Blood and Iron

Purgatory Wars: Book Six

By Dragon Cobolt

Prologue

Dr. Belladonna Cole trudged along a dirt path and mentally kicked herself in the ass. As if he could hear her, the leather clad man who came nearly to her shoulder smacked her rump with the bronze haft of his spear. The impact against her already bruised and aching buttocks set her staggering almost to a knee. Bella forced herself back to her feet and forced herself to walk forward, rather than glare backwards at the short man, or his friend, or any of the other heavily armed, swaggering sons of bitches that she had been stuck with for the better part of a week.

Come on, Bella. It is the chance of a lifetime, Bella. When will you ever got a shot like this again, Bella? Do you want to be in the history books Bella? She thought. If that air force son of a puke had sparkled, I’d have let me bite me. Well, I hope that he gets seven different kinds of STDS and dies in a freak acid-pit slash massively oversized garbage disposal accident.

The heavily armored figure at the head of their little column lifted a gauntlet that glittered in a fine spray of sunlight that managed to get past the thick leaves that spread outwards from the tops of alien trees. A few weeks ago, Bella would have been going ga-ga for the trees and she wasn’t even the team xenobiologist. She was a geologist. But even a geologist who had killed every single pet and house plant she had ever owned, from a canary to a goldfish to a cactus, could admire the beauty of the jungles of this place.

They were similar to Earth jungles in the broad strokes. But the details were filled in by glowing bioluminescence and shimmering, rainbow colors. It looked like the kind of day-glow dream brought to life by James Cameron or Guillermo Del Toro, with the occasional hint of shimmering crystals thrust through loam and underbrush. She itched to go and examine those. Instead, she swept her gaze around to try and spot what had gotten her current captor to stop walking.

The soldiers responded in kind. They were all armed with a mixture of spears and swords and primitive flint-locks which looked like they had come from the set of a pirate film – save that their barrels were made of glowing crystal, rather than out of metal. As they glared around, Bella was forced down to her knees by the man who had been smacking her butt every time she slowed down. His hand was grimy on her shoulder, and his scarred face was intent as he snarled her in the native language.

Some people here could speak English as fluidly as Bella.

Others spoke whatever language had evolved since humanity’s ancestors had been banished to this place. Bella wasn’t entirely clear on the history. Her captors hadn’t been eager to lay out history lessons to the science team. Instead, they had been more interested in beating anyone who didn’t bow before their leader…

Their…

Bella shuddered convulsively and tried to not think of their leader.

Their god, her traitor mind whispered. Everything in Bella’s heart rebelled at calling that swaggering tyrant a god. But he had introduced himself as Ares – and hadn’t that been a trip? And then he had demonstrated his power. She would remember what had happened to Marcus until the day she died. Marcus had been in the midst of explaining his job as a linguist as the rest of the science team stood by. Ares had snorted, quietly.

Useless, he had said, then flicked his finger.

And…

Fssst-Boom! The sound of powder cooking off was almost cheerful at the start. But it ended with a roar and with a spray of blood and bone as the man who had tormented Bella the whole trip’s head exploded like an overripe fruit being stepped on. He toppled backwards, his spear clattering to the dirt. Bella flung herself flat, her breasts mashing to the ground. The jungle sweat she was soaked in was joined by fear sweat as the leader of their group bellowed.

The bellowing smoke cloud that had emerged from the forest made it clear where the shot had come from. Bella could see figures withdrawing. They wore scant clothes, and she saw flashes of blue skin and white hair on the leader. The others were more human in their appearance. More human in their pain as one of the soldiers fired off his flintlock pistol. At this range, the shot was pure luck. Or...was it?

Before they had left, Ares had given a long spiel to the guards. He had placed his hand upon each weapon they carried, and each still glowed with that strange radiance that he seemed to control.

Whether it was luck or skill or technology so advanced and schizophrenic that it was magic, the first of the three bandits fell on the ground in boneless, unlovely death. The other two continued running. A bullet tore through a branch above one, showering them with splinters, but the rest of the musket balls struck dirt or whined harmlessly through the air to vanish into the distance. The two bandits were gone.

Bella looked down at the corpse next to her. His pistol was still thrust into his belt.

She grabbed it and scrambled to her feet – and turned right into two of the other soldiers. One knocked the pistol from her hand and the other smacked her across the face with a gloved hand. The impact sent her sprawling to the ground. Her head rang and she gasped in pain. Her hands sank into the bloody dirt and she saw one of the men lifting back a boot. Before the impact could smash into her gut and do who knows what to her artificial pancreas, though, the voice of the leader of the group barked out. The foot slammed back to the ground.

Bella looked up as the armored leader of the group stomped towards her. Her gauntlet clad hand grabbed onto her helmet, sliding the steel faceplate upwards. Her face was as cold and distant as the space between stars – but looking past it, she was beautiful. Her hair was dark black, and her skin was the natural bronze that only came from the Mediterranean. Her eyes, though, were a kind of warm, dark, black eye that looked more like it had come from the Middle East, and her curly hair bespoke a sprinkling of Africa or elsewhere. It was a mixture that Bella had never seen on Earth.

Which made sense.

She hadn’t been on Earth for...who knows how long now.

“Get up,” the woman said in clear English. Bella wasn’t sure what was scarier: that some kind of technology had filled the woman’s head with colloquial modern English within five seconds of being introduced to the science team, or if some technology was influencing Bella’s brain to make her think she was hearing modern English.

Bella stood.

“Never,” the woman growled. “Touch our weapons again. If you do, I will cut off a finger. If you run, I will cut off a hand. If you make us have to hunt you down, you lose...” She started to trace a line up along Bella’s arm. “A part for every hour we spent hunting. Do you understand?”

Bella’s throat felt dry. She almost wet her ragged, dirty shorts. Instead, she nodded.

“Good,” the woman growled.

The group walked along again. Bella looked back and saw that someone had left a tiny crystal on the dead man’s chest, his weapons now in the hands of another one of the soldiers. His body began to dissolve.

They continued into the jungle.

***

An eternity later, the reduced group emerged from the jungle and to their final destination. Sweat dripped from Bella’s chin and she panted as she looked down at the place, trying to understand what she saw. It looked like an open pit mine, cut into the dirt of the jungle. Trees had been cut down and shaved down into logs, then piled and covered with dirt to make defenses that looked pretty impressive from her perspective. A gently curving ramp led down to the mine itself. But rather than ore or veins of earth full of delicious precious metal, what sat there at the bottom of the mine was…

Was…

“Oh my god,” Bella whispered.

“Exactly,” the armored leader said, her voice reverent. She made a gesture above her heart as, for a moment, animosity faded in the face of awe.

The mine had broken into a massive sprawl of corridors. They were made of a solid black metal that shone in the sunlight that stabbed down from overhead and were laid out in a gridlike pattern that connected rectangular and square rooms together. Many of the chambers had been crushed under rock and rubble, but further from the center of the mine were intact hallways that vanished deep into the side of the mine. Hundreds milled about in the rubble, dragging stone and earth away up the ramp, to deposit it on the defenses.

Seeing those people took all excitement off the scene for Bella.

She didn’t know much about this world. But she recognized those collars. Any who wore them had to follow the orders of the person who controlled it. Thus far, the only positive light in this long nightmare was that she didn’t have one around her neck. Why that was remained an ominous enigma among foreboding mysterious.

Once the group had reached the bottom of the mine, a burly looking man came up to the armored leader. He nodded and the woman introduced herself. “Paladin Chastity,” she said – and at last, Bella had a name to hang on her. “Where’s the mage?”

The man jerked his thumb over his shoulder and Chastity and Bella walked through muck and mire and past slaves trying to get some shade from the murderous sun to a smallish tent that had been set up within about fifty meters from the entrance to the corridors that led into the side of the mine. The tent was really more of a gazebo, with a quartet of wooden poles that kept the angled roof of cloth and leather up and provided shade for the man within. And...what a man. Bella found herself gaping at him as she stood next to Chastity and started wondering how well the so called Paladin lived up to her name. Or title. Or whatever.

The man was an elf.

Like Legolas. Except his ears weren’t fake. That was only one of a bunch of tiny differences that all added up to his ‘elfness.’ It was the inhuman grace of his posture, the perfect stillness of his face as he looked down at a chunk of crudely shaped metal, the beautiful ruby red of his eyes. His skin was obsidian black and looked as if it had been polished, then slicked with oil. Which, she supposed, was another difference between him and Legloas. He wore nothing but a loincloth, and that meant that every inch of his exquisite, athletic musculature was on full display.

Bella forced her mouth shut as he looked over at the two of them, then bowed. There was a sardonic light in those ruby red eyes.

“Mage Xapanos,” Paladin Chastity said. “This is the Earth scholar.”

“Ah,” Xapanos said, his voice dry. “I see you’ve left her unbound.”

“If she runs, I am going to treat it as if you ran as well,” Chastity said, her voice flat. “Remember that.”

She turned and stomped off, leaving Bella next to the obsidian elf. Xapanos shook his head, clicking his tongue. “My apologies, honorable scholar. It seems we’re in the same galley on this.”

“Y-Yeah,” Bella stammered, then shook her head. “You’re a slave too?”

“All but for the collar.” Xapanos touched his neck. “Whatever magic Ares is using to create his personal collars, they interfere with the arcane magic of Purgatory. So mages and scholars have to be controlled through alternative methods.” He gestured to himself. “And Ares is both highly creative and strangely direct.”

Bella nodded as she stepped into the pavilion – and gasped in shock. The air underneath the shade was about thirty percent less humid and thirty degrees colder. Her skin prickled as her sweat began to chill away and she actually started to shiver. Xapanos chuckled, but she could see he looked chagrined. “My apologies. I should have warned you.”

“Thank god for AC,” Bella said, grinning. Her grin faded. “What does he have on you?”

“My family,” Xapanos said. “And my skin.”

“Your...skin?” Bella’s brow furrowed.

Xapanos held up his arm. “It looks like it shouldn’t burn under the sun. But it does...fast enough and fiercely enough that I am unable to walk after only a few hours. And my eyes-” He gestured to them. “Direct sunlight blinds me.”

Bella’s eyes widened. “He altered your melanin. With that skin color...maybe...it absorbs infrared and ultraviolet radiation differently.” She shook her head. “I wish Yancy was here, he was our xenobiologist.”

Xapanos’ brow furrowed – an expression that took his already shocking, movie star level beauty and added an appealing human edge to it that basically made Bella unable to do anything but think: Must. Rub. Cheek. Against. Abs. “Xeno. Bio. Logis. Fascinating.”

Bella managed to tear her eyes from his face. What she saw made her almost leap out of the pavilion. Sitting under the corner, shrouded by shade and nearly blending in with a pile of native Purgatorian supplies, was a heavy duty metal crate with the eagle symbol of the United States Air Force stenciled onto the side. The string of letters and numbers popped into her brain – thanks, endless memorization! And she felt even colder than the AC.

“Ah, yes, I asked the guard to gather up any of the Earth artifacts that arrived,” Xapanos said. “If you’re to help us, I figured you’d need tools.”

The team that had bee sent here through Earth’s first (and to her knowledge, only) faster than light wormhole generator hadn’t been sent in their shorts and T-shirt. The United States government had chucked enough arms and ammo to equip the entire twelve man squad of the military team, and enough high tech goodies to build an entire lab away from home. It had been ludicrously extravagant for their original mission of ‘find Liam Vanderbilt, come home.’

Huh.

She hadn’t thought of Liam Vanderbilt ever since she had dropped through the wormhole, far off course, and been captured by men on horseback, with nets and swords. She wondered if he had even survived the years he had been stuck here. His mysterious vanishing had led to the discovery of how to build wormholes in the first place – and the potentiality of his survival had pushed President Deinhardt to pushing forward on Project Orpheus.

But all thoughts of Vanderbilt scattered as she walked past Xapanos and placed her palms on the edge of the crate. It had been forced open. She slowly levered the lip backwards as her fellow captive walked over to stand behind her.

“Is it an arcane tool of some kind?” Xapanos asked, crossing his arms over his bared chest.

Bella looked down at the sleek, gunmetal gray of the Predator drone, its wings folded neatly alongside its bulk. Thrust into hardened packing material were several elongated arrow-shapes. Not being on the military team, Bella couldn’t say if they were high explosive or armor piercing. Whatever they were, they would change this place forever.

And they were in the hands of Ares. The god of war.

“...yes!” she said.

“One of the slave-masters thought they might be weapons,” Xapanos said, shaking his head.

“These?” Bella forced out a laugh that hysterical, even to her. “Weapons? Nooo!”

Xapanos arched a single white eyebrow. Then he smiled.

“Of course.”

Chapter One

“It’s looking at me.”

Liv’s spine was ramrod straight. Her body was tensed, coiled like a spring. She looked ready to fling herself out of the window. And considering the young demigoddess’ recent explorations of her powers, it was a fifty fifty shot as to whether she would land safely on the streets of Babylon or soar off into the sky like a wingless Valkyrie.

Liam looked up from his daughter, who was chewing happily on her knuckles. “Marion is not an it.”

“It! It! It! It!” Brax Junior, Liam’s  son, started to leap up and down. He spread his arms above his head, then started to run in excited circles, in the way that only a boy of his age could. Well, a boy of his mental age. The actual biological age was screwy when you were a half human, half lizard hybrid created via the application of ancient pseudo-magical artifact. From his mother, Fizit, Liam knew that his son was growing up slowly by lizard standards, but from his human perspective, Brax was growing up so quickly that he felt like a blink would make him a moody teenager, and another blink would get him out of the house and living on his own.

Meg pushed Liv forward, then down to her knees.

Marion burbled, her eyes wide. She had the same electric blue eyes as her mother, but her hair looked like elongated feathers, each one shimmering with a rainbow iridescence. Scales glinted along her neck, and a whip-chord thin tail was twitching around incoherently, occasionally slapping Liam’s face. He was used to that.

Where Brax had been the result of Liam and Fizit’s chance meeting in a mystically induced, ritually vital orgy (long story), Marion was the end result of Liv’s enforced captivity slash secret conspiring with Brax’s namesake, General Brax the Golden.

Also long story.

But where Fizit and Liam had done their best to shower Brax in what affection they could spare between their jobs of spymaster and president of the largest city-state in Purgatory...Liv had retreated into a private sanctum and spent months practicing to do her best Kratos impression. Admirable, from a grand geopolitical perspective, considering Ares had gotten delusions of monotheism and was currently engaged in a brutal, grinding civil war that was tearing the Dodekatheon apart.

Less admirable from the perspective of her daughter.

Liv, though, had undergone some transformations. And they didn’t end at her now pure white hair now reaching her rump. She slowly leaned forward, her eye narrowing as she looked at Marion.

“Hello,” she said, her voice soft.

Marion burbled.

And in the distant, a roar of cannonfire could be heard as the newest recruits for the newest artillery regiment were put through their paces. The war in the Dodekatheon might be fought between gods. But the Free City of Babylon wasn’t going to stay out of it forever. Liam frowned as he watched his son run to the window, to try and get a glimpse. But the training fields were far out of the city, beyond the old walls, among the vast profusion of irrigation ditches and farms that fed the growing city.

As Meg showed Liv how to hold a baby – Liam stood and walked over to his son.

“I wanna join the Cross Guard some day,” he said, cheerfully.

Liam knelt down. He had read about stuff like this in a million books and seen it in a thousand TV shows. But cliches came easily when you had absolutely no idea what you were doing. He put his hand on Brax’s lightly scaled shoulder, feeling the smooth intermixing of skin and scales. “Brax, fighting isn’t for fun. You only do it when you absolutely have to. When you have to stop bad people who won’t stop any other way.”

Brax blinked at him, then nodded. But his tail spoke more eloquently than any other part of him could: It wriggled and twitched with excitement, then flicked upwards as another rumble of distant gunfire echoed across the bustling city. Liam sighed and felt his stomach knot. So, he resolutely, tried to distract himself by picking Brax up by the ankles. His son squealed and hissed like an excitable teapot, wriggling as Liam started to sway him from side to side. “This is more fun anyway!” Liam said, laughing.

As he stomped across the play room – scattered as it was with toys and tomes and scrolls and other bits of his children’s lives – Liam saw Liv poking Marion on the nose. This produced a giggly laugh from the smaller child. Initially, Liam had been a touch confused about Marion aging far more slowly than Brax. But the obvious answer had been obvious. Brax had inherited a human’s longevity. But a human’s three score and ten (well, closer to four score and ten now) was nothing next to an elf’s unending centuries.

The reason why was still a tiny string of bitterness between Liv and the rest of the household.

Liv had, through the exploration of her powers, uncovered a massive chunk of truth about Purgatory’s very existence. It had been in line with something Liam had suspected for some time. Purgatory had not been a magical hole that an ancient Christian sect had used to toss away the old gods. Rather, that sect had been the tool of aliens. Literal. Actual. Aliens. Liam knew that he shouldn’t have been so weirded out, considering he regularly fucked shapeshifting goddesses, shortstack goblinesses and literal actual winged superhumans. But it still made him have to do a double take.

Aliens? Really?

They had built Purgatory as a laboratory, to figure out how humans had actual gods living among them. But the gods had rebelled, and the whole of Purgatory had regressed in the chaos. Now, the descendants of the aliens lived among Purgatory’s society. Their short lived brute force slave labor were called lizardfolk. Their clever pilots and mechanics? Goblins.

And the immortal ruling class who had called the shots?

Elves.

Liam tried to imagine what it would be like if he met Jesus and learned that God could have made the entire human race immortal and just...hadn’t. Not for any greater reason, but just because giving humanity immortality would have been mildly inconvenient. That was what had to be going on in the back of Fizit’s head, every time she saw Liv.

The fact that they had only tried to kill one another once was rather impressive.

As if his brooding had summoned her in an effort to cheer himself up, Fizit strode through the door. Liam grinned at Fizit as she stepped in – but then his face fell as he looked past her generous curves and athletic build to see what she was holding. More intelligence reports. But before she could speak, Meg flared her wings, soared in a quick jump, then landed behind Fizit. Her hands immediately cupped Fizit’s breasts through her filmy silk shift and squeezed as Meg purred in her ear. “Helllllllllo.”

Fizit squeaked in shock as Meg’s wings closed around them both, to conceal what Meg was doing. Liam quickly clapped his hand over Brax’s eyes, but his son just laughed. “Hi Mom!”

“Meg!” Fizit escaped from the clutches of Liam’s wife with a hiss that didn’t quite hide her pleased smile. Her free hand adjusted her shift to cover her hips more completely as she looked at Liam. “I know you said you wanted to forget the war for the day. But this can’t wait.”

Liam sighed, quietly. Brax’s smile had vanished as quickly as it had come. His son wriggled out of Liam’s grasp. “Sorry, kiddo,” Liam said, quietly.

“I understand,” Brax said, his voice dull.

“Auuh!” Liv sat bolt upright, her hand clapped to her ear. It seemed Marion had grabbed on to the curious protrusion that her normal Mother and Father lacked. Meg laughed.

“Sorry, should have warned you. She does that sometimes.”

Liv looked cross. Then completely flummoxed as Brax decided that, since Dad was going, Mom Liv would have to suffice and had thrown himself at her. She was still stammering as Liam followed Fizit out of the room. She held out a sheaf of paper to him as they walked and he took it. It was a topographic map – and he had to admit, the valkyrie they had positioned in the Blinking Stars were getting good at drawing these things.

The Blinking Stars were one of the inventions that could only exist in Purgatory, and could only have been put in place with the unique combination of racial talent and magical and technical knowledge that came from Babylon’s melting pot nature. Ceramic sheds, each one big enough to hold two valkyrie and their supplies, lifted into the air and placed in the null-gravity point between Purgatory’s inner surface and its artificial sun. Add to that thermal transfer spells that moved the excess heat from the ceramic shields to various points on the ground, and you had a fantastic combination of (practically) infinite thermal power and a low tech satellite communication and observation network.

They, more than the cannons and the muskets and the gunpowder and the vast urban population of artisans and factory workers, were Babylon’s ace in the hole. Liam was just counting down the days before Ares figured some way to knock them down.

The topographic map, though, looked like…

“A hole,” Liam said.

“A hole that’s more heavily defended than New Athens. Or, as it’s going by now, Jerusalem,” Fizit said.

“You’re kidding,” Liam said, stopping dead.

Fizit shook her head. “He’s appropriating iconography from quite a few Earth religions. His shock troops? Paladins. And his priests are being trained in converting people by explaining their gods as fitting into his mythology – and the people who don’t buy it get burned at the stake.”

Liam frowned, then looked back down at the hole. The next sheaf of paper was a larger map of the region. It was in the region north of Neriad, the capital city of Poseidon. The coastline of the Platonic Sea, Purgatory’s only large body of salt water, broke into a complex delta of rivers and marshland. Large parts of Purgatory were nothing but thick jungles, and few of them had soil that was worth trying to farm. This had been the cause of most of Purgatory’s wars before the modern era and why Babylon had sunk an ungodly amount of gold and silver into magical terraforming to turn a desert into a breadbasket.

Which was why it confused Liam to see a rather sizable city marked out among the delta. The name written beside it was called Hellespont. He grunted. “Wait, I know this place...” He said, trying to remember where he had heard it from.

“It’s the last Hellenic city before we get to Aesir territory,” Fizit said. “Two days ago, three galleys flying the Monodeist flag sailed up the river and shelled the city. The fires destroyed most of it, and the survivors have fled into the wilderness to avoid any more raids.”

Liam frowned, slowly. “What are they doing here?”

“We don’t know.” Fizit sighed. “But that mine has nearly as many guns as Jerusalem-”

“We’re not calling it that,” Liam said, flatly.

Fizit arched a single scaled eyebrow.

“We’re not!” Liam exclaimed. “It’s...fucking sacrilege.” 

Fizit shrugged, slightly. “Moving on.”

The two of them paused at the end of the corridor, near the door that led to Fizit’s tiny office. She had never moved and seemed content with the space available, despite all the renovations that the palace had gone through. The interior of the office was stuffed with papers, reports, maps, and other esoteric tools of Fizit’s trade. Cipher sticks, pages of gibberish, decoding rings, magical crystals enchanted to glow when they touched certain elements. And, Liam was sure, a few hidden weapons.

“What’s the plan?” Liam asked.

Fizit clicked her teeth, her tail flicking as she considered. “There has to be something valuable there. And the amount of material that’s being sent there opens up some interesting possibilities.” She rubbed her chin. “If we can figure out what is going on, we might be able to slip into this war and throw over the apple cart.” She flashed him a grin. “Hell, just attacking their shipping lanes might be enough for an opening salvo.”

“Sounds like a job for our new goblin friends,” Liam said, his hand sliding along her back. Feeling the silky smooth fabric of her shift under his fingertips sent a shiver along Liam’s arm. Fizit stuck out her tongue at him.

“Why don’t you go tell them what their newest prey is.” Her eyes sparkled. “And I get some agents into the jungles around the big hole and see what I can fish up while you’re enjoying some smaller holes...”

Liam pursed his lips. “Spymaster! Are you insinuating that I will end up fucking our newest privateers in the course of giving them perfectly lawful orders? While you are working your tail off?”

Fizit snorted, then turned and headed into her office, swaying her hips as she slammed the door in Liam’s face with the tip of her tail.

***

Lieutenant Simone Fong leaned on the edge of the railing on the balcony of the second story of the Free Lord’s Palace and looked down at the walkie talkie in her hands. The rugged, rubber shrouded hunk of plastic and metal crackled with a snowfall of static. She frowned as she clicked along the radio bands, her thumb teasing the plastic ring forward, tick by tick. Each tick changed the song of the static to a different pitch.

None turned into understandable words or signals.

Simone sighed and drew her eyes up from the walkie talkie to the courtyard below her. The Palace had a large courtyard within its walls, giving a broad mass of greenery for the inhabitants to enjoy. A fountain had been constructed in the heart of the garden, and the water it threw out cooled the breeze down there, making the gardens more pleasant.

Simone wished she was there. But up here, she got a better signal.

And so, hoping against hope, she lifted the walkie talkie to her face and clicked it on. “This is Lt. Fong to all elements of Project Orpheus, over.” She paused. “Lt. Fong to all elements of Project Orpheus, over.”

Nothing.

She frowned. “If you can hear this,” she said, her thumb turning white as she stabbed down on the transmit button. “Make your way to the large city in the desert. If you look up and see the ocean, find the island shaped like a horseshoe. Looking up from that, you’ll see the city. If you are on the ocean, then look around the horizon at night. You will see a large light-house that-”

Her radio let loose a hideous squawking sound. Simone jerked it away from her ear, frowning as she looked at the receiver. The noise  grew louder – a babble of nonsense words. Then, clearly, she could hear a cultured, educated sounding male voice speaking out of the speaker. Thanks to the…magic cast upon her, it came out as English.

“Who is this?”

It wasn’t any of her people. She shut the walkie talkie off as quickly as she could and barely resisted the urge to throw it down into the garden below her. Instead, she holstered it on her belt, her hand shaking slightly. Bronze aged people shouldn’t have been able to understand what a radio was, let alone transmit to her. As Simone tried to process that, a faint sound of conversation rose up to her.

She frowned and looked down over the balcony.

There was her target – the whole pretext behind Project Orpheus.

Liam Vanderbilt, on the whole, looked similar to the file photos of him: Broad shouldered and muscled like a body-builder, the last two years of surviving on a world where a sword was an important tool for not ending up in a ditch at the end of the day had honed his Earther physique into something that stood out all the more on Ceres, where people tended to be slighter and shorter. He towered over most people, and the shock of blond hair he had been born with made him even more distinctive. But he hadn’t gotten through his adventures here unscarred. Even from a distance, Simone could pick out his missing left foot, replaced by a prosthetic that rivaled anything she had seen in the VA or private hospitals back on Earth.

