either side of his thighs. She gripped the base of his cock and started to stroke him.
The wet sound of her slurping and sucking filled the tent, along with the smell of him and her and their eagerness. Liv’s nose flared again and again – breathing in every time she bobbed her head backwards. She was so focused on his pleasure, on bringing Brax everything she wanted, that her own orgasm struck her unexpectedly like a godkilling bomb. Her spine arched and she felt her juices gush over Brax’s muzzle and coat his long, slithering tongue.
Brax moaned, then pushed her rump up enough to gasp out.
“On me, soldier. Now.”
That tone of voice, combined with the fact that his cock filled her throat, just set off more fireworks in Liv’s brain. She drew her mouth back with one last slurp.
Once she was free, she stood, then slid her thighs forward. Her knees rasped against the rug, giving her a burning sense of friction. But she didn’t want to waddle forward, because that’d mean she wasn’t able to grind her sex along Brax’s washboard abs and flat belly and feel every tiny, smooth bump of his belly scales. Once she was at his thighs, she let out a soft gasp and brought herself up, poising over his cock. She had to half stand.
That was how long he was.
“T-Turn around,” Brax whispered.
Liv looked over her shoulder, grinning. “And deprive you of a view of this ass?” she asked, her hips moving of their own accord. She dipped just enough to let the ridged head of his shaft spread her sex. Her instincts roared at her to drive down but she held herself back.
Brax grinned slowly. “I spent months admiring that ass,” he murmured. “I want to see your face... because I’ve only seen your face when you climax once.”
Liv blushed. She looked forward, her hands planted on the ground before herself. Then she stood fully, turned around, and knelt down. The absence of Brax’s cock made her keen softly – she couldn’t stop herself. Its return brought with it a gasp. She wasn’t able to make a louder noise as she dropped her thighs down. Their bodies met and Liv’s eyes narrowed to slits but didn’t close.
She didn’t want to stop looking into Brax’s eyes.
He slid his hands along her back – wonderingly. He hissed. “I... never thought I’d feel this again,” he whispered.
“My cunt?” she asked, managing to sound coy despite the fact she was fuller than she had been since... well, since the last time Brax fucked her.
“Love,” Brax rumbled.
Liv blushed. Her whole body turned red, really. She opened her mouth, then closed it. She knew that there were things you said when someone said they loved you. Things that would make them know that you knew what they felt. That you felt something better. Once, long ago, she had been taught all the kinds of love, and she had even remembered one long enough to talk a handsome tavern boy into fucking her in the hay-loft of her stable.
Now?
She stammered. “T-Thanks?”
Brax laughed, reached up, grabbed her hair, and tugged her down for a kiss. His tongue plunged into her throat and his hips started to rise and fall, with enough motion and strength to bring his balls slapping into her ass, as firm as a spank. Liv closed her eyes and kissed him back with increasing desperation as they made love. They were both so worked up that Liv knew it wouldn’t last long. She broke the kiss, her hands planted to either side of his head. She drew her mouth back just enough to look into his golden eyes as his hands clasped to her back.
Brax’s eyes closed and he opened his mouth in a nearly silent roar, his balls clenching. Seed rushed into Liv and she quivered atop him, panting heavily as she leaned her forehead forward, letting her whole body rock with his last few thrusts. Each one pushed more cum into her, even as some dripped out around his shaft, splattering onto his belly, dripping along his balls. It started to soak the fur rug and made Liv feel like she was glowing from the inside out.
Liv breathed in. Breathed out. Breathed in.
“Eh,” she managed to say. “It was all right.”
Brax chuckled. His arms closed around her tightly, and held her until Fizit walked into the tent.
“Gods,” the lizardwoman muttered.
“Want to join?” Liv asked, as she Brax’s neck. His cock had hardened inside of her and he was still lazily thrusting. It wasn’t quite sex – rather, it was a better way to lay together. An advantage of inhuman stamina and supernaturally toughened bodies.
Fizit scoffed. “I, well...” She paused as Brax’s cock slipped from Liv’s sex. “Damn...”
“Yeah, he's almost as big as Liam,” Liv smirked.
“Almost?” Brax asked.
“It's not a competition,” Liv said with an eyeroll. “You're still fucking hung”
Only Liv’s closeness let her see the blush along his muzzle. His hands pushed Liv back and away from him. Liv stood, her knees only shaking slightly. “Go,” he said, quietly. “If... if you don’t go now, while I can’t, ah, stand...” He paused. “I’d be going with you.”
Liv gulped. She nodded, then stepped to the tent door.
Fizit grabbed her before she walked out. The lizardwoman picked up her breast band with her tail, then slapped it against Liv’s chest.
Liv chuckled. “Right.”