According to him, it had been a gift from fucking Hephaestus.

Hephaestus.

The Geek god.

As if to accentuate the point, two goblins walked beside Liam.

Goblins. Elves. Gods. Lizard-folk. Simone still felt as if she had fallen into a dream. If she had had her squad and the egg-heads, it would have even been a pleasant dream. She opened her mouth to call down to Liam – then stopped herself as Liam sat down under a tree. The angle of the branches gave her a perfect view as he caught the slightly curvier, more muscular goblin and tugged her to his lap. Her white hair flared slightly as she fell into his lap, billowing down her back as she settled onto Liam’s lap. She’d have looked like a child, if it weren’t for the sheer size of her breasts, the delicious curve of her ass. Her laughter carried farther than his words and Simone felt her cheeks flush.

This world had...different attitudes, considering Liam was apparently married. And yet, no one batted an eye when he-

“Whoa,” Simone whispered.

Liam had, with the practiced ease of someone who had done this a lot, taken hold of the gobliness’ tunic and peeled it over her shoulders. Her bright green breasts bounced fetchingly as they were exposed, and the other gobliness started to skim out of her short skirt. As she bent forward, Simone caught a glimpse of her sex – completely hairless and glittering, even from a distance, with her arousal.

Simone’s face heated.

She...should go…

Then the black haired gobliness finished her stripping and knelt down beside Liam. Her hand cupped his cheek and turned him away from the white haired gobliness’ neck, where he had been kissing and nibbling. Simone’s teeth sank into her lower lip as she felt a tingling heat buzzing through her thighs. Her hand brushed along her belly, feeling her tough shirt crinkling under her fingertips. The temptation to slip her fingers forward grew more intense as Liam’s hand cupped first one goblin’s ass – then the other’s. Then the two women kissed one another, with just as much eager passion as they had kissed Liam.

Simone breathed out a slow hiss between her teeth as her finger teased the edge of her pants. She had gone without for…

She did the math.

Jesus. Had it really been two years?

Yeah.

Yeah it had. The last time she had gotten drunk enough to ignore her dysphoria had been two years back, right after the election. She had gotten absolutely blitzed in a ‘the world might end tomorrow’ sort of way and woken up with a pounding headache and deliciously tingly ass and a strange man’s arms wrapped around her shoulders. She hadn’t bothered learning his name – she had been shipped out to a different assignment the next day. But thinking of him was easy in the heady, lusty atmosphere of Purgatory.

Damn it. Ceres.

Her face beaded with sweat as she panted, feeling the press of the desert heat against her skin, as she watched the two goblins start to tug at Liam’s kilt. They took their damn time at it, playfully teasing his chest with their fingers and lips, pausing to kiss and caress one another. In the end, Simone was almost breathless with anticipation as she leaned against the edge of the balcony. Her face tingled and her heart hammered – nerves mixing with the lust to get her even more...excited.

Her pants strained as she watched.

And then Liam’s kilt finally came free and his member slapped against his chest.

Simone had been in the Rangers. As special forces, they were quite good at being quiet when need be. Infiltration and guerrilla tactics were a huge part of their wheel-house. For fuck’s sake, their motto was Rangers Lead the Way. In modern war, that usually meant being very fucking quiet and very good at hiding. But this was not a battlefield, and there was a difference between seeing some tangos in a place you didn’t expect and getting smacked in the face with something like that.

She had to clap her hand over her mouth to keep herself from yelping. But once she had gotten her shock under control and the two goblins had gotten their mouths against Liam’s fucking monster of a cock, Simone did slid her hand to her throat, then to her chest. She squeezed her breast and crooned. “Holy fuuuuuck.”

Calling Liam hung like a horse was a fucking insult. To Liam. Though...Simone wasn’t sure if that was because he was actually that big, or if it was the fact that two goblinesses were pressing their breasts against his cock, their nipples grinding against one another as they trapped his shaft between their emerald green bodies. They kissed the tip of his cock, making it nice and sloppy. Their drool dribbled along his dick, slicking it brightly in the sunlight that shone from overhead.

Simone ached with a sudden, fierce curiosity.

What would that...feel like. Inside her? Stretching her. Her toes curled and, not for the first time, Simone thanked God she liked anal and that lube existed. Her hands tightened on the railing of of the balcony, to keep herself from sliding a hand into her pants and ruining the moment by remembering…

The faint sounds of footsteps drew Simone’s eyes. She turned around, trying to get her face under control, reaching down to adjust the hem of her pants as the balcony entrance filled with the broad wings of Megara Vanderbilt. The valkyrie remained the most intimidating woman that Simone had ever met personally. Though she was a head shorter than Liam – and thus, shorter than Simone – she radiated a kind of dangerous strength that made her seem at least twice as tall as she looked. Add to that her wing-span. Even mantled against her shoulders like a large cape, her wings were hard to miss.

She put a single finger on Simone’s lips, stopping Simone from saying a single thing as she stepped past her and to the balcony. Quietly, Meg crooned. “Ah, this is the best fucking part.”

Simone knew, intellectually, that Meg had to be...okay...with what Liam did.

But…this okay?

Meg casually knelt down on the balcony, hiking up her shift one handedly as she leaned forward and narrowed her eyes to get a better view. “Mmm, look at them go to town on that dick,” she whispered, her finger teasing her own hairless pussy. The smell of her sex filled Simone’s nose and Simone went almost cross-eyed as she looked down at Meg.

She was just...jilling off!

Right there!

In front of her. Simone opened her mouth to say something, but Meg glanced over at her and cut the knees out of her reaction with a simple: “Wanna join in?”

“No!” Simone hissed, kneeling down to look into Meg’s eyes, which sparkled with amusement.

“Wow, you Christians really are prudes,” Meg murmured as she casually slipped her middle finger up to tease her clit. She actually had some kind of pubic...well, not hair. Instead, she had a small tuft of public feathers. Simone gulped, slowly.

“I’m not Christian,” she said.

“Huh,” Meg said, cocking her head. “What are you?”

Simone shrugged. “An atheist, I guess. I mean, I was raised Christian. But just about the time I realized I was a Simone and not a Simon, I...I figured that the church wasn’t for me.”

Meg nodded. Then, looking somewhat shy, she said: “Can I ask you a question that might be a touch rude?”

Simone sighed, quietly, feeling her arousal dampening. Slightly. “Go ahead.” She looked away from the half-naked woman. This meant she ended up looking down at the garden, which did quite a lot to bring the heat between her legs flaring to full, furious life. The white haired gobliness was laying on her belly, her face nestled between Liam’s thighs. She was licking eagerly at his balls and at the slit of her lover, who was currently spread wide and sitting on Liam’s cock. The black haired gobliness was riding him like she was a fucking pro. Her small body took his huge cock with ease, and the slick sounds of their fucking, mixed with the wet slap of thigh to thigh, reached the balcony, along with the loud moans of pure bliss that escaped her lips. It was an even bet as to which was giving her more pleasure: The tongue teasing her clit, or the monster of a cock filling her.

Simone had read once that most women on Earth didn’t climax from penetration. Either goblins were built differently…

Or Liam was just that good.

“Why haven’t you asked more about the ritual for Atlantites? I’ve even bugged Tethis into getting the supplies!” Meg said, cheerfully, pausing to lick her fingers clean.

Meanwhile, in the garden, Liam had driven himeself to new heights. His hips were leaving the grass and the two goblins were kissing one another. The black haired gobliness’ hand was trapped between her lover’s thighs as the white haired gobliness arched her spine and held her lover rooted against Liam’s thighs with an almost shocking amount of strength. Their tongues met and played together, even as the black haired girl’s fingers plunged into her lover’s pussy and thrust almost as eagerly, almost as roughly, as Liam’s immense cock plunged into her cunt.

“Because I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Simone said, her embarrassment making her blunt. “And I was told to not accept to or agree to anything until I know what’s going on. The last thing the brass wanted any of us wanted to do was get tied up into some local politics.”

Meg arched an eyebrow, her wings rustling. “And they shotgunned you across Purgatory with M-16s?”

Simone sighed, loudly. “Murphy’s Law. The probes never had more deviation than fifteen miles. Not fifteen hundred.”

The scream of bliss from the garden drew both their eyes. White cum was frothing out of the black haired gobliness’ pussy. It dripped along Liam’s balls, pattering onto the grass. The gobliness twitched, her eyes rolling back into her head as what seemed to be four orgasms rocked through her at the same time.

Meg inclined her head. “Still, you were clearly born male-”

Simone felt as if she had been smacked – and once more, her lust vanished. A thousand old, whispering insecurities came crawling out of the woodwork. Passing, as a trans anything, was an endless combination of impostor syndrome, utter joy and nightmarish horror. The joy came when everything clicked. When you felt loved and accepted and right in a body that had, for your whole life, felt utterly wrong. But the nightmare came when you saw people in the crowd around you, seeing you. Seeing through you.

Simone could still picture their faces. The man or the woman who suddenly didn’t see Simone Fong. They saw a freak. A monster. A pervert. It was like walking down a street and suddenly being surrounded by ravenous wolves.

Meg’s brow furrowed. “Are you okay?”

Simone forced her face to normality.

In the distance, a yipping, gasping voice echoed up to them: “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Glancing over, the two of them saw that the white haired gobliness had taken her shot. Liam had stamina to go to town on her. The black haired gobliness was on her back, watching with a slightly glazed expression, while the white haired gobliness had...grown several sizes. Now, she looked like a curvacious, incredibly muscular woman of Liam’s size, and Liam was taking full advantage of that. His palms were planted on her shoulders, forcing her down to mash her face against the grass and he was fucking her.

Hard.

Really. Really. Really. Really hard.

Simone looked back at Meg, her cheeks beat red. “I’m fine.”

Meg shrugged. “I was just wondering if you wanted to undergo one of our rituals? Yours was...” She paused. “Not. Great. Which, to be fair, according to Liam isn’t strange. Earth doesn’t have healing magic.” She lifted her palms. “But in exchange, you have the Internet. It sounds like a fair trade to me.”

“I think Liam might have given you a white dude’s view of the Internet,” Simone said, smirking slightly. “But, uh, what ritual are you talking about?”

“One that makes you a girl?” Meg’s  brow furrowed. “What other ritual would I be talking about?”

Chapter Two

The nun hummed as she scrawled on the floor with a chunk of chalk. Simone stood in the center of the circle and watched her work with a furrowed brow. She had been told, repeatedly, that Mary was many very important, serious sounding things. Hierophant of Babylon, the person who was responsible for keeping every religious faction in the massive city from tearing their throats out, the head of a chunk of Christian descended worshipers of, well, Mary. As in Mary, mother of Jesus.

Apparently, without the use of translation spells, her name sounded as similar to Mary as Jesus (spoken by a Hispanic person) did to Jesus.

Simone could have handled all of that if Mary hadn’t looked like a cartoon demoness dressed in a nun fetish outift. Simone tried to keep her face straight as Mary stood, dusting her hands off as she looked down at the circle. “What next, Dianna?”

The woman standing beside Liam, looking as if she wanted to lean over and lick him curiously, looked over to Mary. She blinked slowly, owlishly, and then craned her head forward as she looked at the ritual circle that Mary had drawn. Dianna was a human priestess of Aphrodite, though she didn’t really look that way to Simone’s eyes. She’d have expected someone...bigger. And more...movie star beautiful. Dianna was instead a rail thin girl with hair that draped to the small of her back. She wore a diaphanous robe of white silk, which seemed to be nearly translucent as she walked around. Since it was long enough to conceal her feet, she didn’t seem to walk so much as simply float from place to place.

“It looks all right,” she said, her voice an airy sing song.

“It looks all right?” Liam asked, craning his head to look over the massive pile of ritual supplies that he had been given to hold. Three narrow candlesticks, a tuft of thick fur that looked like it had been cured, and a cage with a bored looking white bird in it. The bird would have looked completely normal on Earth, save for the pair of thick antenna sticking out of its head, which twitched and felt out the edges of the cage with tiny flicks and twists.

“Yes,” Dianna said, nodding.

“I want more than a looks all right for this,” Liam said, grunting as he shifted the weight he was holding. “We’re talking a pretty significant biological change.”

“This ritual is ancient and hallowed,” Dianna said, her voice serious. “When Ishtar’s worship faded millennia hence, before Aphrodite was banished to Purgatory, her followers came to the lands of the Hellenes. With them they brought many rituals, and this was one of the most hallowed. Born of sea-foam and tapped deeply into the mysteries of the feminine, Aphrodite claimed the ritual and has kept it kindled. Now, as a priestess of her, it is my duty to ensure it is cast properly. And so...” She breathed in, then spread her hands. “I declare it looks all right.”

Liam looked less than convinced.

Simone, meanwhile, was swinging wildly between pissing herself with excitement and intense skepticism. She’d seen Meg bend bronze with her bare hands. She had seen Liv backhand someone into a wall so hard the wall shattered. But there was something understandable about that. Strength, but more so? Easy.

This?

This was upending a lifetime of what she expected.

But…

Hey.

She hadn’t expected going on estrogen to be as effective as it was. And so, she nodded and said: “I always was told to trust experts.”

“My thanks, sister,” Dianna said, inclining her head. Then, with poorly disguised glee, she gestured her hands and said. “Place the first candle there. No, there, Lord Vanderbilt. And do be careful to not smudge anything!”

Mary pursed her lips, crossing her arms across her chest as she watched Liam carefully stepped over chalk lines. Dianna managed to control her amusement enough to get the candlesticks set up. They had no candles in them. Simone was about to ask about that, but before she could, Dianna clapped her hands together and announced: “We begin the ritual. Please, strip, sister.”

“Should I go?” Liam asked.

“Yes, please,” Simone said, her voice firm.

Liam bowed his head and turned to go. Mary turned to go as well, her spade-tipped tail twitching from side to side. Dianna looked at Simone curiously. Simone scowled at her. “Not everyone here has an exhibition fetish.”

“What’s a fetish?” Dianna asked, her voice still faintly dreamy.

“A-” Simone paused. “You’re up for just about anything, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Dianna said, breezily.

Simone made a face. Then, working quickly, she unbuttoned her her shirt and shucked it off. She tried to drag her brain out of the lewd atmosphere of Purgatory – damn it, Ceres – and back to the casual, detached attitude of a locker room. It was just another girl. Nothing lewd here. Save that when she finished taking off her sports bra, Dianna licked her lips with clear appreciation. Simone glared at her, and the somewhat airy priestess completely missed the hint. Her excitement only grew more pronounced as Simone hooked her thumbs in her pants and slipped them down.

As per usual, Simone had to grit her teeth and power through the feeling of wrongness that came when she undid her underwear and her male member came free. It was shrunken compared to what it had been thanks to years of estrogen, and feeling the cool air of the room on her privates made Simone’s skin crawl. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see what Dianna thought of her.

“We begin,” Dianna said. Then, with a clap, she began to chant. The words didn’t rhyme, translated as they were, but underneath the English, Simone could half hear the sounds that were supposed to come from Dianna’s lips. They were musical and beautiful and filled her with a growing sense of wellbeing.

“Without your consent, no destiny is determined, the most ingenious solution finds no favor.

To run fast, to slip away, to calm, to pacify are yours, Aphrodite,

To dart aimlessly, to go too fast, to fall, to get up, to sustain a comrade are yours, Aphrodite.

To open high road and byroad, safe lodging on the way, helping the worn-out along are yours, Aphrodite.

To make footpath and trail go in the right direction, to make the going good are yours, Aphrodite.

To destroy, to create, to tear out, to establish are yours, Aphrodite.

To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Aphrodite!”

And with the last line, Dianna clapped again. Throughout the chant, a growing, tingling, buzzing feeling had started in Simone’s gut. It had flared outwards, then sunk back, like the movement of the tides. Each time the goddess’ name had been called out, the flare had gotten further and further. At the last call, it reached her fingertips, and Simone gasped in shock as she felt her whole body roiling. Something deep inside of her lurched and she fell to her knees.

Her palms slapped onto the ground and when she opened her eyes, she saw that sweat was beading and dripping onto the ground. Her fingers pressed against the ground and she trembled as every muscle knotted, then slowly relaxed. She felt her hips creaking, her ribs groaning...and then her bones settled. Her body ached, from her nose to her toes. But it was a pleasant ache. Like running for miles and ending up in a burning, aching, happy mess. Endorphins filled her brain and she laughed despite herself.

Then she sat back on her thighs and tentatively dropped her hands between her thighs.

Her eyes widened.

“Whoa.”

Her head spun.

***

Liam paced back and forth in one of the meeting rooms of the palace, his brow furrowing. “The thing that bugs me?” he said.

“You didn’t notice?” Meg asked, grinning at him.

“I didn’t notice!” Liam threw up his hands. “Why didn’t you point it out?”

“Because it was cute watching you checking her out,” Meg said, playfully. “Besides, I figured it wouldn’t matter.”

Liam frowned. It wouldn’t have. Would it? He tried to picture what his reaction would be if he and Simone had...well...progressed beyond being friends to the next stage. Of course, he wasn’t even sure if they counted as being friends right now. She was polite and competent and had come to rescue him. But she had also muttered about how incredibly illegal it had been for a United States citizen to become the dictator of his own small country. And, uh, looking at it from a purely legal perspective...Liam could see the issue.

He shook his head. “It wouldn’t have,” he said.

“Then what’s the problem?” Meg asked, her voice playful.

“Nothing!” Liam said.

“Then why so defensive?” Meg stuck her tongue out at him.

“I’m not being defensive!” Liam said, defensively. Then, scowling, he put his hands on his hips. “I just...” He paused. “O-Okay, I’m half mad at myself, because I think of myself as progressive, open minded, nice! But what if I got Simone’s pants down and freaked out about...about...”

“Her diiiiiiick?” Meg giggled.

Liam glared at her. “It’s not funny!”

“It is kind of funny,” Meg said, cheerfully. Then, seriously, she reached out with one wing to scoop Liam over to her. His chin rested on her shoulder as she slid her arm around his back and squeezed him. “If it helps, I only make fun because I know you would have been a perfect gentlemen.”

Liam chuckled against her shoulder.

“And then fucked her ass.”

Liam laughed.

Dianna floated by, followed by a pair of incredibly burly looking lizardmen, carrying Simone – her body haphazardly dressed in her uniform. Thought I looked like they hadn’t quite been sure how to get her pants on right, and so they had simply tied her belt around her hips. Her clothes also seemed to be slightly too loose. Then the small procession was past. Liam looked back at Meg, arching an eyebrow.

“Do you think it worked?” he asked.

Meg nodded. “My question is why anyone named a girl Dianna – the Roman name for Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt – and she started worshiping Aphrodite, the girl who spread her legs for a definition of man so broad she fucked a general artificial intelligence embodied in a robotic shell.”

Liam snorted. In the distance, though, he heard a barking voice, followed by shouting. Meg’s wings mantled and she frowned and followed Liam as he strode forward. They came out into t he main entrance of the palace, where the gate guards were standing before a mud streaked lizardman dressed in a thin set of robes. He was tottering on his feet, and saying: “I told you, the papers were destroyed! Get Fizit and she’ll tell you I am who I said I am!”

“Then remain calm,” the gate guard – a burly human made all the more intimidating in his official uniform and with his crystal musket – said, using his musket to bar the man.

Liam saw a great many faces and heard a lot of names as a Free Lord. Seeing this lizard sparked no immediate recognition, but that didn’t mean that Fizit wouldn’t immediately bring out a full name and history of service. Liam glanced at Meg, but saw she was already gone. The lizardman chose that moment to step backwards, pant once, then collapse to the ground. Liam started forward.

“Get a healer!”

Five minutes later, the lizardman was laid on a bed in one of the guest rooms. Wiping away the mud and cutting away the clothes revealed that he had been shot at least once. The bandage he had wrapped around the wound had stemmed the bleeding, and then rushed back to Babylon. But without any more than the most basic healing spells worked into the fabric, the wound had sickened. Lizards remained tougher and more sturdy than humans (which was saying something, considering human toughness), but their nearly superhuman levels of regeneration and stamina had faded since the death of Sysminor.

Tethis drew her palms away from his chest, a glow fading from her fingers as she sighed. “He’ll live. I’ve burned out the fever.”

Fizit, her knuckle resting between her jaws, drew her hand away from her mouth as she said: “Can we wake him?”

“It’ll hurt...” Tethis said, frowning. “And there’s something strange about his left hand.” She patted his left hand, her finger gently palpating the scales and muscles. Her brow furrowed ever so slightly as she felt him.

“I know Tzali,” Fizit said. “He can take the pain do it.”

Tethis glanced at Liam. Liam, his arms crossed over his chest, frowned and nodded. He trusted Fizit. But more than that, he needed to know. According to the Blinking Stars, the Kailey’s ship, the Morrigan’s Kiss, had arrived in the waters off the coast of the Hellespont and had started to engage in what Kailey and Quinn did best. Piracy. But it was only a matter of time before the Monodeists put their own ships out to hunt them.

They needed a long term plan.

Tethis pressed her palms to Tzali’s chest and sent a pulse of energy into him. He gasped, his eyes opening. They were wide and flicked left, right, everywhere. Then, seeing that he was safe, he closed his eyes again and wheezed slowly as he relaxed into the bed. His tongue darted out and he licked his muzzle, then...started to talk.

“I got within eye-shot of the hole. There are at least three paladins there. One of them shot me in the back. But I also made contact with, uh, some locals. The natives, from Hellespont. They have a demigoddess leading them.” He nodded his head. “She’s got contacts with the slaves they have digging in the Endless Mine. That’s what they call it.”

Liam frowned. “What is it?”

“The Ancients,” Tzali said, quietly. “It’s something they built. I had to get in, to see it up close. I snuck in at night, using some field craft. And I saw that the mine...” He shook his head. “It’s cursed. A slave was walked up to the entrance and turned, instantly.” He snapped his finger. It made an odd clink noise. “To iron.”

Tethis snatched his wrist, yanking it closer to her eyes. Her breath drew in a quick gasp and Liam leaned forward.

The odd finger she had seen?

It shone. Like metal.

“Got a bit too close,” he said, quietly. “That’s how I saw her. A human, no slave collar. But she was talking funny. Like you, m’Lord.” He nodded to Liam. “And she was working with tools. Tools from a box with an eagle on it and letters. English ones.”

Liam gulped slowly. “Do you remember the letters? The numbers?”

Tzali smiled and jerked his head in a quick nod.

***

“A predator drone!?” Liam exploded.

Simone rubbed her temples. “Vanderbilt,” she said, her voice sour. “Changing your entire biological sex kinda gives you a fuck of a hangover. Please. Keep it. The. Fuck. Down.”

Liam paced back and forth before the bed the Army Ranger sprawled in. She had drawn a blanket up to her chin and was glaring sullenly at him – like she was upset that he was fucking with her during a time that should have a time of celebration for her. Liam, personally, didn’t give a fuck. “You shipped here with a fucking predator drone? What the fuck were you thinking? This is a bronze age world!”

“President Deinhardt didn’t-”

“Wait, who?” Liam asked.

“President Deinhardt didn’t send us here to get killed,” Simone growled.

Liam looked like a man who had been flicked right between the eyes. He spluttered and shook his head. “Deinhardt? That, he wasn’t one of the c-”

“We don’t like to talk about it,” Simone snapped. “And she.”

“Oh,” Liam said, looking pleased. “The dems won?”

“She’s Republican,” Simone said, slowly laying back in bed.

“Oh,” Liam said, looking less pleased.

Simone sighed slowly. “The drone was going to pull double duty. We had to check out an entire planet for one American teenager. It wasn’t going to be easy.” She rubbed her palm against one of her eyes, her expression becoming even more grim. “The idea was floated around to send a civilian drone. But we needed a drone with sufficient range, durability, optics and happens to be one that the US government has been teaching pukes to fly for the better part of a decade.” She shrugged. “It didn’t hurt they’re on hand.”

“And the weapons?” Liam asked, slowly sitting down on a stool next to the bed. Simone relaxed faintly, letting the blanket drop from her chin to her shoulders and chest. It molded to the curves of her breasts and Liam tried to remain focused with the task on hand. That grew a few notches harder as Simone shoved herself upwards slightly, letting her arms peek from underneath the sheets. Transitioning from mostly biologically female to entirely biologically female hadn’t done a thing to her impressive physique.

“I argued for them,” she said, her voice flat. “What if we ran into organized opposition. Numbers would always be against us. So.” She shrugged. “Why not bring something to even the scales.”

Liam rubbed his palms against his face. He sighed slowly as he let his hands drop into his lap.

“Honestly? I wish I could blame you,” he said. “But I can’t. I’ve done similar things here.”

“I’ve noticed,” Simone said, her lips pursing. “Now, if you would kindly get out of the room. I kind of need to get dressed.”

Liam blinked.

Then he started. “Oh! Oh! Uh, oh-” he stood up, decades of American mores slammed into his spine like a sledgehammer. His face heated and he held up his hands. “I was, uh, oh! Sorry! I-”

Simone managed to keep her face straight. She just lifted one eyebrow as Liam backed through the door and into the corridor. Liam spent the time she took getting dressed bringing everyone together. Meg, Liv, Tethis, Fizit, Laurentinus  and last, but far from least, Diayat. Diayat remained a point of gossip in the palace. Who was she? Where had she come from? What did she have to do with Anubis? She shared some of his features – the furred jackal ears and the poofy jackal tail. But, unlike the average Chosen of Anubis, she lacked the other features: No fur, no muzzle.

Fizit had been very good at keeping the actual truth quiet.

Diayet still looked uncomfortable in her skin and in her world as she sat at the edge of the meeting table. Her finger went to the gleaming null-collar she wore. That collar was what kept her Diayet and not, as she had been for almost five millennia, the god Anubis. Liam tried to imagine what it must have been like. From everything Diayet had said, the transition from priestess of a distant and potentially unreal god to being Anubis in the flesh had been so subtle she hadn’t noticed.

At first, people had said she was as even handed as Anubis.

Then people had seen her cast miracles. Then the rumors had changed, the stories had shifted, until she had been the god in the stories. And as the stories changed, she had changed.

“You okay?” Liam asked as Fizit and Simone arrived last, muttering to one another.

“I still feel...fragile,” Diayet said, her hand reaching up to touch the collar reflexively. “Like I’m one step away from not being me anymore. It makes going to sleep at night a bit...terrifying.” She shuddered. “Do you know we cease to be in the world beyond this one if people forget us? If our shrines go untended, our names are unsaid.” She sighed. “Do you think that someone can return to being after thousands of years of forgetfulness?”

Liam looked down at his hands, then at her. “I don’t know. But even if you didn’t remember him as your husband as Anubis, you’d still have recalled him as one of your followers. Right?”

“I...” Diayet closed her eyes. Tears brimmed. “Damn it all, I don’t know. That life is as blank as a long dream.”

“That hasn’t stopped Ares,” Liv said, her voice gruff as she walked past Liam’s, dragged a chair out and threw herself down next to Diayet. Diayet started at the sudden scrape of wood on stone, then blinked, her ears flicking back curiously as she saw Liv’s face.

“Don’t ask,” Liv said, wiping at the smears of paint, dribbling bits of spittle, and the chunk of building block that had gotten caught in her hair.

The meeting came to order as Fizit clapped her hands to draw everyone’s attention. “We’ve got to decide what we’re going to do about the Endless Mine. According to reports, the mine turns anything made of living flesh into steel. That steel is already being used to arm and equip Ares’ Paladins. If their Earth scientist is forced to learn more about how the mine functions, then he might give his entire army steel. Not just swords, but cannons, tanks, ironclads. Steelclads. Whatever.” She sighed. “There’s just two things that concern me. The first is that reaching the mine requires fighting our way through marshes and jungles. The second is that Agent Tzali has been compromised.”

Tethis jerked up her head. “I- no!” she shook her head. “I cast truth seeking spells on him, and monitored his biorhythms, there is no way he could have been lying.”

Fizit flicked her tail, her hands clasped behind her back. “So, we’re supposed to believe a spy managed to slip past a defensive fortification with a three hundred sixty degree cleared field, measured about a half a mile to the tree-line, with no brush, and enough paladins and soldiers to man the entire wall. Then he got close enough to see what the Endless Mine does without debilitating himself – hell, that he got close enough without being turned to steel where he stood?” She shook her head. “Then a paladin with a blessed flintlock pistol put the round into his shoulder blade and not, say, his spine?”

Quiet glances were exchanged.

“We have three options. Either Ares forces are incompetent, and we know they’re not, your spell failed, and I’m willing to believe the finest healer in Purgatory knows her job...”

Tethis flushed.

“...or finally, someone cast a spell that makes Agent Tzali think that he saw what he saw. They put a round into his back, then let him go.”

Simone shook her head. “Are you sure you haven’t worked for the CIA?”

“Amateurs,” Fizit said, twitching her tail. “They don’t have to deal with magic, teleportation, gods, and the Ancients.”

Liam tucked his head forward, his chin bumping his chest.

“Here’s what I think,” Meg said. “We try an air assault. It worked during the war.”

“An orbital drop...” Liam murmured.

“No,” Tethis said, quickly. “That’ll destroy the mine!”

“Is that bad? It’s turning people into steel,” Meg pointed out.

“But how?” Tethis exclaimed, throwing out her hands. “You don’t know! It might be a field, some kind of automated ray, a plague. What if hitting the mine with a few hundred tons of superheated ceramics just spreads the field everywhere? What if it destroys Purgatory? We’ve already seen what happens when Ancient magic runs up against explosives.”

Liam’s missing foot ached. He could remember the screaming cold dragging at his body, the rough feeling of the ground rasping as he was pulled inexorably towards the hole that Sysminor’s death had blown in the side of Purgatory. Seeing the expression on Meg’s face, he could see she was remembering too. Meg cocked her head, looking like she was ticking her way through more possibilities. She shook her head.

“A straight on air attack would run right into cannons. We could do it if we didn’t mind getting chewed to pieces. Fuck.” She chewed her lip.

Laurentinus broke his long silence by laughing. The goblin general was the man in charge of the Cross Guard. Liam grinned.

“Want to share your thoughts?” he asked.

“Yes, but if only because I don’t like my career,” Laurentinus said. “But considering the number of rivers and marshes, don’t you want an admiral here?”

Liam slapped his forehead.

“I hope you don’t think our every military operation is planned this way,” Meg said, nodding to Simone, who was looking like she was trying to pick her next words with care.

“It’s only most of them,” Liv said.

“Dude!” Liam said, sliding his hand away from his face. “Can someone send for the admiralty?”

The admiralty was a slightly grandiose term. Despite a massive building project and some of the most advanced ships on the sea, Purgatory didn’t require the same massive array of officers that, say, the Royal British Navy had required. There was one admiral. But he, like every naval officer or pirate brigand or merchant captain, had devoured the three Patrick O’Brian novels that Liam had brought with him to Purgatory. They had pored over every page and sketched out diagrams of what they thought the technical jargon meant. This hadn’t just impacted the sailing ships that swept across the Platonic Sea.

It had also influenced Admiral Horatio Thrawn Cochrane.

And not just in what new names he had picked. Admiral Cochrane stepped into the meeting room with a level of spit and polish that nearly matched what Simone had to be used to, wearing the blue painted tunic and short kilt that was the naval uniform of Babylon. He had a single medal pinned to his chest – he had earned his post hunting down pirates during the long refugee scramble after the end of the War of the False God. Other than the uniform and the medal and the intensity of discipline that roiled off him, the Admiral was the picture of a Coptic. Coppery-brown skin, with a shaved head that was decorated by a black wig, and kohl make up to keep the sun from his eyes.

“M’lord,” he said.

“At ease, Admiral,” Liam said, feeling suddenly awkward. He glanced at Simone and wondered what she had to be thinking. Here he was. Fuck, if he hadn’t been dragged into Purgatory years ago, he’d have been in college, trying to pick his degree. The momentary reflection of just how surreal this was nearly made him dizzy.

Bringing Admiral Cochrane up to speed was the matter of a few moments. He looked at the map, then chuckled.

“Well, we can bring some heavy guns within range easily. Easily. And enchanted armor piercing delayed explosives can knock those cannons out-” he snapped his finger. “Like that.”

“Are you sure about that?” Liam asked.

The admiral opened his mouth, considered. He shook his head. “Nothing can be entirely certain in warfare, Lord Vanderbilt. If their defenses include, say, theistic shields, similar to those seen in the engagement you had a few months ago...” He shrugged. “Then our shells will be little better then shrapnel shot against hardened fortifications.”

“It’s still better than nothing,” Liam said, rubbing his chin.

“There’s a way we can make it a more sure thing,” Simone said. “You say there are natives resisting the bad guys?”

Fizit nodded. “Apparently headed by a demigod, likely Neriad, the daughter of Posedian.”

“We bring them support,” Simone said. “And see if they can’t get us inside. A castle only works from the outside. And you say they’re digging into some kind of facility.  If we can find the other exits...”

“Did you miss the part where entering the mines acts like making out with Medusa?” Liv asked.

“Hey, we bring Tethis, then. She’s supposed to be an expert on this Ancient shit, right?” Simone asked. “Even if she doesn’t figure out a way to sneak in, we can still work with the locals while waiting for the big guns to show up.”

Tethis considered it. “I can think of a few ways Ancient magic might be doing this...” she muttered, quietly, as she pulled a napkin to herself and started to scribble on it with one of her quills. Liam could already tell that the rest of the world was fading from her perceptions. Her scribbles became a constant piece of background noise.

“A forward operation,” Fizit said. “With Simone and Tethis and-”

“Me,” Liam said.

Everyone looked at him.

“Are you insane?” Simone asked, slowly.

Liam ticked the points off on his fingers. “I’ve navigated Ancient labyrinths before. I’ve faced down Ancient constructs that no one else has even seen. I can recognize if we’re running, say, Nyarlathotep. Oh, also, if we’re making diplomatic contact with a member of the Dodekatheon, you want to bring as much clout to bear as possible to keep them from being raging dick waffles about it.”

Dickwaffles? Simone mouthed.

“Liam has a remarkably optimistic view of the Dodekatheon,” Liv said. “I’m in too.”

“Me too,” Meg said.

Fizit hissed, quietly. Her tail started to lash – but Liam could see her thinking furiously. Then she ducked her head forward. “Damn it all. That is the best hope we have, isn’t it?” She put her hands on her hips. “But I’m still going to insist that you don’t get onto the front lines. You stay in a supervisory and diplomatic position alone. And to make sure that happens,  I’ll be sending some specialists.”

Liam grinned. Sending specialists was Fizit’s way of surrendering.

A half beat later, he remembered his children and felt a sudden twisting of a knife of guilt in his gut. But by then it was already too late.

Chapter Three

Belladonna sprawled underneath the tarp and tried to cover her ears with both hands as tightly as she could. Even that didn’t keep out the roaring and the rumble and the distant cries. And to think, just a few minutes earlier, everything had been so peaceful. So quiet. She had been sitting with Xapanos, chatting about their latest findings. Or, more accurately, their lack of latest findings.

It would have been easier to get some real information if what they had were actual scientific supplies. As it was, she had the Predator drone tucked into the box and had been peering significantly at one of the control apparatuses while adjusting dials and levers and finding out which buttons made pings and which ones made bleeps. So, every time Paladin Chastity had arrived to growl at them and ask about how things were progressing, she had pushed a few buttons here, pushed a few buttons there, and let Xapanos carry the conversation.

“I think it has to be some kind of active force. But I can’t sense a single kind of active field,” he had been saying as they waited for the sun to finally shut down and for some measure of blessed cool to come to the pit.

“Well-”

And that was when the distant crack of a musket had jerked Belladonna’s head up. She had seen a Monodeist soldier toppling off the side of the wall, her head vanished and her neck ending in a ragged stump. As her arms cartwheeled in boneless death, the entire wall had erupted with gunfire as every other Monodeist fired on the jungle surrounding them. The cannons had gone off as well, filling the air with acrid smoke and with an even deeper booming. Even at the bottom of the pit, Bella’s nose had been filled with the scent of gunpowder.

As she trembled on the dirt floor and wished, desperately, to return home, Bella felt an arm slip around her belly and draw her in close. The sleek warmth of Xapanos body was as welcome as a wrapped blanket. Without taking her hands from her ears, Bella had turned and pressed herself into the other scholar.

After what felt like an eternity, the endless roar faded. Over the ringing in her ears, Bella could hear Paladin Chastity.

“You! You! You! You! You’re with me! We cannot let these savages and heretics snipe at us without any payback. Come!”

Bella realized her nose was mashed against the dark elf’s chest. Her nose flared and, underneath the gunsmoke and the dirt and the unwashed sweat, she could scent the male musk of Xapanos. It was subtly different from the smells of maleness that she associated with her (all too infrequent) trysts. Not many people were interested in a dorky geologist with buck teeth and glasses, and despite dozens of movies claiming to the contrary, simply changing her hair style and her dress hadn’t magically made any of the hunks she had gone to school with realize that she was, in fact, played by Emma Watson.

But she had gotten lucky occasionally.

And human men had a definite richness to their base scent.

But elves.

Oh elves.

He smelled like a tree after a storm. It was exotic and almost too intense for the moment. But even if he had smelled like a rotten egg, it wouldn’t have been enough to distract Bella from the sudden tautness of his loincloth. Trapped between her belly and his thighs, his member was growing harder and harder and harder. Bella felt her fear – not merely the fear of the moment, but the fear of months of being trapped on this strange world, the fear of being surrounded by power she couldn’t understand and couldn’t begin to quantify – transform with a shocking speed into pure lust. Her body quivered and part of her rebelled at it.

She barely knew Xapanos. He was clever, and beautiful, and exotic. But she didn’t know about his family, his goals, his future.

But the aching flame that burned between her legs, burned with the same slick heat as the jungles surrounding the Mine, didn’t care. Her palms skimmed along his shoulders as the sun went dark. The whole camp was plunged into darkness. And even the natives found that sudden transition from what (to her) felt like midday to the darkest midnight...jarring. Cries of alarm and curses came from soldiers who were rushing to ready mounts, or to get weapons.

And in that darkness, Xapanos hand dipped down and found her ass. He squeezed her with strength. With conviction. Bella mewled and kissed at his neck, tasting the salty sweat that gleamed even in the darkness.

“Nnh, we shouldn’t,” he whispered.

“I don’t care,” Belladonna husked. And she didn’t. She pushed him onto his back, swinging one leg up and over. She had been forced to wear native clothes at spear point. She hadn’t imagined how nice it would be to wear a kilt without panties until she planted her sopping wet cuntlips against the bulging member that strained to escape from Xapanos’ loincloth. Her palms spread against his chest and she leaned forward, kissing him. Xapanos didn’t kiss her back. At first. Then, in the darkness, his ruby red eyes closed and his tongue plunged into her mouth as his hand cupped the back of her head. His fingers worked through her hair, and if he cared about her slightly too large front teeth, it didn’t slow his tongue as he thrust it deep into her mouth.

Belladonna sucked on his tongue as she reached back to start untying her breast band. When she broke the kiss she was panting. “Humans and elves can’t interbreed, can they?” she asked.

“No,” Xapanos said, his eyes still closed as his hands found her breasts. He squeezed her in the darkness with the deftness of long experience. The feelings he sent roiling through her with just a tweak and squeeze of her nipples and her breasts shocked Belladonna. She hadn’t realized it could feel that good. Her back arched and she pressed her breasts into his palms, even as in the darkness round them, mage-lights started to glow to life.

“We don’t have much time,” she whispered, reaching down. Another mage-light flared. None of the light shone directly on them, and no guards came to investigate them. Yet.

But…

The fact that some might come, just at this moment, sent a dizzying thrill of erotic pleasure through Bella. She found the tie of Xapanos’ loincloth, tugged. His member came free with a wet slap, his inches and inches of ebony black cock grinding against her ass and then slipping forward. The tip of his member glided along her pussylips as if they were utterly frictionless, then came to rest rubbing against her clitty. Bella’s eyes widened and she bit down on her lower lip hard enough to almost draw blood. His cock bumped against her clit with nearly the same skill she had felt in a human being’s entire hands and tongue combo.

Then Xapanos’ hands grabbed onto her hips and he slammed her down. A minute adjustment of angle meant that his cock filled her, sheathing into her with a wet slurp and his back reared upwards as he pressed his mouth to her mouth. IT was to muffle them both, and she could feel his moan escaping around her lips, even as his tongue and hers met. Dueled.

When his mouth drew back, the only noise that she could possibly make was: “Ohhhh...” It was low and breathy and whispered into the side of his neck as she clung to him. Because Xapanos was not merely sitting back. His hips drove upwards and his cock plunged up, then back, then up, then back, then up. He thrust up hard enough that his black balls slapped her ass. The only thing that kept the guards rushing about from hearing them was the calls of orders and swears and curses.

A mage-light flared on close enough that the light glimmering along his face let Belladonna see the look of exquisite pleasure and intense pain filling the dark elf’s face. His body shuddered as his hand squeezed her ass and he drove into her. Faster. Harder. Faster. Faster.

Belladonna’s climax forced her to bite down on his shoulder.

Xapanos merely choked out: “Triss!”

She had no time to be confused as the hot rush of his cum filled her. And filled her. And filled her. She felt the pulses of his heat crashing into her deepest places and filling her with a warmth and well-being that magnified and expanded the glorious, pink-tinted bliss that shrouded her mind as what felt like an unending wave of orgasms echoed through her mind. Every time the orgasm faded back, it would rebound forward again as his member twitched and shifted inside of her, grinding against her most sensitive places.

Slowly, Xapanos’ arms loosened their grip on her and she released her jaw, wincing at the pale marks she had left on his ebony skin. Before she could apologize, another mage-light flared and a guard missed spotting them only by dint of turning right rather than left. Belladonna twitched and choked back a moan as Xapanos drew out of her, his cock softening as it slurped from her sex.

His cum dripped along her thighs. Pattered onto the ground.

“I-” Bella started.

But then Xapanos shoved her away, his face a mask as he turned and stood in the same fluid motion. He yanked at his loincloth, trying to get it tied taut as he stalked into the darkness, away from the kindling magelights.

Belladonna remained on her knees, her legs quivering. She tried to stand...and found she couldn’t.

“W-What did I do?” she whispered.

Triss, her mind whispered. That wasn’t translated by the spell. That means it was a proper name. Meaning…

Belladonna’s eyes widened. She put her hands to her mouth.

“O-Oh fuck.”

***

The faint crunch of the landing raft touching the swampy, hypothetical shoreline of this part of Ceres made Simone grit her teeth. She had been looking into the soup through hazy, tinted night vision – the highest tech that the United States of America could afford – and she still had been surprised by the landing. In her defense, this was a job for a frogman. She was a Ranger. Usually, she was sent into places and situations like this a wee bit further inland.

The thought of ‘frogmen’ made her laugh. Inside. Where it didn’t show. To her left, a whipcord skinny lizardman with scales that had been darkened by body paint and camouflage netting worked into simple leather armor that protected the torso and major organs but left the arms and legs and tail free for mobility was busy checking over his pistols.

And to think, a few months ago she’d have thought serving shoulder to shoulder with a Russian would have been odd.

Simone banished those thoughts with a quick, testing probe with the pole that she had been using to nudge the raft closer and closer to the brackish shores. With nothing to go on but fog and the faint hint of branches and vines, she was careful with her legs and her feet. Far better to stick ten foot of wood into some primordial dinosaur’s mouth. Liam had told her that these swamps were mostly cleared of basilisks – the local population getting their hands on muskets had rapidly pushed the basilisks towards extinction.

According to Liam, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer species.

No native predator, he had said.

Native predator? You’re telling me they’re from Earth?

Oh, totally. They were exiled with the Christians.

The fuck was their native predator on Earth?

Without missing a beat, without blinking, without smiling, Liam had said: Roosters.

Simone swung her legs around and sipped into the water. Immediately, she regretted it. She gritted her teeth against the cold and the muck that swirled around her belly. She lifted her rifle over her head, while behind her, she heard the soft slip and slurp of her backup getting into the water with her.

“I hate swamps.”

That was Vazt, the skinny lizardman.

The bigger lizardman, Anix, laughed quietly. “You were born in a swamp, Vazt.”

Vazt muttered under his breath about electoral votes and how he had voted for Mary and how Mary would have never sent him here. Mary would have been a far better Free Lord than this upstart Vanderbilt, whose administration was one string of disasters after another. Completely incompetent. As he grumbled, Simone slowly tracked her head left and right. She lifted one hand and hissed softly. Vazt and Anix shut up immediately. They might not have been professional soldiers, as she knew them. But they were professionals.

They knew when to shut up.

“We’re clear,” Simone said a moment later. “Keep the chatter down you two.”

The two lizards nodded. Vazt checked his pistol again – the crystal and wood weapon shimmered faintly in the very thin streams of pseudo-moonlight that escaped the thick fronds of the swamp trees. Simone could see clearly through her NVGs: The pistol was shedding water like one of those hydrophobic table cloths. What kind of world was it, where her 21st century rifle might have a harder time in this terrain than some fucking flintlock using black powder?

“Fucking magic,” Simone grumbled under her breath.

The next three hours were, like many in war, a horrible combination of utter and complete boredom and total paranoia. They were in hostile territory, after-all. Ares and his forces were running supplies through the major rivers in the swamp to their Endless Mine. The locals were fighting a guerrilla war and that usually meant that they were on the ‘shoot first, shoot second, shoot a third time, then shoot the survivors.’ So, it wasn’t as if this was just a stroll in the park.

But while this was hostile territory, it was also a bronze aged swamp. Even a bronze aged city was light on the people compared to the teeming millions of Earth. This kind of landing in South America or South-East Asia would have meant wading into an area many times more populated than all but Ceres’ cities. Thus, Simone, Vazt and Anix were free to stumble about and find what they were looking for.

A river, deep enough and clear enough that it could be used by their main ship, the Liberty. The Liberty was a bit of an odd duck from everything that Simone had seen of her. She had been built as a galley, like those used by the Hellenic sailors of Earth’s own ancient epoch. But halfway  through construction, she had been refitted and reshaped to hold six cannons on her prow, which had once been built to handle ramming. Her back had been altered to hold one of those ungodly solar-nuclear-steam reactor things that were half magic, half crystal, all insane bullshit.

The end result was a long, narrow ship with a shallow draft. It could make its way along a swamp river, and it could cut through any major obstructions. And if they could get it to the rebel base, they’d be able to unload the cannons, the muskets, and the rest of the provisions that the Babylonian government had decided would serve as payment to the rebels. The Babylonians would then not only have friendly natives, but also two potential routes for their river traffic: The one charted by the Liberty and the other taken from Ares’ navy with powder, shot and steel.

That was the idea at least.

Vazt flashed the signal to the Liberty, who was lurking in the fog bank that had blown out of the swamp in the time that t hey had been searching. Simone and Anix kept their eyes open and their weapons at the ready. The question that hung in the air was which one should shoot first if they saw anything.

Anix had the gun that could be reloaded easily.

Simone had the fully automatic silenced assault rifle.

Choices choices…

A branch snapped like a gunshot. Anix swung his pistol to aim in that direction, his other hand going to the heavy maul that he used as his off-hand weapon. Simone would have had a hard time swinging it with both arms even before she had started transitioning. The fact Anix saw no problems with using it as his off-hand weapon was enough to reach her to respect the big guy’s strength.

“Did you see anything?” Anix whispered.

“No,” Simone said, then adjusted her NVG. “Shit. Yes. Movement, under the water. It’s big.”

“Do you see glowing eyes?” Anix snarled.

A flash of movement, a shimmer underneath the water, peering up and out of the liquid like two baleful eyes from the pits of hell. Simone didn’t wast time. She shouldered her M16, sighted, and waited for just the right moment. Shooting into water was a bit like shooting into a brick wall. Forget what Saving Private Ryan said: even heavy machine gun bullets didn’t retain enough punch to deal damage after a few feet. And the last thing she wanted to do was waste half her magazine on a bunch of grazes and weaker hits.

The water surged and she saw the great head, shedding water along a feather-like  crest. Those eyes met hers through goggles and down her sights. She didn’t give it more than that. Her finger smoothly pulled back and her M16 bucked against her shoulder in a short, sharp, three round burst. The silencer filled the air with a loud, angry rattle as casings plipped into the water.

Her grouping was good. She saw one of those eyes go out and the basilisk jerk its head backwards. It thrashed, let out a strangled squawk, then dropped into the water with a resounding splash. One leg kicked, and its tail writhed convulsively. Anix didn’t waste a second. He surged forward, his thighs cutting great swaths through the water. Once he was standing safely behind the basilisk's head, he brought his mace down against the skull with a meaty thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Anix stepped back, swinging his mace once more to get bits of blood and brain off of it.

“Nice shot,” he said, casually.

“Nice insurance,” Simone said. Then. “Fucking balls.” She knelt down, her palm vanishing into the buck. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck!”

“What? What is it?” Anix whispered.

“Those casings! I fucking need those!”

Anix held up one hand, then sank down into the water with a quiet slurp. As his head vanished beneath the brackish water and roots, Simone shook her head slowly.

By the time the Liberty arrived, Anix had all three casings in his palm and the biggest, most shit eating grin she had ever seen on a walking lizard’s face ever.

***

Liam leaned on the railing and watched the swamp smoothly slip past the Liberty. The faint whirring of the engines could easily be felt through the mostly wooden hull. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with the Liberty – if he had his choice, he’d be sailing up this river on the Constitution. The Constitution had been built out of the next best thing to southern live oak, with a dedicated gundeck and twin broadsides. Her highly trained crew and sophisticated technological systems had all gone to the bottom in a single bomb-blast.

Terrorism.

Liam felt another twinge of guilt.

“You’re brooding again,” Liv said.

Liam started. He turned and saw that Liv was standing next to him. She had been in his peripheral vision and he hadn’t even noticed. That twinge of guilt was replaced, almost immediately, but a shudder of primordial horror. It was entirely reflexive, and Liam felt ashamed of feeling it. But he couldn’t not. He didn’t know if Liv had simply slipped past his perceptions, if she had teleported, if she had just been so fast that she could go from being across the deck to standing beside him in an instant. There were many different possibilities, and each had their own frightening edge.

Liam tried to take his feelings and examine them more logically.

And he realized what it was.

It wasn’t that Liv was faster or sneakier than she had been before. He had seen her superhuman abilities before.

It was the fact that her new powers were unbound.

They were growing. Every other day, she seemed to be just a tick faster. Just a tick stronger. Just a tick stranger. Her long pale white hair flowed behind her like a cape and her eyes seemed to crackle with energies that he couldn’t begin to understand. It was like he finally had an old friend back, and she was a different person.

“For fuck sake’s Liam, do I need to have you bend me over the railing and fuck me?” Liv asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Will that wipe that whipped puppy look off your face?”

Liam blinked – and felt an almost inexpressibly relief. He grinned. “It might help.”

Liv snorted. She glared at the woods, her eyes narrowing. “There’s nothing out there. No scouts, no sentries. I think that the natives might be dogging the other river.” Her ears twitched – Liam could see the tips of them jerking upwards. “Definitely on the other river. I can hear musket shot.” She paused. “Ten of them.” She cocked her head, slightly more. “They got a kill.”

Liam leaned forward on his arms, ducking his head so that he could close his eyes and focus only on what he could hear. Underneath the thrumming of the engine and the creak of hull planking, he could hear a very distant crackle, boom, pop. He shook his head. “Is that your elf ears or did Diayet teach you something?”

Liv snorted. “A little of both.” She paused. “Simone’s gone insane.”

“What?” Liam laughed, turning around and scanning the ship. He saw Simone almost immediately – her being nearly a head taller than everyone else made that a bit easier. She was near the prow of the ship, holding up her walkie talkie. She glared at it as she adjusted a dial on it, then spoke into it.

“She’s talking to herself,” Liv said.

“That’s a walkie talkie. Think like an iPhone, but...you know, different,” Liam said. “Wait here.”

Walking over to Simone, he made sure to stomp his feet slightly. Simone glanced at him and smiled. “Still no joy,” she said.

“You sound almost relieved,” Liam said.

Simone opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked down at the walkie talkie. “Back at your palace, someone tried to contact me on this. Someone speaking Greek. Or whatever it is the Greeks are speaking here.” She shook her head. “Nothing like that has happened again. But it freaked me the fuck out.”

Liam frowned. “Maybe Ares did it...”

“Corporal Jeremiah Barker here. You read me, LT? This is Corporal Jeremiah Baker, over.”

The voice that had come from the speaker was clear, pure English. If you counted a Southern drawl as English. Liam almost leaped over the side of the ship in surprise. The look on Simone’s face was something between utter and total joy and complete shock. She mastered both immediately, holding her walkie talkie up to her jaw and ear. She spoke with clear authority – Liam started to take mental notes.

“Corporal Barker, I’ll forgive you for not checking in earlier considering the situation.” She smirked, slightly. “Where are you and what’s your situation? Over.”

There was a very long pause.

“Uh, not sure if you’ll believe me, LT.”

“Corporal, I’m standing next to an elven demigoddess and riding on a steampunk ship with a nerd who named his tin-pot dictatorship after his favorite 90s sci-fi schlock. I’ll believe a whole fuck of a lot right now.” Simone lowered the walkie talkie and glared at Liam until he stopped looking so aggrieved.

There was another very long pause.

“I’m in a harem, LT.”

“A harem.” Simone’s lips pursed.

“Yeah. Some blue chick said I looked hot. Me and Tanye.”

Simone slowly lowered the walkie talkie and turned to face Liam. Liam held up his hands.

“Hey, I tried to bring Christianity to them!” he said, defensively.

“You fucked half the people on this boat!” Simone said, then put her walkie talkie to her ear, frowning. “Please, Corporal, tell me that you have your gear.”

The third pause was the longest.

“...not exactly.”

Simone mimed pitching the walkie talkie into the river.

***

The sun kindled as the Liberty nosed its way down another side-river – one thicker and more overgrown than the primary artery they had been following. And yet, every time the ship seemed ready to catch and snag , some branches and woods would slip aside and the Liberty would get further up stream. The river seemed to be getting perpetually more narrow and more confining, and yet the edges of the river never quite touched her keel. It was unnerving as hell, but Liam clung to the knowledge that this meant that they were heading down the right direction.

And then, with the flare of the dawn’s light, he knew that they were heading in the right direction.

The Liberty had come to a nearly circular grotto of open water. Not just open, though. It was clear. Blue water shimmered and glinted beneath the open sky, the trees ringing the grotto reached towards the heaven. A blink later, Liam could see the hidden fortification. Archer and muskteer posts were set in the branches, and they were manned. Crouched figures – some glittering with scales, others as dark as shadows – aimed muskets and bows at them, while rafts were poled towards the ship. Water rippled and surged upwards and cries of alarm came from the crew as solid white foam flung itself from the grotto to the deck.

Liam stepped forward, to stand between some shocked crewmen and the frothing whiteness. He held up his hands, shouting: “Belay that!”

The sailor he had shouted at dropped a gaff hook to the deck with a rattle. As the crew hushed, standing in tense alarm, the white foam surged upwards and coalesced into a feminine figure. Full, perfectly sculpted breasts made of shimmering water heaved as the woman flung her head backwards, clear-crystal hair scattering along her broad, muscular back. Her fingers were bright white, while her shoulders and chest deepened to the deep, dark black of the deepest oceans. Her eyes were bright emeralds, and she was joined by two other feminine figures. Each one had the same curvaceous form, and each one rippled as they stood in the pure sunlight.

“Liam Vanderbilt?” the center of the three women asked, her voice a strange roaring combination of surf and human voice. It was like someone had auto-tuned the ocean. It was almost atonal, and definitely ratcheted her attractiveness down in the fastest, most efficient way Liam could think of. He nodded to her.

“I’m the Free Lord of Babylon,” he said. “Are you Neriad?”

“We are her handmaidens,” the woman said. “We are water elementals. Foam and surf, given strength and thought. Cross us at your peril.” her finger thrust at him. A few growls came from the crew, and Liam could see Liv reaching for her sword. Her hand closed around the hilt, but she didn’t draw it. Meg and Tethis were emerging from the forecastle – Tethis was jerking her shift on and Meg was licking her fingers clean. Simone, meanwhile, had her arms crossed over her chest and was watching everything with an affected disinterest.

“No one is here to cross anyone,” Liam said. “I am here to offer aide and support in Neriad’s war against Ares and his Monodeists.”

The water elemental speaker tossed her head with a magnificent level of utter disdain. Her lip curled and she said. “Monodeist. Another name for a Dodekatheon worshiper. They claim to serve Ares, but we’ve seen the blessings of Zeus and Hades and Hephaestus in their hands. Neriad rejects this drivel that Ares has somehow usurped his father. This is some Athenian scheme, isn’t it?”

Liam held up his hands, trying to sound placating. “You don’t understand what you face. But even if we’re mistaken and the Dodekatheon is arrayed against you, that doesn’t mean you don’t still need what we bring.” He snapped his fingers. Several sailors hurried forward, dragging a crate between them, their muscles straining. They set it down and Liam opened the crate.

The water elementals leaned forward as one. As one their eyes widened.

Magically imbued water or no, they didn’t exactly have the best poker face. Liam smiled as he laid his hand down on the edge of the crate’s wood, making sure to stand where his shadow wouldn’t fall on the gleaming wood stocks and glittering crystaline barrels of his muskets.

“There’s another five crates in the hold,” he said. “If you don’t mind taking us to see Neriad herself.”

The water elemental speaker drew herself upwards. She thrust out her chest and put her hands on her hips, a pose that was so provocative that it bordered on parody. Her voice shifted from the roar of surf to the tinkle and drip of water, which was as annoying and hard to listen to in its own unique way.

“You may come before the Lady Neriad. But you must be...” she pursed her lips. “Properly attired.”

Behind her, Meg began to rub her palms together and cackled.

Chapter Four

Liam stood stock still. His arms, inured to hard labor, still ached from the pressure of holding them above his head and stock still for so long. He thought about asking Meg to hurry, but knew that that would provoke another gleeful cackle and some new layer of indignity. And so, Liam channeled Meg’s least favorite city state and got his stoicism on, keeping his face deadpan as Meg dipped the brush into a jar of oil.

“Do you think this is quite necessary?” Tethis asked.

“She said to be properly attired,” Meg said, reaching out to gently smack Liam’s rump. This set his hips rocking forward. The only reason his member didn’t go flying free to smack the gobliness in her face was the fact that Meg had expertly tied off the silken thong. Just enough pressure to keep Liam’s girth and length contained, but not so tight that he’d lose circulation. That left every other inch of his body, hardened by use and and training, exposed for the world. And then Meg leaned forward and daubed another line of oil into his skin.

Liam had to admit, it felt good.

His skin glistened faintly in the dim mage-light of the Liberty’s below decks, which made him wonder what the effect would be out on the deck. The glistening slickness of his skin added an extra layer of definition to every muscle had he had ached and bled for.  As Meg worked on daubing on the last bit of oil, she whistle to Tethis.

“Tethis, do your job!”

“My job?” Tethis blinked.

“That spell to repair hair!” Meg grinned. “I want my pet boy to be as beautiful as possible.”

“I am so glad that we don’t have access to dresses,” Liam said. “I dread to think what you’d do.”

“Oh...ohhh...” Meg’s eyes glowed and her wings mantled with delight.

“What have I done?” Liam whispered as Tethis got a stool and set it down bend him. Standing on the stool, Tethis still had to stand on her tip-toes, then reach upwards to get her hands against his scalp. Her fingers flexed and he felt the tingling, prickling sensation of magic sweep through his hair. It was a bit like the sensation that came from rubbing one’s head against a balloon, amplified ten times over. The sensation built and built and built, until finally it broke and what felt like an entire bucket full of dandruff and dust exploded away from Liam. It smacked Meg in the face, coated his shoulders, and forced Tethis staggering backwards with a hacking, coughing fit.

“Augh!” Liam exclaimed.

Meg, though, had brushed the dandruff from her face and was looking at him with wide, wide eyes.

“Is it bad?” Liam asked, craning his head around, trying to spot his shoulders. They looked uniquely grotesque – oil mixed with dandruff in the most hideous way.

“You’re gorgeous,” Meg whispered. “Your hair is, at least. Tethis! The scrape!”

Liam groaned. He had lowered his hands in the surprise of the dandruff explosion. Meg snapped her fingers imperiously. Liam slowly lifted his hands back up and over his head – his shoulders beginning to ache faintly with complaint. Compared to many other pains he had faced, it was small fries. But in the same way a hang-nail or a splinter’s real pain came from the indignity of how much it hurt, half of the agony was the insult.

Once the oil was applied and his hair was brushed out and tied off into a pony tail, Liam was finally shown the mirror.

An Adonis looked back at him.

Liam blinked at the blue eyed, blond haired god that was peering out of the mirror. His skin gleamed and his muscles seemed to have gained an extra few layers of definition. But the biggest change was his hair. It glowed with a luster that he hadn’t seen in...ever. It was blonder and more intense, like he had gone and gotten it dyed. Except it was more natural than a dye job. The closest thing he could think of for comparison was his old baby photos, when he had been far, far blonder. His hands went to the pony tail, which dangled down to his shoulders.

“Damn,” he said.

Meg’s palm cupped his bulge through his loincloth, her arm snaking carefully around his hip and belly to reach him without smearing herself with his oil. Her voice was a hungry purr: “A bit turned on by your own bad self, Liam?”

Liam chuckled. “I spent the last few minutes getting oil slathered on me by my wife. I think the only way for me to not be turned on would be if I was completely asexual.”

“And thank the gods you’re not!” Meg said, cheerfully.

“There’s nothing wrong with being asexual,” Liam said, shaking his head.

Meg, with utter disregard for the feelings of asexuals everywhere, tossed her hand. “Maybe not. But there is a crime with you being asexual.” Her finger prodded the thick bulge that strained against Liam’s thong. Liam felt his cheeks flush as her finger slowly traced the curve of his member. Even trapped and constrained by silken fabric, it took a while before her finger ran out of flesh to trace. Her eyes sparkled as she grinned at him.

“Ready to engage in post-modern diplomacy?” she purred.

“Do you even know what that means?” Liam asked back.

“Not even slightly. Come on, I want to see you dick a bitchy Hellenic demigoddess!” Meg grabbed his hand and dragged Liam towards the exit.

***

If Neriad’s goal was to make a splash, Simone thought she might have been undercut by Liam’s emergance onto the deck. Flanked by Tethis and Meg, he walked out with the utterly brazen confidence of someone born to Purgatory – in fact, Simone had to remind herself that just a few years ago, this...fucking...gorgeous man had been on Earth, just like every other boy his age. Her heart thudded as she watched him pass by and only the muscles of her jaw knotting like rope kept her from gaping as he walked to the edge of the ship.

Once again, the humid, muffling heat of this place seemed to press against Simone’s body. She felt as if she was wrapped in a cocoon of velvet and her heart went faster and faster as her now entirely feminine body reacted to Liam as if he was a nuclear powered electro-magnet. Her cunt ached and grew more and more moist as she watched him swagger by, while her nipples hardened to a puffy attentiveness.

For one head-spinning moment, Simone could imagine Liam’s lips closing around one of her nipples. She knew that he’d use just enough pressure, just enough gentleness, to ride that line between bliss and pain. Her knees quivered and she reached behind herself with both hands. Digging her fingernails into her wrist helped clear her brain.

Somewhat.

If the water elementals were impressed, they hid it better than they had hid their excitement about seeing the crates of muskets. Simone wondered, for a moment, if that implied something about their...orientation.

But then the water elementals did their best to take the initiative away from Liam and company. Their fingers spread and their arms lifted above their heads. They slammed their arms downward, as if they were pushing the water aside from the deck of the ship. And the water obeyed. White foam frothed and blue liquid slurped aside with a sudden glug glug glug. The water flowed apart as the elementals pulled a Moses and parted the waters, revealing that the real fortification wasn’t in the jungle.

It was beneath the waves.

At the center of the grotto, underneath nearly twenty feet of water, was a castle made of pure, glittering ice. With the sun shining directly upon it, it shone like crystal. Simone couldn’t resist whistling slowly.

“How did they reach us?” Tethis whispered.

“Huh?” Simone asked, looking at her as the three elemental pressed together. Water-skin broke and merged and the human form was lost in a sudden tongue of water, which froze solid even as it reached downwards. At the last moment, the ice shuddered and reshaped itself into a perfectly made set of stairs, leading down to the castle roof. Liam started down the stairs, moving carefully to not slip. He winced with every other step as his bare, fleshy foot touched ice.

“According to the books Liam brought from Earth,” Tethis said, nodding as she followed Simone. “Radio transmitters can’t go through water.”

“It can’t go through sea water,” Simone said, nodding. “Transmission works through fresh water.”

“Oh.” Tethis blinked.

Meg skipped the stairs – diving past the two of them to land beside her husband. Her wings flared as she landed, and the two of them stood before the ice castle. Looking down at them, Simone felt her heart clench slightly. Intellectually, she knew that Liam would lay her as soon as she made it clear to him that she wanted it. But emotionally? It was hard to imagine him ever stepping away from Meg.

She whispered in his ear and, together, the Lord and Lady of Babylon faced their next challenge.

***

“I bet she’s super hot,” Meg whispered.

Liam smirked.

“Like, maybe she’s one of those Water Elementals, but hotter?”

Liam squeezed Meg’s hand. “I’m betting fish chick.”

“What do you bet?”

“Anal?” Liam grinned.

“Pff, like you need to bet that,” Meg said, scoffing. “I love anal.”

The front doors of the castle swung open. While there was pomp and there was circumstance, Liam could see the cold hard practicality. Even if Ares found the castle under the waves and the trees, he’d need to enchant warriors to live under the water. And they’d be facing this. The castle was designed like an actual fortification, with a unique looking roof that would provide cover for troops on the walls, while crenelations provided cover on the top. The walls were low enough that melee weapons could be used from the height, thrusting down at enemies walking towards the front gate. And the soldiers who stepped out of the front door were adapted for water.

Lizardmen. They were tough, scarred looking bastards, and they carried short stabbing daggers, tridents and nets. Weapons to entangle and stab with, rather than swing or crush. Their armor was light but well made, and they were flanked by humans who had been surrounded by blue-white glows of energy. If those weren’t enchantments to allow them to breathe under water,  Liam would have eaten his thong.

The warriors moved to flank the door.

Then…

Out came Neriad.

Liam felt his throat dry up. His eyes widened.

Even Meg whispered: “Good goddamn.”

Neriad’s first and most striking feature was her ears. They were elongated, like an elf’s, but came to a series of points, with fish-webbing stretching between them. This might have sounded monstrous, but on Neriad, it looked anything but. Her hair was a pale sky blue, it hung down to her thighs, cascading along her back like...well, like water. Strands coiled around her ear and clung to her still damp shoulder, which was the same hue as the sea. Her breasts were full and pendulous, barely contained in a crisscrossing black leather top. Her thighs, which were just as deliciously curved as her top, bore a thong that was nearly as sheer as Liam’s. Between the top and bottom half of her clothes stretched a fish-net webbing that added an extra, exotic edge to her already exotic form.

Her eyes, though...those were what arrested Liam’s vision. They were a pure gold and shone like search-lamps as they looked at him. The fact that she held a trident that came to three deadly points and shimmered with her own magic was almost an afterthought against those eyes.

But Liam saw something in those eyes.

For just a moment, a solitary second, Liam could see that Neriad looked shocked. And then impressed. Then stony faced and stoic. But she leaned too hard into it. Her voice was false as she said: “So. This is the great Liam Vanderbilt.” She sniffed. “I thought he’d be taller.”

If she bet on her eyes lacking irises to conceal the fact they dipped down to check out Liam’s bulge, she bet wrong. Liam had been talking to girls without irises for years. He knew how eyes moved when they checked him out.

He grinned, slowly.

Maybe diplomacy wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“I assure you, it’s not about height,” Liam said, walking forward, bowing to take Neriad’s hand and kissing her knuckles. She tasted like salt and hard work. Liam could picture tracing her arm with his lips, kissing up to her shoulder, then her neck. From the flush gathering on her cheeks, Liam could see she was thinking something similar. Or maybe, from the way her thighs pressed together ever so faintly, she was thinking his lips and tongue might go...lower. He grinned, leaning forward and whispering in her fin-ear.

“It’s about reach.”

That startled a laugh out of Neriad. She shook her head, her hair rippling beautifully as she turned. She started to walk towards the door as she spoke, her trident clinking every few steps, the butt slapping against the icy ground.

“Come, then, Godkiller.” She looked back over her shoulder, pausing to cock her hips invitingly. “Let us discuss how to teach the Dodekatheon why they picked the wrong goddess to fuck with.”

Liam arched an eyebrow.

Goddess, huh?

This was going to be interesting.

He followed after Neriad – and behind him, he heard the rest of his party heading in. Tethis’ voice could be heard, as could the sounds of the Captain of the Liberty. He could already hear the sound of crew grunting as they worked to unload the ship’s hold. Neriad took a leisurely pace as she walked into her castle, rolling her hips. This set a glorious pattern of jiggling in her rump, one that was nearly hypnotic. Liam, through long practice, kept his attention on her words.

Mostly.

“Ares led the charge. His forces pushed us out with those new guns,” she said. “My father claimed that they were the new thing. I...” She sighed. “I ignored his words. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“I notice you’ve gotten your hands on a few muskets yourself,” he said. “How’d you manage that?”

“Oh, a few from enemies. A few from supply ships we’ve captured. I’m careful to not over-use my powers,” she said, nodding as they came to a large chamber. It looked like it had once been a banquet hall – Liam could see frescoes done in painted and dyed ice along the walls. But where once there had been artwork of brave Hellenic sailors and bold explorers, now there were rough maps drawn on canvas and leather. There were new doors that had been crudely hacked into the walls, to provide new routes in and out of the room. And there were a great deal of cots. They were laid out on the ground and beside the walls, where healers and priests worked their practice on the wounded that had been brought here.

The fact that there were cots meant that whatever Neriad’s powers were, they didn’t include a great deal of healing.

Liam shook his head slightly as Neriad continued.

“The Dodekatheon has a reward for my head, ever since I refused to bow to my father and kiss the feet of that pig, Zeus,” she said, shaking her head. “He tried to rape me. Twice.” She snarled as she turned to face Liam. “And my father did nothing. Oh, he claimed that he would raise the seas and swallow the ships of Zeus’s people, that he would blight their land with salt-rain, and send the kraken. But all it took was five lightning bolts to convince him to back down. Five!” She trembled. “If I wasn’t a goddess in my own right, Zeus would have had his way with me.”

Liam felt a sudden pang of sympathy. And revulsion.

Here he was, hoping to return Zeus to his throne.

Ares might be worse...but that didn’t make Zeus better.

Neriad led him to a large table set up near the back of the room. While he was sure it had been made for banquets, it managed to pull duty as a map-room as well. The maps were Purgatorian in style, with poor grasp on elevation and topography, vague measurements, and a rather inexact grasp of accurate positions. Despite that, Neriad had  marked out positions and traced the route of Ares’ supplies. She thrust her finger down at the Endless Mine.

“This is what they came for,” she said. “My miners discovered it, almost a year before. We thought it was cursed, killing any who entered into it. It was only when rumors of how it killed people got out that the Dodekatheon decided they wanted a piece of the pie.” She shook her head slightly. “I thought I was ready for any attack, but their cannons, their muskets...those hoplites that Ares has created.”

“The paladins?” Liam asked.

“That’s what they call themselves. Silly name.” Neriad sniffed. But behind her godlike disdain and confidence, Liam could see her hands tightening into fists, her knuckles resting against the table. “I pulled everyone I could back here, to the summer palace. And since then, it’s been a hit and fade war.”

Liam nodded. Several things warred with him as the first thing to talk about. He considered: Bring up that this was a monotheist force that followed Ares to the exclusion of all other gods? The fact that the Endless Mine wasn’t just a source of steel but also contained a Predator drone that could completely swing the balance of power throughout Purgatory? Or maybe bring up the most delicate question of the whole ‘holding two United States soldiers hostage in your boy harem.’

Neriad grinned, slightly. “At least I’ve had some comforts.”

Boy harem it was.

“I wanted to ask you about those...” Liam said, rubbing his hand along his neck as Neriad smirked and put her hands on her hips as she turned to face him. Her trident floated behind her, hovering near her back as if it was slung in an invisible harness. “Comforts.”

“I could have sworn you knew, considering your attire,” Neriad murmured, her eyes sweeping along Liam’s body. They lingered on his thong for a few moments and Liam chuckled quietly.

“Hey, your elementals said to dress to impress...” He paused. “We’ve received word that you have two strangers. Humans, likely as tall as me, who don’t speak any Purgatorian language.”

Neriad narrowed her eyes, slightly. “And how did you receive such word, Godkiller?”

“I have my ways,” Liam said, smiling. “If you want the muskets, you’ll need to give over Corporal Barker and North.” He paused. “The blond one and the black one.”

Neriad pursed her lips, slightly. Then she looked back at the maps. “They appeared out of thin air, with strange artifacts. When we found them, they were surrounded by a crystalback herd they’d managed to infuriate. They had killed half the heard with their weapons, but the other half were firing lightning into their hiding hole.” She shook her head. “They were beautiful, and so, I offered them a choice. They could serve in my army, or they could serve beneath my legs.” She smiled slightly. “They chose the silk sheets.”

“Did they now?”

Liam and Neriad turned to see Simone. She and Meg were standing at a respectful distance away. Simone realized that her voice had been a bit louder than she had expected and coughed.

“This is Lieutenant Simone Fong,” Liam said. “She’s the commander of the two men you have.”

“Well, they’ve pledged themselves to my service,” Neriad said, thrusting out her chin slightly. “I won’t return them unless they wish it.”

Simone rubbed her temple slightly and muttered under her breath. Liam didn’t quite catch what she said, but if it wasn’t about soldiers thinking with their dicks instead of their heads, he would have been shocked. Neriad’s ears twitched and she smirked slightly.

“Why don’t we go visit them?” Neriad suggested.

Simone’s cheeks darkened. “I, uh, I need to get the defenses ready.”

“We’re under a lake, Simone,” Meg said, her voice wicked.

Simone flushed even harder. Tethis came to her rescue: “I actually, uh, think it is a good idea to see to the defenses. If Ares can speak through the radio, he might be able to track them. We haven’t transmitted since the communications yesterday, and it is very difficult to track a single radio burst without triangulation, but...” She spread her hands. “Better safe than sorry.”

“Oh, fine,” Neriad said. “Liam.” She offered her arm. “Let me show you the harem.”

Liam took her arm, grinning ever so slightly as Neriad turned and started towards one of the adjoining rooms. He could feel Simone’s eyes on his back – and he wondered. He glanced backwards, but she had already turned and started for the exit out to the main walls, flanked by Tethis and Liv. Liv elbowed her gently and Simone laughed at something she said.

And, walking with an expression so casually innocent that it had to be a cover for utter perversion, came Meg. Her wings were closed tight behind her back, and her hands were clasped behind her as she walked along. Neriad met Liam’s eyes and arched one of her silvery-white eyebrows. Liam smiled at her, and spread his hands in a ‘what can you do’ gesture. Neriad sniffed and then opened the door to her harem.

Liam had thus far been fairly impressed with how Neriad had swallowed her pride and put her summer palace to work. He knew a few gods – Aphrodite springing immediately to mind – who would have sulked at having a single cushion in their private sanctum moved aside. But no matter how practical Neriad was, there seemed to be a limit to how far she was willing to sacrifice her own personal aggrandizement, and that limit was this room.

The walls were ice, but ice that had been painted and colored via expensive dyes into a bright profusion of shimmering colors. Artwork both detailed and abstract sprawled along each wall, showing images of beautiful nymphs and well hung satyrs chasing them intermixed with geometric patterns that implied forests. The floor was covered with cushions and carpets that kept the feet warm and the bare skin of the various harem members from touching cold ice – something that Liam immediately was grateful for. He let himself finally put equal weight on both feet as he looked over the harem.

There were several men and women here. They ranged from the svelt to the bulky, with every race represented. There was a painted lizardman whose body was swathed in luxurious white silk, reclining on a cushion as he played some derivative of Go with a goblin who reminded him a bit of Laurentinus, though with a rather magnificent mustache that almost reached his ears. But the two Earthers were easily picked out. For one thing, they were both almost as tall as he was. For another thing, they were the ones in the center of the room. Every other member of the (mostly male) harem was keeping their distance from the newcomers.

Corporal Jeremiah Barker had his hands clasped behind his neck and was sprawled on a cushion – as comfortable and as relaxed as anyone that Liam had ever seen. He was a tough looking guy about Liam’s age. His hair was strawberry blond and his face was peppered with dark freckles, giving him a total farmboy look that was completely and utterly ruined by the tattoos that sprawled along his upper arms. Some were clearly service tattoos, but others were simply winding tribal patterns, roses, thorns, and at least one heart with a girl’s name on it. He was dressed in a thong similarly to Liam’s.

Liam felt a momentary flash of pride that he was bigger.

Corporal Tanye North was black – and Liam realized that he hadn’t seen a black woman or black man in the flesh for almost a year. That felt wrong. But most of the people exiled to Purgatory had been from Northern Europe or the Mediterranean – while there had been sub-Saharan and northern Africans in the mix, they had been interbred with the various humans of various groups so much that Purgatorian humans tended towards two ethnic uniformity: Mediterranean brown and Nordic blond. So seeing someone looking honest to god African was...well, it was a bit like seeing an Asian girl for the first time in ages.

Fucking.

Amazing.

Tanye was curvy and muscular, like Meg. Unlike Meg, she had a rich, ebony black skin that shone in the warm light of the harem room. Her crisscrossing golden bikini kept her full breast supported, while a long golden silk loincloth dappled between her muscular legs. But while she was dressed like Princess Leia, she was still clearly a soldier underneath the curves: Her arms also bore tattoos, and she had a tired I am so fucking sick of this bullshit expression on her face, her eyes narrowed underneath the coiling poof of her short cropped hair.

The two Earthers looked over at Neriad and Liam. And Liam heard a clunk behind him as the door shut between him, Meg and Simone.

Neriad grinned, her finger rubbing along her chin. “You know...” she said, her voice loud in the suddenly quiet room. “I have a temptation.”

Liam gulped.

Neriad’s finger touched his chest as the two Earthers sat up.

“Holy shit!” Tanye said, pointing at him. “That’s the fucking white boy we were here to grab!”

“Yup. That’s him.” Jeremiah crossed one leg slowly over his thong, looking studiously unimpressed, even as Tanye looked like she couldn’t take her eyes off Liam’s thong.

Liam forced any nerves he had aside. His hand went to Neriad’s wrist and he grinned at her. “I’m flattered. And, honestly, if I had my choice, I’d love to be a part of your harem for a few months. It sounds like a vacation.” He smiled. “I notice that neither  of your new pets have tried particularly hard to escape.” He glanced at them.

“I hid a radio,” Jere said. “Also, how the fuck can she understand you? You’re speakin’ English.”

“Jere, we’re in gold bikinis in an underwater fuckin’ ice castle and you’ve spent the past week getting your dick wet in a fish-lady.” Tanye crossed her arms over her chest, looking like she had remembered what she was dressed in with the sudden arrival of someone else from Earth. “And that’s what shocks you?”

“I was getting my dick wet, Tanye,” Jere said, sliding his hands back behind his neck and reclining as he looked real smug. “I wasn’t about to ask too many questions. Remember that Russian chick in Istanbul?”

“Oh god, not that Russian chick in Istanbul again,” Tanye muttered.

Neriad tossed her hair back and over one shoulder. “Fine. I’ll let you go...” she said. Liam smiled at her. Then he blinked. Wait, she had said you?

“Tomorrow,” Neriad purred, her hand shoving against Liam’s chest. He sprawled onto the cushion beside Jere, his arms splaying wide as Neriad grinned down at the three of them. Her palms rubbed together as she licked her lips slowly.

“Uh...” Liam blinked.

The door shuddered and the ceiling shook slightly. Bits of ice-dust pattered down and the other harem members squeaked in alarm. Neriad turned to face the door, scowling slightly. “What?”

“Hey! What are you doing in there?” Meg shouted through the door.

“Negotiating!” Neriad said with a smirk, her foot pressing against the underside of Liam’s thong. Her toes worked under his balls and pushed upwards, forcing his bulge to prominence. Jere and Tayne weren’t able to stop themselves from gawping. Tayne did manage to cross herself, though.

“...can I watch?” Meg sounded plaintive.

“Meg!” Liam sat up. Then, looking at Neriad. “Listen, isn’t time of the essence?”

“We don’t do operations during the day and my magics require a liquid connection,” Neriad said, grinning slowly. “And I’m fucking horny and your goddess, so...” Her foot slipped from his balls to his cock, putting just enough pressure that he could feel it, trapping his cock between his belly and her muscular leg. Liam tensed, grabbing up great handfuls of the carpet as he clenched his jaw. “Are you going to keep fucking complaining, you beautiful man?”

Behind her, the door creaked open ever so slightly – the ice that had kept it shut melting for just a moment – and Meg slipped in as quietly as she could, then settled herself down on a cushion. Within a few moments, she had almost become a part of the background.

Liam tried for a cocky grin, forcing the groan of frustrated desire that wanted to escape him back down his throat.

“When you put it that way? No.”

Chapter Five

Neriad moved like a gymnast made of water. Her thighs spread and her palms skidded along Liam’s chest and before he knew it, her mouth and his were locked together, while her silky smooth thighs pressed to either side of his hips. The tickling feeling of her loincloth against his belly was a delicious undercurrent to the feel of her tongue plunging into his mouth and taking charge. If Liam had been fresh come to Purgatory, he might have had no idea what to do.

But Liam had spent years being ridden and riding Megara. And knowing that she was there, in the corner, fingering herself silly, was enough to snap him out of his daze and go on the offensive. His palm cupped one of Neriad’s sea-blue cheeks, while his other went to her wrist and jerked her closer to him. Her breasts mashed against his chest, and he could feel the hard tips of her nipples through her sleek black top.

Neriad didn’t give up control – she simply kissed him harder. Her tongue met his and tried to force him into submitting. But his tongue pressed back and his hand slid from cheek to shoulder to breast to breast-band. He worked fingers between skin and leather and tugged as hard as he could. This freed Neriad’s full breast, and soon his fingers were dimpling her skin as he cupped and squeezed. That was enough to push Neriad back. She gasped as she flung her head back, her hair scattering along her shoulders.

“Jesus Christ, dude,” Jere said, watching with eyes wide as saucers. “You two sure you’re just fuckin’?”

Neriad glared at her harem slave. “Quiet!”

Jere lifted his hands up and laid back against his cushion, showing due defference. But Liam did notice that he still hadn’t uncrossed his legs. Tayne was being just as subtly unsubtle, with her arm crossed over the golden bikini that trapped her dark black breasts. Liam had no more time to wonder about what was being hidden – Neriad was back on the attack. Her mouth and his crashed together while her fingers found and tugged at his thong’s straps. The only thing that kept Liam’s garment from exploding off him was that his hands weren’t exactly idle. He had fully worked Neriad’s breast band off, and was working both her breasts, squeezing her tits and pinching her nipples.

The advantage of being with a demigoddess – no matter what title they claimed for themselves?

They were tough.

Which meant you could get rough. Liam twisted and saw a look of unfocused bliss fill Neriad’s eyes. He grinned slightly, then took advantage of her slackness. His mouth kissed her blue neck and he buried his face against her, nibbling and biting. With a human woman – hell, with a valkyire woman – this might have been pushing things too far. The amount of pressure was enough to cause pain. And Liam wasn’t quite ballsy enough to risk trying BDSM on a demigoddess before getting a safe word.

But the crooning gasps that escaped from Neriad proved that he hadn’t misjudged. Then Neriad made it undeniable when she grabbed onto Liam’s head and shoved him onto his back. As he sprawled against the cushions, she looked down at him, panting heavily.

“You don’t treat me like blown glass,” she said, her voice a breathy, wondering purr.

“You’re a demigoddess...” Liam licked his lips, then went back to the attack before she could respond. He slid himself down and then leaned upwards. This meant that his belly pressed to her thighs and his mouth was fastened right around one of her perfect nipples. He sucked and then tugged his head back, taking advantage of her strength and toughness to really go to town on her. Supporting his posture with one hand, he reached down with the other and found the hot slickness of her sex.

His fingers slipped along her pussy-lips, gliding along as if she was frictionless. His thumb found her clit and he drew slow circles around her, not quite touching the small nub. He teased her sex with a finger, then pulled back with a wet slurp noise, his finger actually feeling the pressure of her sex as she tried to keep him in. While he teased her sex, his mouth sucked on her nipple hard – contrasting the two sensations.

Neriad whimpered. Softly. Desperately. She tried to buck her hips against Liam’s palm. She tried to push herself against him. She ended up almost suffocating him by mashing her breasts against his face. Liam focused only on teasing her – his fingers glided and pressed, then drew back. Thrust, then paused, then thrust again. His thumb managed to perpetually edge against her clitty. The end result?

One.

Desperately.

Thirsty.

Demigoddess.

Liam knew that there were risks in teasing someone with superhuman strength and magical powers.

He hadn’t realized it would be quite as dramatic as it was. One moment, he was teasing her sex, the next, he felt something wrap around his wrist and drag his hand above his head. A moment later, that something became hard and cold. He looked up and blinked at the thick band of ice that had pinned his arm above his head. Neriad’s eyes flashed and she lashed out with her hand – making a twitching gesture with her fingers. The carpet underneath Liam rolled and a tendril of water bust from between the strands, flowing around his other wrist, then freezing solid as well, pinning him in place.

Liam’s eyes flicked from the first bit of water that had frozen his wrist above his head to Neriad, to her glistening thighs. There was significantly less glisten there now that his wrist was pinned over his head. He looked back at the ‘water’ again. Then back to Neriad’s eyes.

She smirked, ever so slightly, seeing his expression.

“Well, that’s new,” Liam said, managing to sound rather matter of fact about things. Then his loincloth slapped against the far wall of the harem – nearly hitting the face of one of the goblins who Neriad kept – and his member thrust into the air. A collective gasp came from the various people who had previously managed to pretend that they hadn’t been watching.

Neriad wasted no time in being shocked.

Instead, she flung one thigh wide, levered herself over Liam, then let her pussy-juices flow from her sex. Her arousal moved under her control, reaching down to angle Liam’s  member, then hold him in place as she readied herself. Then, with a husky groan, she lowered herself down. His member thrust deep into her, filling her tight, tight sex to the very brim. Neriad’s face was a picture of pure bliss, her eyes screwed tight shut, her teeth sinking into her lower lip. The only thing that wasn’t utterly blissful was her fingernails, which were digging into Liam’s chest.

“Oh gods yes!” she gasped.

Liam clenched his fists, his arms feeling utterly locked down. He tried to arch his back or thrust his hips, but Neriad was having none of it. She had taken control, and she wasn’t about to give it back. She immediately began to lift her thighs, then drop them down, her ass cheeks clapping together in unison with the wet slap of her thighs against Liam’s thighs. Her palms skimmed to his shoulders, then to the cushions to either side of his head. Her hair hung around her head, providing a private little curtain. The only thing Liam could see was the narrow line of yellow light that escaped from her slitted eyes and the faint reflection of that light on her tongue as she licked her plush lips.

Neriad threw her head back a few thrusts later, her full throat-ed moan of pleasure ringing off the walls as her sex clenched on him like a silken fist. Liam closed his eyes tight and focused on every bit of bureaucratic nonsense that he had had to deal with since becoming the Free Lord of Babylon. That barely kept himself under control – and left him clear headed enough to hear Neriad as she barked out: “You there! Fuck my ass.”

“Aye aye, ma’am...” Jere’s voice was husky and when Liam opened his eyes, he could see the other Earther standing. Whatever hesitation he might have had was melted away by that tone of voice and by the wild heat that was filling the harem chambers. Liam craned his head bac, watching as Jere slipped his loincloth off. Jere’s member thrust into the air – average in everything but eagerness and hardness. Jere looked as horny as Neriad felt, and Liam turned his head to look at Tanye.

The black woman was chewing on her lower lip, her knees quivering despite the fact she was sitting. As Jere stepped around to slap his palms onto Neriad’s rump, his mouth pressing to the back of her neck, nuzzling against her...Tanye’s hand crept closer and closer to the golden fabric of her loincloth. Her dark fingers made quite a contrast as they skimmed along silk, tracing lines that lead inexorably towards her cunny. Liam’s tongue licked his lips and he arched his back as pleasure forced a moan from his mouth. The feeling of Jere’s member sliding into Neriad’s rump was...intense. The sensation of another man’s cock, pressing against his with only a thin seperation, the fact that it set off a tightening and squeezing from Neriad…

He bit down on Neriad’s shoulder as she was pressed against his chest by Jere’s palms. Jere nibbled on her ear, his hips starting to drive into her. Each thrust pushed her against Liam’s  member, and Liam felt her sex greedily suck on his member. She wanted every single fucking droplet of his cum. Liam was running out of ways to delay his orgasm. He desperately wanted to get his hands free, to grab onto Neriad, to fondle her, to caress her.

Instead, his fingertips were graced by the feeling of silk. He jerked his head back, even as Neriad’s hair teased his chin and jaw.

Tanye had crawled forward, her breath coming in desperate little pants. Her frizzy hair bounded as she lifted her loincloth upwards, revealing the hot cunt that waited between her thighs. She had a wild mane of pubic hair, something so rare on Purgatory that seeing it set Liam’s mouth watering. And to think, before he had gone to Purgatory, he’d never been that fond of pubic hair. But seeing the thatch growing above Tanye was enough to trigger every single one of his ‘god yes’ instincts. Tanye sat – not on his face, more’s the pity. But her sex did press to his sex and Liam wasted no time in sliding his fingers into her sex. His thumb glided along the curls of her pubic hair, feeling her softness and loving every single inch of her. His fingers found her G-spot almost instantly and the expression on her face was a mixture of guilt, shame, and utter joy.

“Holy shit, white boy...” she whispered, starting to rock her hips in time with Neriad’s moans and Liam’s fingering. “Oh fuck yes. Yes! Right there. Rub my clitty. Ah! Fuck!” She ducked her head forward, her eyes closing as her breasts jiggled. They remained contained by her bra, which only made Liam more desperately thirsty. Focusing on the sex he was fingering and the pussy he was fucking was nearly more  than he could handle. But Neriad made it easier by simply removing the choice from the matter as she rode him faster and faster and faster. The sound of hips slapping and moaning and gasping and crooning filled the harem room.

The only thing that shocked Liam was that the fucking room wasn’t melting.

Tanye threw her head back and screamed out a single loud: “Fhu-uuuuuuck!”

Neriad was less profane, but no less explosive. Her juices splashed along Liam’s belly as her sex gushed around his dick. But then those juices flowed back, coiling around Liam’s cock and balls and squeezing and teasing him in the same motion. That, combined with the feeling of Tanye’s sex on his fingers, with the scent of orgasm in his nose, with the sensation of Neriad’s tight, tight cunny...it was enough to send Liam over the edge, no matter how hard he was trying.

His balls clenched and his back arched and Liam moaned into Tanye’s mouth. Her lips and his were mismatched – she was looking at his neck and her and hers. But the  moment was too intense for anything but a kiss to settle it.

Like a tide, the seconds slipped away and Liam felt himself draining of everything save for the warm buzz and feeling of pure happiness that came from a really intense orgasm. Tanye jerked back, gasping, her eyes wide as she looked down at him. She started to stammer – but before Liam could try to make sense of what she was saying, Neriad spread her palms against Liam’s chest, planted her face against his shoulders, and let herself put all her weight on him.

“That was most acceptable,” she mumbled, her voice dazed. “I shall keep you.”

Liam chuckled.

He stopped with the first snore.

Three snores split the air before he whispered. “Uh...guys? Can anyone get these ice manacles off me?”

Jere, who had sprawled onto his back behind the formerly double-stuffed goddess, waved his arm weakly. Tanye seemed to have vanished. Liam looked around, trying to get a feel of the room past the blue demigoddess sprawled on his body like the world’s heaviest, most curvaceous blanket. Then, salvation. There was Meg, leaning over Neriad’s shoulders.

“Meg, can you break the restraints?”

A single heart beat passed.

“Meg?”

Meg’s eyes glinted. Her grin was wide and predatory.

“Uh, Meg...I...” Liam blinked slowly as her shift went sailing away. “Oh boy.”

***

The merciless sun beat down on the Endless Mine and the paladins still hadn’t returned from their quiet departure in the hours before the ‘dawn.’ Bella still had a hard time thinking of dawn in Purgatory as anything but a cruel slap in the face. It robbed her of her favorite time of day, when the slow shading from reds to oranges to brilliant blues painted the world in color. It robbed her of a few extra hours of sleep. Nothing like sprawling in bed in the pre-dawn grayness, then opening your eyes a few hours later to bright light shining through the window. It was like getting one over on your alarm clock.

None of that in Purgatory! Just one second, darkness. The next, wham, up and at em, get your rump in gear.

She wondered what effect that had had on human brains. Did Purgatory suffer from chronic sleep loss?

That might have explained some things.

But the worst thing about the sudden dawn was that Bella had to figure out what to do about the new situation between her and Xapanos. The time they had shared had been…

Foolish. Dumb. Short sighted. Dangerous. Idiotic. A betrayal in everything that he cared about. Utterly unforgivable.

...fucking hot. Bella squirmed as she probed that thought with the same gingerness that she’d have spared for a tooth with a cavity. Was it a little bit hotter now that she knew that he had a wife? How fucked up was that? Bella put her hands over her face and tried to get her thoughts under control.

“You! Work!”

The bellow came from one of the larger guards that Paladin Chastity had put on her. While the guard lacked Chastity’s superhuman magical powers, steel plate armor and longsword, he did make up for that lack with being at least ten times more overbearing. Bella drew her hands away from her face and scowled at the guard.

“I am working,” she said. “I’m thinking, aren’t I?”

The guard spat on the ground and patted his war-club threateningly. Bella decided that discretion was the better part of valor. She hurried over towards where Xapanos was studying a chunk of steel taken from the mines. It had once been a human’s arm. She could see the studiously blank expression on his face, but even after a short time together, she had learned to spot the subtle signs of utter disgust that he couldn’t quite hide. It was in the slight slant of his ear-tips, and way he clenched his jaw…

God, he is beautiful… Bella thought. Her mind started to slowly recount the feeling of her lips gliding along his midnight black skin. The feeling of his long, thick cock spearing her, pinning her. The feeling of…

She shook her head as she realized Xapanos was looking at her.

“Xapanos,” Bella said.

“Scholar Cole,” Xapanos said.

Bella rubbed the back of her neck. “Do you...” She paused. “Do you want to talk about, uh...uh...” She started to panic, seeing the coldness in his eyes as he looked at her. “About the research. Have you figured out some way of, um, warding people from the transformation?”

Xapanos sighed slowly. “No.” He clenched his hands. “Bella, I...” He looked down. “I am a scholar. I live to tell the truth. Lies about the Predator drone is one thing. But how am I going to go home and tell my wife that I cheated on her?”

Bella’s stomach knotted. She wanted to reach out and squeeze his shoulder. Instead, she looked at the Predator drone that they had set up on the table, more as a way to distract herself. Fooling the guards into thinking the drone was some scientific apparatus wasn’t exactly difficult. All they had to do was stand around it, occasionally touch parts, sometimes say nonsense words, and the guards seemed to think that it was working. She had worried that its lack of movement or sound effects would give the game away…

Whirr.

Xapanos lifted his head. “What was that?”

Bella gaped.

The camera slung underneath the broad nose of the drone had slowly rotated in a three hundred and sixty degree arc. A few whirring clicks followed and she saw the flaps on the wings shifting up and down, up and down. They settled a moment later. The whole drone remained perfectly still. But Bella couldn’t think of it just as an ungainly, ugly threat that represented everything Ares might do if given the chance. It was alive. It was awake.

“Bella?” Xapanos said, walking over to her.

Bella turned to look at him – and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a guard regarding them with clear suspicion. A sudden flare of fear shot through her. She grabbed onto Xapanos’ wrists and tugged him close for a kiss. His eyes widened and he almost seemed about to draw back...but like a magnet picking up speed as it rushed towards its twin, he leaned into the kiss. His tongue plunged into her mouth and his dark hands cupped and squeezed her ass. Bella shuddered in guilty pleasure. Her stomach was knotting and she felt faintly sick...but...but…

God it felt so good to be bad sometimes.

She broke the kiss first, gasping quietly. Xapanos’ hardness bumped against her belly through his loincloth. His voice was ragged. “Bella,” he growled. It sounded like a threat and a plea, all rolled into one.

“Xapanos, we need privacy.” She breathed. “I’m giving them an excuse for it.”

Xapanos turned. It was the work of a few moments to drag leather sheeting off the roof of the tent. With each leather wall that dropped over them, the heat in the room grew a notch more intense. Bella felt as if she had been slathered in oil. She wasn’t sure what made her more thirsty – Xapanos’ muscular body or the fact that she really needed a drink of water. But once the little tent was entirely dark and private and far too hot, air conditioning spell or no air conditioning spell, Bella picked up the mage light they used to work into the night and activated it.

Xapanos panted as he looked at her.

The urge to grab her clothes and tear them off was remarkably intense. Bella dug her palm against the crystal’s sharpened top, the pain focusing her. “The drone is awake.”

“It is?” Xapanos looked at the drone.

“That means that someone out there is communicating with it.” Bella licked her lips as she looked at the drone. “That means that the rest of the team is out there.”

***

“Is a single fucking person on my team that won’t end up being a fucking sex maniac by the time this mission is done?” Simone grumbled.

“Nope!” Meg sang cheerfully as she leaned against Liam’s back. Neriad sat on the other side of Tanye, who was dressed in her army duds again. They suited her far better than the gold bikini. The expression on her face was the calm and collected expression worn by pilots across the centuries of flight, no matter how dire the situation. She had one hand on the joystick and the other hand on the keyboard of the mobile drone operating station that had been part of the gear that Neriad had plucked from them when she had dragooned them into the harem.

“What are they doing?” Tethis whispered.

“Getting ready to fuck from the wood that weird elf is sporting,” Liv said, casually.

“No, they’re getting privacy,” Liam said. “Do we get sound on this thing?”

“This one isn’t loaded with directional microphones,” Tanye said, her voice crisp. “We’ll get footage. And heat vision. Also, according to the diagnostic report, they don’t have the hellfires loaded.”

“Oh happy day,” Liam said.

“Hellfire? I like the sound of that,” Neriad murmured, rubbing her palms together. “I’d like to bring some down on Ares.” She paused. “Are you sure Zeus isn’t behind it all?”

For what felt like the tenth time this morning, everyone from Babylon said at the same instant: “Yes!”

Neriad sighed. “I suppose it is a bit complicated for him. Any plan beyond turning into a swan is a bit beyond him.” She tossed her head.

The guards that were posted at the front doors of the planning chambers both shifted from foot to foot nervously. One of them glanced upwards, despite the fact they were at the bottom of a lake. But while they did so, Tayne grunted. “Doc’s got a pen and paper on hand.” She paused. “Well, close enough for hand grenades.”

Doctor Belladonna Cole held up a tablet of smoothed stone and had scrawled out: Being forced to study mine. Have privacy. Use flaps – morse.

“Fucking morse code, wonderful,” Tanye muttered.

“Stow it,” Simone said. “Ask her to tell us the disposition of their forces. We need to know if they’re detecting this signal.”

Tanye nodded. She started to twitch the controller.

***

“D...i...s...p...o...” Bella muttered, notching the letters down on the tablet as the flaps whirred up and down, clicking and clattering. When she got back to Earth, if she got back to Earth, she was going to find the long suffering man who had taught the whole team how to communicate using Morse code and give them a fucking thank you hummer. Well. Okay. Maybe a thank you kiss. Bella flushed as she realized that she hadn’t been entirely joking.

He had been cute.

The last bit of the last word came through and she put her palm to her face.

“The paladins left before dawn,” she muttered as she scrawled. Then she lifted her head at the sound of gravel crunching underfoot. “Shit!”

***

“The...fuck...are they doing?” Simone whispered.

“Fuckin’,” Liv said, casually.

“Liam’s bigger,” Meg said, nodding. “But I wouldn’t throw him out of bed.” She paused. “Fucking sloppy technique, do you see that? She’s practically chewing on him.”

Liam coughed. He felt like he should maybe turn his eyes away, considering how flustered the elf looked at his sudden blowjob. His member thrust out into the mage-light, glistening on the high definition camera built onto the Predator. It was normally built to pick up targets from a few miles up, the fact it could lovingly render nine inches of hard elf-cock was not entirely surprising. It was surreal as fuck to watch a renowned geologist start to bob her head on an elven cock using said camera, though.

“Yeah. I feel bad for you Earthers,” Liv said, shaking her head.

Then the tent flap opened and a burly looking guard glared into the room. Seeing the blowjob and the look of offended irritation on Bella’s face as she drew her mouth back, her hand squeezing the base of the elf’s black dick, a string of spittle connecting her lip to his member for a few seconds before the strand snapped with the distance…

The guard just grinned. Nodded. Then ducked back. The tent was once more private.

The elf quickly tucked his cock away. Even with skin too black to show a blush, Liam could almost feel the heat of his embarrassment radiating through the camera. Bella was considerably more overt and Liam didn’t need to be an expert lip reader to see the ‘sorry’ on her lips.

Dr. Cole held up her tablet a moment later.

“They left before dawn,” Liam said, quietly.

“They might have triangulated this position,” Simone said, frowning. She turned to Neriad. “Have your lookouts reported anything unusual?”

Neriad closed her eyes. She lifted her head as she focused, drawing her magic into herself. Whatever she did didn’t take long – her eyes opened. “The lookouts on the south bank aren’t responding. Something’s wrong.”

“They’re not about to attack us,” Tethis said, shaking her head. “Neriad controls water with her mind. And there are only a few Paladins. Even with steel and blessings, they can’t take a whole castle by theirselves.”

Simone, though, was thinking. And thinking hard. She grabbed onto the top of the drone rigger’s kit and slammed it shut. Tayne only barely had enough time to yank her fingers back. Tanye looked offended for a few seconds before Simone snarled: “Everyone! Out! Now!” She looked at Neriad. “Ice the water above the castle! The south bank is over our heads.”

Neriad looked up. Her eyes widened.

She thrust her palm upwards.

Liam couldn’t see through ice. But he could hear the resounding slosh of water as ice expanded, crystals forming and crackling. And he could hear the dull, resounding roar of the explosion. The ceiling shuddered, then cracked, then split as ice gave under the concussive shock wave that escaped from whatever defenses Neriad had thrown up. Water poured down and smashed into Liam’s face and chest. He went sprawling backwards onto the ground, coughing and spluttering as the water pushed him along the floor, down the stairs, and fetched him up against the wall. He slammed his artificial foot against the icy floor, trying to get some grip, and felt his ankle jar as the straps caught him and the ankle of the foot managed to find purchase.

The reprieve was temporary.

The rest of the ceiling gave way and water smashed into him like hammer blows. His head smashed against the floor and he felt water rushing into his lungs. He struggled, grasping in the darkness. His lungs felt as if they were being crushed in bands of iron.

A hand closed around his fake foot.

Leather straps slipped off him.

Liam floated in darkness.

The hand grabbed again. This time, it caught his ankle and yanked him forward. He shot through a wall of water and landed on the floor. Coughing and hacking, he managed to roll onto his front. Blood dripped from his hair and he felt a warmth rushing through his body. His lungs clenched harder than he had ever felt in his life and he vomited up the rest of the water.

When he could breathe again, he looked upwards.

Neriad stood, her hands lifted above her head, her body trembling as she clenched her jaw, her eyes half closed as she held off the weight of an entire lake. Clustered around her were a few members of the harem, Tayne, Simone, Tethis, Liv, Meg, and one of the lizardmen guards. The guard was looking around wildly, his sword half drawn. “Where’s Barker?” Simone shouted. She was sitting on her ass, her leg looking as if it wasn’t quite bending the right way. Despite that, her voice remained focused.

“I don’t know, sir,” Tayne said, pushing herself to her feet. “What did they fucking drop on us, a depth charge?”

“A godkiller,” Neriad snarled.

The water dome surrounding them buzzed. Ripples sprang into existence and interfaced with such intensity that the whole surface seemed to be a single mass of spikes. The rippling faded away and Neriad fell to one knee, gasping loudly. “A second one!” She groaned. Then, gasping. “N-No!”

Liam didn’t want to think about her followers who were outside of the protective sphere. The explosive power of gunpowder, augmented by Purgatorian crystal, was enough to kill a god. Apparently, the Monodeists had also managed to waterproof it enough to set it off under the water. That spelled a whole new constellation of dangers for the Babylonian navy – what good was a million coin battleship if a five hundred coin keg of gunpowder and crystal could send it sky high?

What good was worrying about that when the Paladins seemed to have snuck up their asses with-

The water dome buzzed again.

“How many of those fucking things did they bring?” Meg growled.

Neriad’s fingers were curled into claws and her nose was bleeding. She closed her eyes, then stood up. Her body trembled as she lifted her arms and roared.

“No more!” She shoved her hand upwards. The water above her shot upwards in a pillar, creating a growing space above their heads. Then it started to slip backwards, pressing back against Neriad as her arms shook and her muscles strain. “Enough! I am Neriad! Goddess of the seas! And I refuse to be killed by some damned newfangled piece of common, cheap...INDUSTRY!” She threw one arm upwards in a curving punch. If that punch had been thrown in a boxing match, Neriad would have been sprawled on her ass with the counter stroke.

But the arm was merely part of it.

The true attack was the water.

Liam had been impressed with the dome. Even more impressed with the pillar moved overhead.

But this was something else entirely. The water over their head roared upwards and threw itself against the south bank of the lake. The air above their heads showed clear to the sky of Purgatory. Distant land looked down through a tunnel of swirling whitecaps, while the water that Neriad had launched from the bottom of the lake rushed along the beach and into the marsh. Trees shuddered, branches crackled and snapped like machine gun fire, and cries of alarm came from the other look-out stations.

Neriad clenched her fist, then brought her arm down with a snarl and a bellow: “DIE!”

The water surrounding them froze with a crackling, tinkling noise. Meg wasted no time at all. She sprang upwards and shot towards the sky. Her wings beat and she looked around – then shouted back.

“You got em!”

Neriad smiled. Her eyes closed.

Liam stumbled forward awkwardly on one leg and caught her before she collapsed to the ground. He tried to lower her down but ended up merely being her cushion as the two of them sprawled together. Tethis knelt down and put her palms to either side of her head. “She’s fine, just tired,” she said. “Wow. Her, uh, what did you call it?”

“Node?” Liam asked. “Her god node.” He paused. “Can you get my foot?”

“Yeah. It’s at least fifty percent bigger than Liv’s.” Tethis said, before smiling and strapping his foot back on.

Liv looked cross. Then she turned to the wall and ran towards it. She leaped upwards, put her feet against the ice, back flipped, hit the far side of the frozen tunnel, then leaped forward. She sailed over the lip with a good two feet of clear air, then landed and skidded out of sight. Liam stood, made sure his foot was settled, then looked at Tanye and Simone. Simone had managed to sit up, but was still cradling her leg gingerly.

“I’m sorry about Jere,” he said.

Tanye looked defiant. “You don’t know...”

Simone, though, just shook her head. “Go see if our waterbender left anyone alive to question.”

A gunshot filled the air.

“I think the answer is yes,” Liam said.

“Vanderbilt!” Simone called.

Liam looked back. She had gotten her hand into one of the backpacks that held the rest of the gear Neriad had borrowed from the two Earthers. She under handed him the sleek, black shape of a 9mm pistol. Liam caught it with his left hand, took out the flintlock pistol he had strapped to his hip, then replaced the 9mm with it. Thus armed, he walked to the side of the ice wall. He was starting to wonder about how he’d get up when a rope tumbled down. Looking up, he saw two crewmen from the Liberty looking down at him. Liam grinned.

When he got onto the top of the lake, he saw that considerably more of it was frozen than he had expected. The Liberty was half surrounded by ice, with crew already getting to work pushing at the ice to try and slide themselves back to the water properly. The marsh to the south of the grotto looked as if Earth winter had arrived in force. Russian winter. Ice grew around the trees and frosted along leave that looked too shocked to realize they were dead. But the paladin’s former location was as obvious as day. It was where the explosions were coming from.

There were four of them standing on the ice. Their armor looked a bit dinged and battered, and each was wreathed in a golden flame, but other than that they seemed unharmed. One was armed with two flintlock pistols. Another had a longsword that she was holding in two hands – using the same style that Liam had used back when he had had a longsword. It felt almost insulting to see that. The other two were both armed with shields – smaller than the massive aspis of a hoplite, but not quite the triangular kite shield of a European knight. Liam could practically hear a thousand medievalist screaming in pain at the term ‘European knight’ but he didn’t care.

What mattered far more was Liv and Meg. Meg had ducked her cute ass behind a tree and was twirling a sling. Thanks to their size and ease of concealment, Meg was almost never truly unarmed. While she lacked bullets, she had clearly found something that worked well enough, as she leaned around the corner of the tree and let fly. Even a normal stone propelled by her strength was enough to dent the shield it impacted against. The paladin rocked backwards, and his friend with the guns popped around the corner. He fired.

Two chunks of wood the size of Liam’s fist exploded from the tree.

“Fall back!” the paladin with the longsword shouted. “Fall back!”

The four paladins began to step backwards along the ice. Liam knelt down and lifted his pistol. He sighted and pulled the trigger. The gun bucked against his arms and he saw a spark exploding from the shoulder of one of the swords and boards paladins. He stumbled and pitched against a tree. As he fell, the three paladins turned and started to sprint away. They moved at a mile eating pace, their legs sending them up and down in curving arcs as they bounded between trees like gazelles.

Meg lowered her arm, her wings mantling.

“Should I go after em?” She asked.

“No, no,” Liam said. “They’re going almost as fast as you and they have guns.” He looked back at the ice. The water was starting to slowly return, the ice melting inch by inch as Neriad’s control laxed and natural thermodynamics took over once more. Liam’s jaw tightened and he thought furiously.

“You’ve got that look,” Meg said, grinning slowly. “You have a plan, don’t you?”

Liam smiled. “I didn’t until about five seconds ago. Come on. Lets get the survivors to the Liberty.”

***

“What happened?” Xapanos asked, looking at the still drone.

“I don’t know.” Bella slowly sat down on the stool next to the door. She hung her head forward, her eyes closing as she did so. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed. She had felt hope there, for a few moments. But seeing the stillness of the drone after the last mysterious spasm of parts filled her with a creeping dread. Xapanos’ hand slowly settled on her shoulder, squeezing slightly.

“Let us get to work. Okay?” he asked. “We should try and discover more about the mine. Once the communication starts up again, we should have something to tell them. Right?”

Bella leaned into the palm, her head turning. She mashed her face against his belly, taking comfort in the physicality of contact. Her nose flared and she breathed in his scent, remembering the panicked desperation that had pushed her mouth around his dick. She could still taste him on her lips. The urge to slowly draw her tongue along his chest was nearly overpowering. Instead, she drew back, forcing herself to stand.

“Lets,” she said.

The next hour of work was done in quiet. But it was a quiet that grew less and less awkward as time passed. She examined the metal through the makeshift microscope that she had managed to knock together with Xapanos’ help, while Xapanos murmured quiet spells as he ran his palms over another chunk of metal. She was growing increasingly certain that it was some kind of nanotechnological effect that was transmuting flesh to steel.

But despite the fact they worked together well, her mind kept catching on his closeness.

How much of this is just because we’re pent up together? She thought, leaning back and letting the faint breeze that the air conditioning spell created blow along her chest. She tugged her shift forward slightly, to let the air sweep along her sweaty breasts. The feeling of cool air along her nipples sent tingles through her body – her toes curled. Her mind drifted to the mental image of Xapanos closing his lips around one of her breasts.

Okay. It’s definitely cause we’re pent up, she thought. No internet, no twitter, no books. Nothing to think about but his fucking six pack.

The Predator whirred.

Bella gasped, then looked back over her shoulder to make sure the guards weren’t looking. None of them were. Seeing Xapanos expression, she licked her lips and nodded. He moved and started to yank down the covers again. Before the last wall was dropped, she saw two guards glancing their way and one of them laughing. He made a jerking motion around his loincloth and Bella’s cheeks flushed.

Once they were private again, Bella and Xapanos watched the flaps whirr and click. Once they were done, Xapanos asked: “What were they asking for?”

“Oh, nothing much, just a summery,” Bella said. “Did you find what I asked you to look for?”

Xapanos rubbed the back of his neck. “I believe so.” He grinned, slightly. “So, it is the nonorobots?”

“Nano,” Bella said, faintly distracted. She started to scrawl away at her tablet. Flipping it up, she showed it to the drone.

***

Neriad’s eyes fluttered open as Liam sat next to the bed. His hands were clasped together as he waited, and he lifted his head, letting out a sigh of relief. Tethis had said that she would be fine, but had then followed it up by saying that the goddess would need a few hours of rest. Liam had waited the whole rest period on pins and needles.

“My people?” Neriad whispered.

Liam smiled, ever so slightly. He took her hand and squeezed. “More of them survived than we thought. The godkiller blasts were mostly absorbed by your ice field, then by your water-bubble. A few did die. Including Jere...” He paused, seeing the expression of pain flit across her face. Liam himself tried to feel a sliver of that pain. But he hadn’t known Jeremiah Barker for more than a single evening.

“The bastards who attacked us?” Neriad asked.

“You got one,” Liam said. “And you’re about to get the rest.”

Neriad sat up. The sheets of her bed skidded along her breasts and pooled on her lap as she almost bumped her head into the wall with the eagerness of her movement. That seemed to bring her to some awareness – she looked around the wooden room that she was in with a curious ‘hurm.’ Liam smiled.

“You’re on the Liberty. We’re sailing up river. We got a message on the Blinking Stars. The Monodeist fleet ran into the Babyloian fleet and was forced to retreat. We have, for the next few days, an open shot along this river. That means we can land an army near the Endless Mine. And artillery.” He leaned forward. “But it’s still going to be an all-mighty slog to get in.”

Neriad nodded. “I’ll lead the charge myself!”

“Not quite,” Liam said. “See...I wasn’t going to send the army until we found a way past their defenses.” He grinned. “We found one.” He took her hands, squeezing. “You can turn water to ice. Can you retain temperature while altering its phase? For example, cold steam?”

Neriad frowned, slowly. “Well...cold steam is impossible as far as I know. But I’m a goddess.” She lifted her chin. “Impossibility is my job.”

Liam’s grin grew predatory. “The Endless Mine turns people into steel via very tiny automatons, like the work of Daedalus, but on a scale so small that it cannot be seen. Literally millions of them, working in tandem, can alter us. But very small things are more easily impacted by changes in temperature. Underground, the temperature is very stable. But if you freeze the air around us, we’ll be miserable.” He thrust his thumb at his chest. “And the automatons will be unable to move.”

Neriad slowly started to smile. Her hands slipped along her blankets, and then she tossed them aside as she swung her legs around. Her knees almost bumped against Liam’s. Her eyes flashed with eagerness.

“And we can emerge into the very balls of their fort?” she whispered.

“And we can fuck them. Hard.” Liam leaned forward, his nose almost bumping hers in the darkness of the cabin.

Neriad panted softly.

Liam licked his lips.

“Are you kind of turned on too?” Neriad whispered.

“Mostly by you.”

Neriad grabbed onto the back of his hair and jerked him forward. Their mouths met, and once more, their tongues went to war. But it didn’t last nearly as long. Neriad drew back, panting heavily, then placed her finger against Liam’s chest. Her eyes closed and she leaned her head forward. “I owe you much, Liam. Without you, the paladins would have found me eventually. They’d have dropped their godkillers on me, and without Tethis, I’d be...” She trailed off. “And I’d never get my revenge.”

Liam shrugged. “If we hadn’t come, we’d have never sent the radio signal and...”

She tossed her head. “I know when I’m in a corner, Lord Vanderbilt.” Her lips quirked in a sad, sad smile. “And I know when I owe someone.”

Liam blinked, then gasped as Neriad slowly slid to her knees. Her palms went to his kilt. Before Liam could speak, she had undone the belt, pushed his kilt apart, then lifted his cock. Her nose pressed to his member and she breathed him slowly in. Her mouth opened and she kissed the base of his dick. Liam’s eyes closed and he cooed. “You don’t have to do anything like this, Neriad.”

Neriad ignored him. Instead, she kissed up from the base of his cock to the very tip, sliding her tongue slowly along the edge of his foreskin. Her eyes closed and she tilted her head forward, sucking the head of his cock between her lips. Her tongue swirled around and around his cock as her hand started to pump his cock. Her knuckles grazed against his belly and her wrist bumped against his balls as she worked his cock, bobbing her head up and down. Lines of spittle slipped past her lips, adding a sloppy edge to her blowjob that made it feel all the more deliciously decadent.

Liam grabbed onto the walls of the small chamber, his body tightening as the stool he sat on creaked quietly. For a few moments, the only noise in the cabin was the creak of the wood, the rustle of distant sails, the thump of crew walking by on the deck outside, and the almost inaudible slurp slurp slurp of Neriad’s lips as she struggled to fit more and more of Liam’s immense cock into her mouth. She drew back, gasping quietly, his cock glistening as if freshly oiled in the dim light of the cabin. Her hand continued to slip up and down his cock.

“By the river Styx and the Titans, your cock is a fucking beast,” she whispered. “Are you part minotaur?”

“I fucked one once,” Liam spoke through gritted teeth.

“I thought you slew it!” Neriad’s hand tightened in shock.

“Long story!” Liam hissed, nearly cumming right then and there.

Neriad snorted, then ducked her head forward. She started to plant feathery kisses along the underside of his cock, her hand squeezing his tip as she nuzzled and licked and even gently nip at him. In the same way that Liam had used enough force on her, she used enough force on him. Gentle. Very gentle. And that was more than enough to set Liam’s balls to boiling. He opened his mouth to cry out, but Neriad simply drew back, tilted his cock forward, and pumped him.

The stool creaked and Liam’s artificial foot skidded along the deck, while his fleshy one slipped against the wall. The orgasm he felt all the more perfect for the fact it was selfish – he focused on his own pleasure and felt it doubling as his seed sprayed out in a smooth arc. Neriad closed her eyes, moaning as cum splashed her face, painting blue skin with white smears. Cum splashed her breasts and she began to rub his seed into her skin, her ears lifting in pleasure as she moaned louder, opening her mouth, catching another spurt.

Liam sprawled against the wall, panting heavily as Neriad licked her lips. Her hands moved and the cum moved as well, flowing up along her skin, creeping along her jaw, then sliding into her mouth.

Liam blinked a few times as she finished cleaning herself off, licking her lips.

“That’s just...fucking weird...” he whispered, sounding dazed.

“You’re just jealous,” Neriad said, sounding huffy.

From the deck, Liam could hear the sounds of an anchor splashing into the water.

They had arrived.

Chapter Six

The faint crackle of the rowboat nosing against the theoretical side of the river made Liam grin with a kind of fierce eagerness. The Paladins might have managed to surprise them – he was still wondering how they had managed to get black powder explosives to trigger under the water – but now it was their turn. The Babylonian Navy, according to the Blinking Stars, had already started up their way along the river. The Monodeists, according to the admiral, had put up a fairly stiff fight, but they had been harried on one flank by his ships and on the other by the Morrigan’s Kiss.

Figures, Liam thought. Biggest naval battle on Purgatory, and I didn’t get to see it.

Now, though, they were cruising up the river and would reach their chosen landing site shortly. That site was within artillery range of the Endless Mine, but it also provided the biggest, clearest, least wet part of marshland for the Cross Guard to fight up. The spearhead of the forces would be a mixture of goblin and lizardmen irregulars, supported by valkyrie air squadrons and the big guns on the naval ships. All good.

Less good if they arrived on a beach facing down long guns filled with steel grapeshot and cannon balls.

Thus…

“This way!” Tethis hissed, pointing. She slipped off the side of the rowboat and sank up to her chin in the muck. Her arms flailed above her head, the magical spell that she had called around her fingers crackling and sparking now that her attention was distracted. Simone solved the issue by simply reaching down and tugging Tethis up by the back of her shift. Tethis looked rather embarrassed by the way Simone placed her up on her shoulders. But Simone had the best height of the group and, unlike Liam, she had boots and two feet.

Not that Liam was having too much trouble with his false foot. The metal and clockwork contraption usually worked well enough that he could forget that it was a gift from Hephaestus and not genetics. But having it pop off and almost drown him was enough to force his brain to think about it every time he stepped forward through the swamp.

“Ticks,” Meg muttered. “Leeches. Eels. Basilisks.”

“I killed one of those,” Simone said, casually, walking with one hand holding her rifle above the water, the other pushing fronds out of the way. Tethis had her breasts mashed up against Simone’s head – and being the recipient of more than a few Tethis breast-smotherings in his time, Liam had to admire Simone’s ability to remain focused.

She could be straight, you know. That might help, Liam thought. Well. Attracted to men. That is. Or a professional. Try being that.

The Liberty, which remained floating near the middle of the brackish, branch strewn river, grew more and more invisible as the party of forward scouts stepped through the woods. The surrounding darkness grew thicker and thicker as fronds of dangling leaves cut off the sunlight, leaving only the muggy heat and humidity of the swamp. Buzzing insects zipped and whined past Liam’s ears as he held his firearm over his head. Simone followed Tethis’ directions, while the two lizardmen guards that were coming along as extra muscle fanned out to the left and right. Meg and Liam were in the middle, as protected as Neriad, who strode through the swamps as confidently as she had through her ice palace.

Liv took up the rear with Tanye, though Tanye lagged more because she was the one lugging the Predator drone’s control case.

Finally, the water started to grow shallower and shallower. They emerged onto a spit of land that led to a steeper slope. Tethis pointed her palm forward and whispered a quiet spell. Her palm flashed and she nodded and then squeaked as Simone casually slung her off her shoulders and set her on her feet.

“Where’s the entrance?” Liv asked, leaping out of the water and shaking herself dry. Neriad waved her palm and the muddy water that remained soaked onto her blue thighs sluiced off her body as if brushed off with invisible squeegees. Liv glared at the demigoddess and snarled. “Why didn’t you do that earlier?”

“You didn’t ask,” Neriad said.

“The entrance is right...” Tethis paused, then muttered her incantation again. “Here.”

She slammed her foot down on the ground. The dark green grass she stomped on didn’t make the kind of noise that Liam would have hoped for. He would have loved to hear a muffled thunk, the kind of noise that meant they only need to dig a little bit. He rolled his shoulders. “Anix, Vazt, Meg, Liv, lets get ready to start digging.”

Neriad stepped between him and Meg, brushing the two of them aside. Liam had seen a few people offer to help more imperiously. But they had all also been members of the Dodekatheon. He glanced at Meg and Meg shrugged a bit, her wings mantling. Then Neriad thrust her palm forward. Water rippled and bubbled behind her, flowing out of the swamps. Her eyes closed and she thrust her palms downward. The water grew thicker and thicker in the ground beneath Liam’s feet, turning what had once been solid ground into mud. He was about to draw back when a crackling, grumbling noise rang out. Ice fanned through the mud, crystallizing into a hardened sleet. Simone and Tayne both used their boots to keep their feet. Meg had to grab onto a tree to keep from slipping, while Liam dug his false foot into the ice and grabbed Tethis before the gobliness could spill onto her rump. The two lizardmen hissed with clear irritation.

Then Neriad placed both palms together and thrust upwards, hissing as she did so. Her teeth clenched and her muscles stood out in intense relief, sweat running in rivulets along her forearms. A chunk of ice roughly the size and length of a mini-van rose from the ground, leaving behind a perfectly rectangular hole in the mud and grass. The ice had trapped earth and dirt and plants and even roots in its grip, shattering what had been caught between the rectangle and the rest of the earth. Neriad made a flinging motion with her arm and the chunk of ice smashed into the marshland behind them, vanishing with a splash.

The exposed rectangle of ground led diagonally towards a vertical door of black metal that looked as if it had been built yesterday. Liam recognized the shimmering patterns of glowing lines worked around the edges of the door as Ancient architecture.

“Well,” he said, slowly. “Thanks, Neriad.”

She smirked, lifting her chin. “We may enter now.”

She stepped forward, clearly expecting the door to open for her. Instead, her face and chest mashed into the door. She rebounded, exactly like a shopper running into the Exit Only side of an automatic door at a grocery, and sprawled in the rapidly melting ice/mud slurry that was reasserting itself. She rubbed her nose, then growled, lifting her hand. Water flowed along her arm, turning into a shimmering spike of ice.

“Wait!” Tethis cried out. “Hold your horses for five seconds! I’m hacking the door’s entrance codes!”

“I see no ax!” Neriad snarled.

“Why does the shortstack from Lord of the Rings know what hacking is?” Tayne whispered to Simone.

“I stopped asking these questions a day after I arrived,” Simone said, sounding long suffering. Tethis’ fingers worked as she crouched down, a glowing interface appearing before her fingertips. Liam took a moment to toss aside nearly two years of mental conditioning and forced himself to look at what she was doing with fresh eyes. With fresh eyes...it was growing increasingly easy to see the geometric shapes and holographic lights of ‘Arcane magic’ for what it was.

Accessing an interface.

Which led him to wondering: If the aliens that built Purgatory had actually designed their machines to, say, shoot fire at people, or if it was a side effect of the long degradation of their computer systems? He immediately saw a way it could work. In the movie First Contact, Captain Picard had used the holodeck, a system built entirely for recreation, to create a tommy gun and blow some space zombies away. Maybe every combat ‘spell’ had some utilitarian purpose, but they were being used wrong.

Or right.

Liam was snapped out of his musings by the doors hissing open and revealing a stairwell leading into the Ancient’s facility. Neriad stood to immediately start marching forward but both Liv and Meg grabbed her and dragged her back as Vazt slashed his sword through a nearby sapling. With sapling in hand, the skinny lizardman underhand tossed it through the door like a grenade. They couldn’t see past the darkened shadows of the door.

They could hear the clink and clatter of metal hitting the floor.

“Oh, right,” Neriad said, shaking her head. “Toss another after I have blessed it.”

Vazt muttered under his breath – likely grumbling about pushy goddesses. Neriad, in her infinite wisdom, ignored him. Instead, once a new chunk of still living wood was readied, she pressed her palms to either side of the wood. Vazt shuddered and hissed and threw the wood away as hard and as fast as he could before shoving his hands under his armpits. He continued to shiver and now his grumbling was quite audible: “Fuckin’ froze off my fucking fingers!”

The wood hit the ground with a nicely clacky sound. Simone shone her flashlight into the door and they could see the two chunks of wood next to one another. One was shimmering steel. The other was still wood.

Simone nodded.

“Can you make the cold field in a bubble around us?” Liam asked. “And have us not actually be cold?”

Neriad frowned. “I don’t...think so. Cold tends to carry. Even in my summer palace, I had to give thick carpets to my harem...” She looked down, pain flashing across her face. “To keep them warm.”

Liam sighed. “Well, then. I guess that’ll encourage us to keep a move on.”

“This shit is why I voted for the other guy,” Vazt muttered.

“That explains where his one vote came from,” Liam said, dryly.

As Neriad started to make slow gestures around herself, gestures that started to fill the air with mist and grow chill and chill. Liam tried to picture the Ancient nanorobots. In his head, they were tiny Aztek themed death scorpions. He pictured them flying into the cold and freezing solid. And he tried to let this thought warm him as he walked down the stairs after Vazt and Anix. The two lizardmen held their swords and their mage-lights up, illuminating the corridor before them.

“Looks clear. For now” Vazt said, grumbling.

“Also, we’re not dead,” Anix said, cheerfully.

“For now,” Vazt said, muttering under his breath.

Simone stepped down the stairs, followed by the rest of the group. Simone took charge with a casual confidence, directing the lizardmen to flank her, and the rest to stay behind her. Her voice was flat as she said: “And, lastly, if you see anything, say something. I don’t care if you think it was nothing. If you see a mouse, say something. If  you see a cute girl, say something. No wandering off, no exploring, nothing. We’re going to follow Tethis’ magic spell to the other exit and we’re going to get the job done. Understood?”

The rest of the party nodded. Neriad scoffed. “We’re not children.”

“No, you’re civilians,” Simone said.

Neriad nodded. Then she started. “Hey! I was in my father’s militia before I attained my new, lofty heights.”

Simone arched an eyebrow. “You were a hoplite?”

Neriad put her hands on her hips, thrusting her chest out as she stood proudly. But it seemed that she retained a modicum of self awareness because a few moments later, she clarified: “Of...a sorts. I provided magical assistance.”

“Then use that training and stay in the middle of the formation,” Simone said.

Neriad grumbled under her breath. But she did move to stand between Meg and Liam. Liam checked his pistol, clicked the safety on, then holstered it. The last thing he wanted to do was shoot himself, and he definitely didn’t trust a holster made for a flintlock to hold a 9mm Beretta without some issue. As Simone started forward, she kept her flashlight sweeping back and forth, checking the corridor with ease.

By now, Liam had visited two other kinds of Ancient ruin. The teleport ruins had been filled with traps and defense systems. The containment for the ancient monster thing had been a bit more crude and to the point: It natural caverns leading to the actual part of the lab that was built by Ancients. This place was more like an actual facility. There were side doors that remained shut and had symbols that glowed above each doorway.

“Liam,” Liv said. “The fuck is decanting?”

Liam looked at her. “Decanting?”

Liv jerked her chin at one of the symbol clusters on a door they were walking past. Simone, seeing them pausing, lifted her hand and the rest of the group paused.

“It says Decanting Chamber Ninety Eight,” Liv said. “I’ve never heard of a decanting.”

“It means to gradually pour liquid out,” Tethis said. “Usually wine.”

“Ancient wine?” Liv looked a bit intrigued. She stepped closer and the door hissed open, revealing another room. As she stepped in, Simone looked like she wanted to groan. Liam lifted his hand, trying to communicate: Hey, it might be important. Simone made a very obvious ‘watch checking’ gesture. Liam frowned – but then Liv jerked his attention over. “Holy fucking shit.”

The entire group clustered by the door at that moment, even Simone, despite her concerns.

Looking past Liv, Liam could see what her mage-light (she had kindled it the instant she stepped into the room) illuminated. He had to admit. Holy fucking shit was right. The chamber was roughly five hundred feet long and maybe twenty feet wide. Every five feet along the far wall sat a tube of glass, and within each tube floated bloated masses of muscular tissue. It looked, from the scales, as if someone had been trying to cultivate lizardmen and then set them to Arnold Schwarzenegger and forgotten to turn off the oven. Now, each tube was straining slightly with the masses of tissue.

Liv looked like she was about to step further into the room. Liam stepped forward, grabbing onto her. “Liv, don’t,” he said, quickly.

A garbled sounding voice spoke from the ceiling. It sounded like Sysminor’s voice, but it wasn’t translated. Liam had no time to wonder about why the translation spell worked on some Ancient writing and words and not others, because Liv jerked away from him and shouted at the ceiling: “He did not!”

“What didn’t I do?” Liam asked, drawing his pistol.

“Attack me,” Liv said, shaking her head. “Idiot clockwork automaton piece of-” 

That was when the first tube started to hiss open, filling the air with the gurgling of the liquid within. Liam breathed out a slow sigh of relief. “Thank god, it’s decanting the, uh, the warriors as an emergency defence protocol.”

“Why is that a thank god?” Simone asked, leveling her rifled as Meg pulled her sling from her wrist and loaded it. The faint whirr of her sling spinning cut through the air.

“Look at them there’s no chance-” Liam started, gesturing backwards.

“Liam!” Meg shouted.

“Oh balls,” Liam groaned.

Most of the masses of muscle fell from the tubes and simply splatted on the floor, twitching and writhing slightly before finally breathing their last. Several of them did not. Several of them managed to slowly uncoil, revealing heads misshapen and twisted by their long centuries of steady growth. Arms that were freakishly long and slabbed with muscles thicker than steel cables unfolded, with claws that looked blunt and stumpy and entirely secondary next to the strength that radiated from their misshapen, Liefeldian bodies.

“I never learn, do I?” Liam asked.

Simone lowered her rifle. “We light them up or not?” she asked.

Liam shook his head. “Flints!”

Anix and Vazt didn’t have to be told twice. They drew their flintlock pistols and fired. Smoke and flames roared as one of the shambling freaks staggered. The bullets struck scales and muscles, tearing great holes in the creature. It stepped another few paces, blood pattering onto the floor like rain, before it realized that it was missing huge chunks of its lungs and heart and died. But the three others continued forward. Liam was starting to get his pistol ready, irreplaceable modern ammunition be damned, when Meg let her sling loose.

The bullet she flung might not have been propelled by black powder. But she had decades of experience hunting with them (along with her usual favorite, javelins.) The bullet struck the eye of one of the roid-lizards. His eye burst like an overripe fruit and the back of his head painted the wall behind him. He took one step and fell, unable to even touch the floor with his snout due to his ballooned chest muscles.

That left two more, both of them picking up speed as they got used to their freakish bodies. Worse, their arms were reaching out, like grotesque great apes. Liv casually pushed Liam backwards, stepped forward, and drew both bronze swords from Anix and Vazt’s scabbards. The two, who had been focused on reloading their pistols, barely had time to blink before Liv casually ducked underneath one arm – she barely seemed to be moving, and yet she managed to dodge a blow that left the air whistling. She stood and brought the sword smashing up into the roid-lizard’s bulging throat.

His head hit the ground at the same time she had slammed the other sword into his buddy’s spine. She put the other sword-tip through the base of the last roid-lizard’s neck, then jerked backwards, twisting her blades so that the roid-lizard hit the ground on his back. He twitched, then breathed his last and Liv swept her blades in a quick arc, flicking the blood off them with a flourish.

Liam expected to see both blades a bit the worse for wear – bronze weapons on Purgatory were infamously bendable. But when the two lizardmen caught them from the air and Liv brushed off her hands, he saw Vazt test the edge on his weapon and hiss. “It’s sharper,” he said.

Liv smirked, slightly. “Those pukes would have been easy before I started practicing.”

“...right,” Liam said after a pause. The normal mixture of emotions Liv gave him during combat were roiling through him. Distinct, ball shriveling terror mixed with an intense lust that was hard to top. The fact that Liv seemed to know it only stoked his fires. He shook his head, then said. “How about we, uh, not investigate other rooms.”

“Good idea,” Simone said, quietly.

As the group started again, Liam overheard Liv whispering: “Some help you were.”

“I’m the one keeping us from being eaten by nanny robots,” Neriad snapped back. “This takes some concentration, you know.”

Liv scoffed.

***

Bella was looking at the guts of the Predator drone and beginning to think that maybe what she remembered from a crash course on basic electronics wasn’t exactly enough to really cover everything required to fix one of these things.

“Maybe they were attacked and that’s why the drone stopped communicating?” Xapanos suggested, his voice soft. Nervous.

“Maybe...there is some damage here,” Bella said, slowly. “Corrosion is beginning to set in – these things aren’t meant for humidity.”

“They’re not exactly portable either.” Xapanos shook his head. “I’m shocked you fit one in even a crate of that size.”

“Yeah.” Bella sighed. “Kinda wish we hadn’t brought one. I mean, I personally objected to the...”

“The what?” Xapanos asked. Bella paused. Things remained...awkward between them. The fact that everyone in camp thought that they closed the tent flaps to, uh, do the nasty didn’t help. She wondered what the Paladins would say when they came back. The local guards might watch them closer, but the Paladins knew Xapanos. They knew how Ares was keeping him under his thumb. Would they see him cheating on his wife with her as a sign that he couldn’t be controlled by threats on her life? Bella’s stomach knotted. As if she needed that on her conscious.

“The what!” Xapanos said, again.

Bella blinked. “Huh?”

“What objections did you have? I thought your whole kingdom would be interested in getting Liam Vanderbilt back. He was some kind of noble lord back on Earth, wasn’t he?” Xapanos asked. “He had the iPhone, that longsword. Plus, he became the ruler of Babylon.”

“Oh, no! No!” Bella shook her head. “Liam Vanderbilt is just some nobody college student from California.” She paused, then looked at the drone. “Purgatory, though...”

Xapanos stood straighter, his arms crossed over his chest. “Wait, wait, wait. If Earth is a place that can give a nobody student a magical library that can hold thousands of books, why in Hades would you spend so much gold and silver and Predator drones on getting him back? Why would you be interested in Purgatory? Until Liam arrived, our books were on papyrus.”

Bella chuckled. “I, uh, like that you use that as a metric.” She smiled, shyly, looking at Xapanos. Then she carefully took her thoughts about his exposed, muscular chest and dragged them back onto the subject. “No, Purgatory is a treasure trove. The crystals you use for magic is some kind of highly advanced power source. Those alone could solve the energy crisis overnight. The nanites in the Endless Mine can revolutionize...well, literally everything. Once we know how they work.”

“You’re here to conquer us...” Xapanos whispered.

“No! No! No!” Bella lifted her hands, shaking her head. “No, America just wants a...” She paused. “A...”

“Foothold? Colony?” Xapanos suggested. “Fiefdom?”

Bella’s stomach knotted with a new, even more complex strain of guilt. And here, she thought sleeping with a married man would be the upper limit of things she could feel like garbage about. She flushed and tried to defend herself and her people: “Listen, if we were here to conquer, then I’d have never come along. The weapons and the soldiers were just for protection. We’re just here to learn. And the learning can help both sides! Like, uh, we can share our technology with you, like the way Liam has!”

Xapanos arched an eyebrow. “How many people live on Earth?”

Bella pursed her lips. Looked down. “Nine billion.”

Xapanos slowly sat down on the work table in the room. It creaked under his weight. “Nine billion.” He shook his head. “There are between five hundred and seven hundred million people on Purgatory, if the sages guess are right. You outnumber us eighteen to one!”

Bella chuckled. “Well, since getting here requires bombarding a rapidly rotating point of space-time with high energy particles, most of us won’t be coming?”

“That is a comfort, I suppose,” Xapanos said, quietly. Then his ears twitched. He lifted his head – and Bella heard the faint rustle of leather a moment too late. She sprang to her feet as a gauntlet clad hand yanked the leather flap of the tent up and in stepped Paladin Chastity. She looked streaked with mud and sweat and had a bit of leaves in her hair, but none of that mattered. She looked furious – and she immediately took in the room. Her eyes fell on the opened drone and then on Bella. Bella opened her mouth.

Her feet left the ground. She grabbed at the wrist that was holding her up.

“They. Knew. We. Were. Coming.” She growled, glaring at Bella. “And now one of my brother in arms is dead.”

Bella squeaked.

“We...” she groaned. “We  didn’t...warn them!” Her legs kicked slightly.

Chastity leaned forward, glaring at her. Then she dropped Bella. She fell and she found herself sprawling into Xapanos’ arms. Leaning into him felt scandalously good. But she was a bit more focused on Chastity as the Paladin loomed over her, her eyes filled with rage that was slipping closer and closer, moment by moment, from focused rage to something uncontrolled.

“You said that thing was a scientific device. And yet, communication between it and Neriad’s home led us to her.” Chastity stepped closer and Bella stepped back even further. “Speak a single lie and I will know and I will kill you where you stand.”

Bella believed her.

But…

Chastity wasn’t acting like someone who had been victorious. She didn’t sound triumphant. Which meant Liam and company were alive. She had to make a gamble...and Bella threw her dice. She lifted her head. “It’s a weapon. It’s called a Predator drone. When fully armed, it carries missiles. Uh, they’re like arrows, powered by explosives, and loaded with explosives. They could easily destroy this entire mine. There’s also a camera that can take pictures, uh, perfect images of distant places.”

Chastity looked from her to the huge drone, then back to her.

“Our very own blinking stars...” Chastity whispered.

“Huh?” Bella asked.

“Nothing,” Chastity said. “You will take the missile and get it ready for use.”

“Use? I...” Bella was about to point out all the ways that that made absolutely no sense and was impossible. Then she stopped herself. Working on the missile. It was a great way to blow herself and this whole place up. Which was technically a victory. But if she could get them to take the missile somewhere else, then use it, then explode, that was an even better victory. So, rather than point out the lack of a launch platform and the complex electronics required to launch and guide the missile, she simply nodded. “Of course, Paladin Chastity. Right away.”

Chastity narrowed her eyes slowly. “You’re keeping something from me.” She paused, then smirked. “You think we’re idiots, don’t you?”

Bella squeaked again. “No! No! Not at all!”

“We have God on our side, Doctor Cole,” Chastity said. “We have options that you can’t even dream of. Now...get to work.”

Bella nodded.

Chastity turned and ducked away.

Bella breathed out a slow sigh of relief. Then slowly, she started to realize just what was pressed against her rump. She flushed from toes to cheeks...and gently rocked her hips against the hard bulge that strained against Xapanos’ loincloth. “G-Getting a bit of a fear boner?” she whispered, quietly. The laugh that escaped Xapanos’ lips was choked. His hands went to her shoulders.

“It’s hard to resist with an ass like yours,” he whispered. He shook his head. “Damn. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Bella turned around. Her nose mashed against his chest and she inhaled his musk. By now, the scent of him struck her nervous system like a drug. The knowledge of his wife seemed to fade to background radiation and she dragged her tongue along his abs. Xapanos’ hand dipped under her shift, sliding along her chest and then cupping her breasts gently, then more eagerly. His finger found her nipple, rolling it as he kissed her forehead, nuzzled her hair. The stance was awkward. He had to crane his arm around and cup her breast upside down. It didn’t matter.

At the same moment, both of them shoved themselves away from one another.

Not, to Bella’s shame, because they had come to their senses and remembered what was the morally upright thing to do.

No.

They had leaped apart because the Predator drones wings were starting to whirr and click. Whirr and click. Whirr and click. Bella’s heart leaped into her throat and she remained stock still, turning flaps of elevation panels into Morse code, then turning Morse code into words.

“Nice show,” she said, slowly. “But we have a job for you.”

***

Liam shivered, his hands rubbing along his shoulders as he pressed his back against the wall of the Endless Mine and looked outwards towards light that seemed all the more distant and pitiless due to the blackness stretching between him and there. The mage lights were off and the only person who had a hope in hell of spotting anything coming up on them was Simone, whose NVGs cast a green light against her eyes. Liv lay on her belly, breathing steadily as she looked through the telescopic sight that was supposed to go on a marksman rifle.

“My field of vision is crap,” she muttered. “I’m using every trick Diayet showed me and I’m still only getting a sliver of the camp.”

“And what do you see?” Liam asked. Diayet, when she had been Anubis, had learned the arts of perception. Anubis had been able to weigh a human soul against a feather before sending them to their just rewards in the afterlife. That had, apparently, included a wide range of perceptive abilities that hadn’t reached the legends and stories on Wikipedia. Now, Liv was using what she had picked up from the former god.

And Liam just had to hope that that counted for enough.

“Well,” Liv said. “The four paladins Neriad chased off got back. I don’t see any stores of ammo down at the bottom of the mine. Those have to be at the walls. I can hear plenty of drilling...” She paused. “It sounds like the garrison here knows the shits coming and they’re getting ready to duck. Wait a fucking second.”

Meg snickered. “The best kind of second.”

“I see a cannon. Four of their camp laborers are holding it in place. One of those Paladins is working at it. He’s using some kind of metal pole to...” She paused. “The fucking what? He’s scraping the edges. They’re chipping crystal out something fierce. Why the fuck are they ruining a cannon?”

“They’re not ruining it,” Liam muttered.

“They’re making a makeshift firing platform for a hellfire, fuck,” Simone snarled.

“LT,” Tanye said. “If they try and fire a hellfire missile out of a cannon, even one bored to fit the missile, they’ll just plow it into the ground.”

“Not if the cannon is blessed with accuracy by Ares, the god of war,” Liam said.

Tanye slowly lifted her hands up to the air, then let them drop. “Or...fucking that!”

Simone checked her watch. “The Cross Guard are landing now. The artillery is going to start firing the instant their scouts spot them. Or, if I don’t miss my guess, the instant they have that cannon prepped. If canister shot’s going to ruin your day...” She shook her head. “We have to do something.”

Liam rubbed his hand along his face. “If Bella managed what you asked her to do...” He looked at Tanye. “Will you be ready?”

“Just give the word, Vanderbilt.” Tanye grinned.

“All right.” Liam breathed slowly in. “Neriad, there’s not a lot of water in that camp. Can you make do with the humidity.”

Neriad snorted.

“Okay. You and Liv handle the paladins. Simone and I go after the hellfire. Anix and Vazt, you protect Tanye. Meg? You get Tethis to the conventional ammo stores and...have fun.”

Meg beamed, then picked Tethis up under one shoulder. The gobliness looked a touch cross.

Liam nodded to Neriad. Neriad cracked her knuckles, rolled her shoulders, then pushed her palms forward. The cold bubble that had surrounded them for the past few hours rippled and then expanded forward through the darkness. Liam only saw it by the way the light ahead of them started to grow dimmer and dimmer as fog roiled out of the mine. He started to jog forward, drawing his pistol, flanked by his allies and friends. They rushed towards the cloud and out, into the suddenly cold air at the bottom of the pit.

The sounds of confused guards was intermixed with the bellowed orders of the Paladins. They knew what this meant.

“Attack! We’re under attack! To me! To me!”

A woman’s voice boomed out and then a golden flare of light exploded from the left. Fog rippled backwards. Liam could see the Paladin, standing with her sword lifted above her. Her other hand held a flintlock pistol. He snapped his gun up. She fired first. Meg, who was rushing past him, dragged him to the right with a jerk of her hand. The bullet grazed along Liam’s arm, searing hot. He yelped and his pistol went skittering to the ground.

The ratta tatta tatta of Simone’s assault rifle rang out. More muskets went off, adding smoke to the fog. The Paladin charged forward and Meg immediately forgot her mission. Instead, she dropped Tethis, knelt down, grabbed the pistol off the ground, and snapped it up while her wings fanned out. She leveled it at the charging Paladin, who immediately spun and twisted. Her legs pumped and she soared through the air, whipping past Meg. Meg tried to track her with the pistol, but the Paladin vanished into the fog and smoke.

However, seven or so guards were joining the fray. They carried maces and swords and bellowed the war cry of the Monodeists: “God Wills It!”

Meg held the pistol in one hand. She sighted down the range. Fired. One guard’s forehead suddenly gained a tiny red circle while the back of his skull exploded. Meg’s arm didn’t even more. She grinned, then fired. Again. Again. Again. Again. As fast as she could pull the trigger. Liam gaped as man after man after man fell, until there was nothing but a half circle of corpses, none more than two feet from the other, all of them sprawled with the boneless limpness of sudden death. One twitched slightly.

Meg blew some smoke from the pistol. “I like it.”

Liam shook himself.

Behind him, the fog was rippling, then collapsing. Most of it vanished, collapsing into ice shards that hovered like a swarm of hornets around Neriad, while Anix and Vazt stood back to back behind her, with Tanye ducking beside them, keeping the drone kit safe as she held a pistol in her other hand, looking for a clear target. Vazt knocked a sword aside from a charging Monodeist, then cut upwards, effortlessly slitting a femoral artery and sending the man sprawling to the ground, while Anix merely used his immense strength and weight to bash a shield aside, then brain the man with the pommel of his sword.

Neriad faced two paladins. One was the male who had been boring out the cannon. He hadn’t gone for his weapon – instead, he simply held the metal pole he had been using to bore it out like a staff. The other had gotten a mace and a sword, and both of them were at the ready. Neriad smirked, and for a moment, the tableaux held. Then, bursting from the fog, came Liv. She looked as if she had launched herself with all of her strength. The paladin with the makeshift staff spun it around and managed to get the weapon between him and Liv.

Didn’t exactly help, as both went skidding off, vanishing into the rubble and ruins that made up most of the ground level of the mine and added another explosion of dust and dirt to the confused mess of the battle. The other paladin knocked a chunk of ice from the air with his mace, knocked another in half with his sword. Neriad, though had a lot more ice, and she was getting better and better at hurling them. They flew faster and faster, and the paladin’s arms blurred as he tried, desperately, to keep up with the barrage.

He lasted two seconds.

Neriad laughed as the paladin sagged to the ground, transfixed by a dozen blades of ice. From the walls ringing the top of the pit, he could hear a roar of cannonfire.

Liam gestured to Meg. “Go! Go! Go!”

Meg’s wings flared and beat once, the wind adding an extra swirl of dust to the chaos. Liam realized that she had taken his pistol about two seconds too late. Liam had been in a few battles in his day, but few had been as confusing as this one. With the mist and the fog and the multiple superpowers on display, he felt more vulnerable, more useless than he had in his life. Then he looked past two guards who were rushing towards Anix, only to get knocked aside by the large lizardman’s weapons, and saw the hellfire missile that the Monodeists had fitted into the cannon. One of the surviving Paladins stood beside it, glaring about herself as her men wheeled the cannon towards the ramp. Cowering next to her was a terrified looking Dr. Cole.

And there, in the mists, trying to get a clear shot, was Simone.

Liam started forward, snatching a dropped sword from the ground, his heart hammering. “Paladin!” he shouted, hoping to get her attention. The Paladin didn’t even glance his way. She ignored him as she hefted her longsword in one hand, then blurred towards Simone. Her feet kicked up tiny sprays of dust as Simone pulled back on the trigger. Bullets sparked and flashed off the Paladin’s armor, causing her to stagger as if she had hit a wall. She fell to one knee, her head hanging forward.

Liam charged forward, hefting his sword. He brought it swinging down – aiming for the back of the paladin’s helmet. Her arm swung upwards in a mechanical arc and blade met blade and, not for the first time, Liam missed his longsword from earth. Delenn had been a good sword. Delenn wouldn’t have shorn in half on first contact with the enemy. It wasn’t merely that the paladin held a longsword made of steel – her sword also flickered with golden light.

Ares blessings made them faster, stronger.

Liam flung himself to the left moments before a golden flare of light shot from the tip of the paladin’s sword.

And able to shoot lasers. Right.

Simone was working on recharging her weapon, quickly swapping one irreplaceable magazine for another. The cannons were still roaring overhead, and he could hear war cries from the Monodeists and the Cross Guard, echoing down to the bottom of the mine. A sudden explosion rocked the wall and a cannon flew through the air, shooting straight at the paladin. She casually backhanded it towards Liam, who rolled quickly to the side. He felt wind tugging at his hair and heard the crunch of the crystal cannon striking mud and stone.

The paladin leveled her sword at him. It wasn’t glowing gold quite as fiercely as before. Liam stood, panting, ready to fling himself whichever way the paladin least expected. But her cold, pitiless eyes swung left and the tip of her blade skittered to aim directly at Simone. Liam reacted immediately. He leaped forward and the beam of light struck him in the gut. It felt like nothing for a moment. Then he landed and his entire midsection felt as if it had burst aflame. He clutched at his chest, hissing through the pain. His palm was cupping a charred hole, and he felt a radiating ache rush through his body.

Behind him, Simone toppled – a beam seared right through her chest.

The paladin smirked, twirling her sword in a quick arc. It caught the sunlight and flashed it in Liam’s face. His vision narrowed to a black tunnel as the paladin walked towards him. Her blade wasn’t glowing anymore, but it would do more than enough to...fuck this hurt. Liam closed his eyes, curling up into a fetal position. One hand slipped along his shin, to a leather strap.

He half expected the steel tipped boot’s impact to his shoulder.

The shocking intensity of the pain that roared through him at the kick was still more than he had expected. His vision went gray and blurry as the paladin stood above him, her sword-tip aiming down at his nose.

“Lord Vanderbilt,” she said, her voice sounding like it came from the bottom of a well.

“G’day,” Liam choked out.

The woman smirked, then lifted her sword up in both hands. She brought it driving down towards Liam’s head – aiming for his brain. Either shew as dramatic as fuck, or she knew about the stasis spell that Tethis cast on him as a matter of principle.

Using every bit of strength he had, Liam thrust his false foot up into the air, as if he was offering a new shoe to a customer. The sword tip slammed into the socket joint he rested his stump in, then skidded along bronze and wood, slipping between the cracks and joints. Gears groaned and snarled and the paladin’s grip jarred as her own strength played against her. Her hands didn’t open, but her sword wasn’t as tightly held as it was mere moments before.

Liam rolled. Flopped, really. His arm dragged her sword further off point, out of her hands, and onto his side. The flat of the blade slapped against his ribs and he finished his roll, pinning it underneath his chest like he was a wrestler.

“Liam!”

The sound of Tethis’ voice was like the sun coming out. A glowing dart of healing energy struck Liam’s back and he felt his life surging back to him. He thrust himself up and leaped away, like he was a sprinter on a track. It was an awkward lunge, really, since one of his hands was clasped around the steel longsword of the paladin and he lacked a foot. But he got enough distance to avoid her grasping gauntlet. He spun to face her and she snarled.

“You thief!” she said as Liam realized a downside to his plan. His stump pressed to the ground and he knew that a light breeze would knock him off balance. He set the tip of the sword down and managed to get his artificial foot off, but setting his stump there was enough to show that he definitely wasn’t getting much use out of the false foot. But at least he could stand there and not move.

Great.

But then Meg was at his side. She was streaked with soot and one of her wings looked singed, but she had the fierce grin of someone deep in battle adrenaline. She was holding Liam’s pistol. Well, Simone’s pistol. But who was keeping track?

“I like this thing,” she said.

“Great, how many bullets do you have left?” Liam hissed.

Meg leveled the pistol one handed and pulled the trigger. The paladin, despite her glare, despite her combat ready stance – weapon or no weapon – flinched. But the only thing that came from the 9mm was a loud click.

“Zero,” Meg said, looking more annoyed than scared. She started to fiddle with leavers and switches and dials.

The paladin started forward, her gauntlets crackling with golden energy.

Liam, his heart in his throat, tossed her the sword. The paladin caught it from the air, more by reflex than anything. She paused, holding the handle with one hand, the blade with the other.

Liam wobbled as he grabbed at his belt pouch.

Removed one of the last magazines on Purgatory.

Meg found the right lever. The spent magazine clattered to the dusty ground.

Her hand caught the magazine from Liam.

The paladin lifted her sword, which started to glow with a golden flames.

Meg lifted the pistol, sighted.

Pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Liam had enough time to feel an intense sense of cosmic betrayal that he was going to die because of firearm safety systems before the paladin clasped her sword with both hands and charged forward. A sudden shadow filled the air as she started to swing. The paladin didn’t even have time to look upwards before a torrent of water poured over her body. It pattered off her mail and sluiced along her helmet and sizzled as it spattered and crashed against her sword. The sizzling noise was overtaken by the now familiar crink and crackle of ice rapidly forming.

The blade tip quivered an inch from Liam’s nose. The sword was mostly in the open air. Only the hilt and hands holding it were contained within the solid block of pure blue ice.

Neriad dusted her hands as she walked around the block.

“Told you I’d handle the paladins,” she said, smirking.

***

Bella had often wondered what she might do if forced to choose between her own personal safety and the lives of others. It was the kind of thing you read about in books and saw in movies. It’s easy to imagine you’d be brave and noble while sitting in a seat with a bowl of popcorn.

It’s a lot harder when you are on your hands and knees, choking on gunsmoke, looking up at a burly looking man hefting a heavy mace, bellowing at you: “Fire the magic! Do it! Now!”

The walls were pure and utter pandemonium. Winged men and women flew overhead, firing pistols and dropping bombs onto the soldiers on the ramparts. Those soldiers were armed with pikes and spears and wicker shields – which usually caused the bombs to roll off and over the edge of the wall to explode harmlessly blow – and muskets of their own. The constant crackle and roar of gunfire was intermixed with the screams and crashes that came when bullets found their marks. Men served cannons, but many of those looked like they had been knocked out when the main ammo dump was taken out.

The winged folks were only half of it. The marshy land beyond the cleared out area surrounding the fort was filled with an army in a uniform that looked faintly familiar. Red crosses on white tunics. But rather than marching with swords and shields, these modern Templars were carrying muskets and pushing light cannons into range. In the distance, flashes came from the almost invisible river. Every few seconds, those larger cannon shells smashed into the wall.

But this wall wasn’t a stone castle. It was an sloped rampart of earth and brick, so the cannonballs impacted with nothing more than dull thumps and expanding clouds of dirt. That left the remaining cannons free to fire on the assembling mass of cross clad soldiers.

There were thousands of men and women out there, ready to charge the place. To free her, if what Vanderbilt had said was true.

“Fire. The. Magic!” The guard snarled. “That’s what the paladins kept you around for, innit?”

Bella gulped. Escape and safety had seemed so close, before the chaos of combat had gotten her whisked away.

She closed her eyes, forced herself to stand, and then opened her eyes. She felt painfully exposed before the huge guard and the whining, whizzing bullets that were being fired by everyone in this battle.

“No,” she said. “Kill me if you want, but I won’t fire this missile at those peee-” The guard cut her off by smacking her across the face. Bella sprawled on the ground, gasping. But before the guard could start kicking or beating her, a voice called out.

“We have a better way!”

She rubbed her cheek and groaned in horror as she saw another guard – this one a skinny woman with a curved scar along her jaw – dragging…

Xapanos.

He winced as he was held under the sun. She could already imagine what was happening to his skin under that deceptive color. Soaking in radiation, focusing it, literally beginning to cook under the fierce sun that beat down overhead. He shook his head, his bright white teeth shining as he snarled: “Don’t help them, Bella!”

“You do it, or we start cutting off fingers,” the guard woman shouted, her knife pressed to Xapanos’ neck.

Bella looked from Xapanos to the cannon and the hellfire missile, then to Xapanos.

“F-Fine,” she whispered.

“What?” the guard with the mace bellowed.

“She’ll do it!” the girl guard shouted. “Thank god – they have lizards in that fucking army.”

The approaching army started to emerge from the forest, as if they had realized that the cannon-fire was slackening. Now that Bella was forced to actually listen to the battle, she realized that even she had noticed it subconsciously. Now the cannons were firing every minute, every two. Her hands shook as she gestured to the missile. “Load it,” she said, her mouth dry. Maybe she’d be able to think of something. Something clever. Something that would save her and Xapanos.

The guard knelt down, his muscles straining as he lifted the nearly hundred pound missile up, then set it, nose first, into the bored out cannon. It slipped in with a clatter until the rear of the missile stuck out of the muzzle.

“Does it need cloth wadding?” he asked. “Cannoballs do, but-”

“N-No...” Bella said, sounding dazed. “It’s...it’s good.”

She gestured. “Aim the cannon that way. Slightly...to the left...” She said, measuring with her eyes. “The magic, uh, curves. Now, stand back.” She nodded, quickly. The guard stepped back and stood to the left of Xapanos. Bella’s mouth felt dry as a bone as she looked at the cannon, at the guards, at the missile, at the approaching army. The front ranks were advancing in a ragged, skirmishing pattern. Well. Holy shit. They actually did have ambulatory lizards in the army. They were leaping in great, hopping arcs, moving in wild patterns to evade the incoming musket fire that continued to pour from the walls.

“Step, uh, a bit to the right,” Bella said, gesturing. The guards shuffled.

Bella reached to her belt, where she had stashed the modified radio. Liam Vanderbilt and his team had told her how to make it work during their communications. But she was pretty sure this wasn’t how they had planned to use the hellfire missile. Well. Best laid plans and all that. She gulped, prayed to any god that was listening, then twisted the firing control.

The missile roared and she leaped backwards in shock as the cannon flew backwards, smashing into both guards and shoving them over the wall with a scream. The wheels of the cannon caught on the edge of the rampart and the firing block smashed into stone, catching. This caused it to swing upwards, angling the missile into the sky. Now the ten feet of exhaust that was shooting out of the missile was aiming at the sky and Bella could sprint forward, grabbing onto Xapanos. He collapsed against her, one huge dead weight.

Since she had tackled him towards some stairs, this mattered less than Bella had worried.

Her shoulder and then back struck the stairs as the two tumbled down like a pair of rag dolls, until they sprawled in the dirt.

“Xapanos!?” Bella shouted, looking at her lover.

His eyes opened to cracks and he grinned weakly. “Ow.”

Bella leaned forward and kissed him.

At that exact moment, the dumb, hateful little mind contained in the hellfire missile decided that it had reached something that could be charitably called a target and triggered the twenty kilogram explosive contained in the warhead. Contained by a hardened crystal container, the explosion had two directions to go. The first was upwards and outwards, busting from the mouth of the cannon like a dragon’s roar. The second was downward, forcing past the weakened firing block. Flames swept along the wall, shrapnel whined outwards, cutting apart Monodeist soldiers as if they were in the world’s most efficient and yet most sloppy slaughter house.

A sudden silence started to settle on the battlefield as Bella broke the kiss.

Xapanos panted, softly. “What do we do now?” he whispered.

“I have no idea,” Bella said. But she was somehow smiling.

And above her, she could hear cries.

“Surrender! We surrender!”

A lizardman – one of the first to reach the top of the wall – lifted the banner of the Cross Guard and Babylon and waved it above his head, letting out a whooping cheer.

The Endless Mine was theirs.

Chapter Seven

“Well, at least they’re happy,” Simone said. Despite her attempt to sound annoyed, the US Ranger was looking pretty fucking peachy. Liam laughed, shaking his head as he sat next to her bed. The tent was set up at the bottom of the mine, with a good view of Xapanos, Dr. Cole and Tethis. The three were pouring over a chunk of crystal that they, using Neriad’s spells, had recovered from the mine itself. Not that it was a mine. But names had a way of sticking, no matter how inaccurate they got.

“Tethis says that you should be back on your feet by tomorrow,” Liam said. “She’d have healed it completely, but she has a lot of wounded to fix. So...” He shrugged. “She has to spread her powers a bit thin. And there are people-”

“I know how triage works, Vanderbilt,” Simone said, shaking her head. She reached down to rub her chest, wincing. “This isn’t the first time I’ve been a few inches off from being dead. But this is the first time it was a laser. So...” She shrugged. “I guess they were right. This was going to be an adventure unlike any other.”

“There’s the spirit. And hey, you’ll be back on your feet sooner than me.” Liam gestured to the pair of crutches he had set against the wall of the tent. Dr. Cole and Xapanos and Tethis and even Tanye had all taken a look at his foot and all said the same thing: Not my department. Liam supposed he shouldn’t have been shocked none of them had been able to do much about it.

It still was irritating to have to hobble around on crutches. Again.

“Hows the strategic situation?” Simone asked.

“Not great,” Liam said. “Fizit reported via the blinking stars that Dr. Cole had been sent here to learn. But before Ares got curious how the mine working, do you know what he did?”

Simone frowned. “Something bad?”

“He fed captives into it,” Liam said, his voice growing grim. “And now, a new fleet is sailing out of New Athens. We don’t even need spies to know most of them are toting between five to ten steel cannons. They’re faster to make than crystal guns. You don’t need mages or divine spunk-”

“Excuse me, what?” Simone spluttered.

“Hey, I didn’t invent the magic spell!” Liam said, lifting his hands. “But now, we have a fleet that’s almost the same size as ours, with a bigger weight of guns. We have steam-ships, and those ships that have guns have more of them...” He shook his head. “Naval combat isn’t exactly what I’m an expert on. I was more of a ground combat and adventure guy.”

Simone looked at her hands. “You can say that...” she murmured, her voice oddly contemplative. Liam cocked his head.

“Huh?”

“N-Nothing!” Simone said, shaking her head as she looked back at him. Her face was all serious and focused again. “What’s the plan?”

“Well, that’s where we get to the tricky part,” Liam said. He paused. “And the awkward part.”

“Oh?” Simone asked, looking back at her hands. She seemed to be quite studiously examining them – as if she was sure that if she looked hard enough, she’d see something new and interesting. Liam had a feeling he knew why. She knew what he was going to bring up. But seeing the equipment in that chest, talking with Xapanos and Bella, it had all pointed to the one unavoidable fact.

“You guys didn’t just come for me. You wanted to make a foothold on Purgatory,” Liam said, quietly. “Healing magic, enchanted crystals. Nearly everything on Purgatory begs to be understood, then exploited. Including her people.” His arms crossed over his chest. “I’ve had to make a lot of hard decisions since I became the Lord of Babylon.” He paused. “I once decided to not break a moral code of mine...and it almost got a friend of mine killed. It nearly lost us the war, honestly, considering that friend was Tethis.”

Simone frowned. “Choices are funny like that,” she said. “You never know where they go. That’s what makes being alive a risk. You can do the right thing for the right reason and still end up totally fucked.” She looked at him. “I wouldn’t wear this uniform if I didn’t believe in America, Vanderbilt. So, yeah. Fuck yeah. Bring magic and healing and crystals and shit to America and solve every last fucking problem we have. I signed up for this mission without knowing even a fraction of what Ceres might offer.” She paused. “What Purgatory might offer.”

Liam sighed. “So, I have two choices.” He lifted one palm. “I let you guys contact Earth. I let you guys finagle a gate up. I open the floodgates and I beg for help against Ares.” He grinned, ever so slightly. “And I give Purgatory over to the 21st century. All the good parts...and the bad parts. The unfair trade deals, the exploitative capitalism, growth without regard to cost, that bullshit.”

“Wow, you really are a bleeding heart, aren’t you?” Simone muttered.

“Californian!” Liam said, putting his hand to his chest.

“I’ve met people from the Central Valley, I know for a fact that that’s bullshit,” Simone said. “They’re redder than some assholes in the Deep South.”

“Yeah, well...” Liam trailed off. “Whatever, the point is the other choice I have is we dig in to fight Ares. We fight a protracted ground campaign and drive him out of every city he has and eventually kill him for good by destroying every temple, every alter, every shrine, and finally putting a bullet through his forehead.” He shook his head. “And in the end, kill fifty times the number of people who were killed in the last war.”

Simone frowned.

Liam sighed. “It’s gotta be the less wrong option.”

“Actually, dipshit, there’s a third option.”

Simone and Liam both turned – Liam twisting his whole body, Simone just canting her head. Both of them saw Liv standing in the entrance to the tent, her arms crossed over her chest, her hair shimmering slightly in the sunlight that beat down on the mine.

“By the way, Liam,” Liv said. “I’ve managed to get the cloning facility to give me admin access. I’ve told the manufacturing nanites to calm the fuck down and retire to their hives.” She paused. “Can someone please tell me what cloning, admin, nanites and hives means exactly? I just kinda bluffed the fucking automaton.”

Liam sagged in relief. “Good, good, we have an escape route. Just in case.” He nodded to Simone, who gave him a thumbs up at that. Clearly, she liked the idea of being trapped in a fort with no escape as much as he did. Then Liam looked back at Liv.

“What third option?”

“You keep banging on about how important voting is,” she said. “And you got the fucking blinking stars. Well. Use em. Most cities have people who can read Morse now. Blink out the story, then ask them to signal using, like, fires n’ shit, count the votes, majority wins. If they say yea, we build a gate using the cloning facility nanites.”

“You can do that?” Simone asked.

“I mean, if we can’t, they can at least fucking help.” Liv shrugged. “Well, Liam? What do you think?”

Liam blinked.

Slowly, he smiled.

“I like it,” he said.

“Good. The bullshit’s out of the way,” Liv said. “Now we gotta deal with the fucking army.”

Liam hopped to one feet, grabbing a crutch and nestling it under his armpit. Despite years of being toughened and hardened to life in Purgatory, Liam found a crutch unpleasant. The reason why went beyond the reduction of mobility and into something more simple and direct: He had gotten callouses everywhere but his armpits. He winced as the padded wood dug into his soft flesh, then tried to put more of his weight on his hands. Behind him, he heard Simone shifting restlessly in the bed.

Liam looked back, grinning at her. “Lieutenant Fong, you’ve done enough for the day. Stay there. That’s an order.”

“You’re not my commander in chief,” Simone called after him. “I didn’t even vote for you. And I like what Vazt is saying about the guy who ran against you!”

***

Simone sprawled back into bed once the tent flap had closed and reflected on how quickly she had been spoiled rotten. This wasn’t the first time she had been shot. It was the first time that being shot hadn’t led to a few weeks or even months of slowly getting back to a hundred percent. Most of the bullets that had clipped her hadn’t hit anything particularly vital. But she still had vivid memories of getting to learn how to walk again after a rock had smashed her knee-cap out of alignment. And that hadn’t even been while on duty! She had been hiking in Nevada, for god’s sake.

But here on Purgatory – and it was impossible to think of it as anything else now – she had been exposed to healing magic for, what? A few weeks?

And she was already losing her ability to deal with pain, discomfort, and sheer simple boredom.

You know that’s rose tinted glasses, right? A snide voice in the back of her mind muttered. It was the same voice that had told her she’d never manage to pass as a woman, not with a disgusting man chin or freakishly huge man wrists. That voice had been shocked into silence by the ritual. Simone...actually was a bit surprised by that. Ingrained psychological issues didn’t listen to reason or common sense. Imposter syndrome, the feeling that you didn’t actually deserve anything you had accomplished or worked for and that at any moment people would point at you and exclaim ‘you’re a faker!’, reared up even after getting multiple commendations for valor.

She was pretty sure getting a magical make over wouldn’t fix her other issues.

Except it had.

Which led to a question she was going to leave to psychologists: How much of healing magic was psychological?

Because the snide voice was right. Her time spent recovering had been spent chewing holes in walls, muttering angrily, and taking her feelings out on doctors who had clearly heard it all before. But she had seen what had happened to Liam. He had gotten his arm bisected by a sword. He had been shot by the next best thing to a particle gun. And the stories she had heard only made her wonder more: Being beaten and thrown off walls and over cliffs and stabbed and knocked out and tied up and drugged and poisoned?

How the fuck was he not a walking pile of psychological issues?

She’d seen a fellow Ranger get shot in the gut and left to die. They’d found him after he had spent twelve hours in the worst pain that Simone had ever thought she’d witness (until she saw incendiary weapons in the flesh.) Dowling had never been quite able to deal with pain in the same way.

But she could see Liam, hobbling around on crutches, chatting and laughing with Dr. Cole and the black elf and Tethis.

“Which leads to an even more uncomfortable question,” Simone muttered to herself as she let herself ease back into the bed. She felt faint twinges as muscles complained about being forced to work after their partial healing. Her eyes closed as she settled into the bed. What are the spells changing about us where we can’t notice? It’s all fine and good for healing to wipe out trauma...but what if…

This is about the fact you want to fuck him, isn’t it? Snide Voice was back. And this was an all too familiar muttering to deal with.

Simone deliberately slid her arms behind her head, as casually as if she was being watched by someone. She felt incredibly stupid a few seconds later, after realizing that she was trying to psych out her own inner monologue. She took the thought and she tried to look at it nice and logically. Liam was a handsome lad. Funny. A bit of a bleeding heart liberal, but there were worse things in the world than being naive. And at least he seemed to know he was naive, so there was that. Simone opened one eye a crack and saw that Liam was gesturing to the mine with Liv.

Liv put her hands on her head, shaking her head. The effect that had on her cascading mane of white hair was rather remarkable. Simone actually had to force herself to not admire her hair and instead check Liam out. He was looking thoughtful, his brow furrowing, his eyes downcast. Simone squirmed ever so slightly in the bed, her thighs mashing together. Did he know how fucking beautiful he looked right there, with the sun shining in his hair and his chiseled body on full display?

Okay. Maybe want was a bit of an understatement, she thought.

***

“Okay, so, I don’t see the fucking problem,” Liv said. “They’re our enemy. We got it, use it.”

“Because...” Liam groped around for a reason. “Because this is my Hiroshima.”

“Use words that make sense!” Liv snapped.

Dr. Cole, who had been looking back and forth between them, spoke up. “Hiroshima is a city, uh, where the United States used an incredibly powerful weapon to end a war. The difference, Mr, er, Lord, uh-”

“Liam, please,” Liam said, shifting his stance to try and get some weight off his crutch.

“Liam,” Dr. Cole said, her arms crossing over her chest, her hands tucking under her armpits. She looked a mite chilly – something rather odd to see in the sweltering heat of a Purgatorian jungle. But some genius soul had cast an air conditioning spell on several of the tents, and Tethis had directed Neriad on how to expand it to include the entire fort. Neriad had gone slightly further than Liam would have, leaving most of the women popping obvious nipples.

Meg didn’t seem to mind. But Meg rarely minded cold and tended to take overt signs of sexual excitement as a challenge to be even more provocative. Fortunately (for Liam’s ability to concentrate, at the very least) she and the other Valks were out harrying the advanced elements of the oncoming army. Liam would have preferred being distracted by her breasts than being distracted by worrying about her.

“There are several important differences between that war and this battle,” Dr. Cole said. “Firstly, the Monodeists aren’t battered so much that they can barely fight. They’re about to try and kill us with an army that’s way bigger than this one and with a fleet nearly as big as yours.” She shook her head. “An army that teleported here.”

“I’m surprised it took them this long to get a teleporter shrine to work for them, honestly,” Tethis said. “Like, I expected them to announce that they had cracked activating a shrine by teleporting a godkiller into our house.”

“Maybe Ares doesn’t want to push us,” Liam said, frowning. “If he tried that, he’d know that we’d retaliate in kind. He wants loyal subjects, not a load of corpses.” I hope.

Tethis smiled. “I’m just sad he didn’t try. I have some...interesting spells for that kind of nonsense.”

Liam chuckled. “Well, I get that, Dr. Cole-”

“Bella,” she said, smiling. “I mean, uh, if I can call you Liam.” She paused. “Wait, no, actually, now that I think about it, I worked my ass off for that doctorate.”

Liam snorted. “Then Dr. Bella,” he said, his hands squeezing the grips of his crutches for a moment before loosening. “You’re right. This is a different situation. But we have five hellfire missiles and a platform that can launch each of them in about three minutes. We could blow apart the army, half the fleet, and still have a shot left for Ares’ temple in New Sparta.”

Liv glanced at Bella. Then she looked back at Liam. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“I mean, not exactly big on killing a few hundred people in a few seconds,” Liam said. “I know they’re coming at us, but this feels differently. It’s...” He made a face. “I didn’t come to Purgatory to kill people with technology three thousand years more advanced than theirs.”

“Weren’t you flung here by a malfunctioning cube thing?” Liv asked.

“I would like to hear more details about that,” Bella added.

“The point stands,” Liam said, rubbing his neck. “Or maybe I’m just overthinking this because I’ve got colonialism on the brain.” He shot a glance at Bella. Bella looked aside and leaned backwards ever so slightly. This ended up putting her back to Xapanos’ chest. Liam wasn’t quite sure what to make of Xapanos so far. He seemed to be reserved. Quiet. Almost too quiet, but Liam supposed he had reason enough to not feel particularly chatty, considering what Ares had done to him and how his family might even now be in danger.

Despite his grim air, Xapanos did put his hands on Bella’s shoulders, squeezing gently.

A rustle of wings filled the air. Looking up, Liam grinned despite his worries. Meg landed with a grunt, her legs absorbing the impact of her touching down none-too-gently. Her wings folded and she threw her arms around Liam’s  shoulders and hugged him tightly.

“They’re setting up long guns – steel ones. We managed to disrupt those operations, but it only bought us a little time,” she said, nodding.

“Decision time,” Tethis said, quietly.

“Fuck em up,” Liv said.

“What happened to Miss Thinking Of Others?” Liam asked.

“I am thinking of them,” she said. “And they’re dicks. Fuck em up.”

Liam felt his stomach tighten. He’d dropped munitions on people before, during the War of the False God. But that had been different – the heat shield being dropped from ‘orbit’ had been a side effect, not the intention of his landing. And even that hadn’t been nearly as destructive as the high explosive missiles could be to a tightly packed army in formation. He shook his head. There was no time to poll everyone on Purgatory. He’d need to make a call.

So…

He made it.

“Tanye!” he shouted. “Lets see what this Predator can do. I’ve got the first target picked out.”

***

Paladin Chastity hung suspended by chains of ice. Her armor had been stripped, leaving her in her sweat soaked under-shirt and leggings. Despite the fact her feet hung above the ground, she didn’t feel an ache in her shoulders, nor the pressure of having to keep herself suspended. The gobliness mage, most likely Tethis, had cast a spell on her to keep her supported while also giving her no purchase, nothing to kick off. She was as unable to move as she was when she had been encased in the brick of ice.

Just...less suffocating.

“Weaklings,” she muttered. Her blessings would have allowed her to handle the mild torture of being hung by her wrists. As it was, she could easily consider her situation and her possible options.

Most of her combat blessings required the focus of her sword and her armor. The strength could be called with the proper invocation and focus, but she had already tested herself against the might of the false god, Neriad, and found that with her powers so drained and her connection to God frayed and twisted by distance and pain...well...she had come up wanting. She closed her eyes and composed a short prayer to God, begging His forgiveness at her own failings.

And so, without her blessings to draw upon, she moved to checking the room. It was definitely the same kind of walls and ceilings as the Endless Mine, though the fact she hadn’t been turned into steel was troubling. It meant that Vanderbilt had managed to get the strange magic of this place to follow his whims. But it also had very little to offer her in terms of tools. The walls were smooth, the floor smooth, the door distant. As she regarded the door with a baleful glare, it hissed open and in came the very devil she had been thinking of.

Liam Vanderbilt hobbled in, shirtless and gleaming with the sweat that came from even moderate activity outside. He had a cheery smile on his face, which made his already boyishly handsome face more attractive.

Chastity glared at him. It was easier to not be attracted when you wanted to skin someone.

Behind Liam came another woman, one that was obviously also from Earth. If her height hadn’t given it away, her skin color would have as well. Chastity had never seen a woman as dark black as she. It was definitely more arresting than Liam’s shock of blond hair, because unlike Liam’s hair, there weren’t any in Purgatory quite like her. She was carrying a thick case of plastic and metal. Plastic. It was such a foreign word, but Chastity had learned it along with the rest of Purgatory, by poring through the tomes that Vanderbilt had given away so foolishly.

She had never seen it in the flesh before the new artifacts started literally raining down across Purgatory.

“Hello, Chastity,” Liam said. “That’s your name, right?”

Chastity glared at him.

“...right,” Liam said. “I know that you and your friends are able to track radio signals. That’s how you found Neriad’s base.” He set his crutches against the wall, then leaned against it. He groaned. “Fuck, I hate these things.”

“I could remove your arms,” Chastity offered, her voice a low growl. “That’d help.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll pull a Liv and...” Liam saw something in her face that made him trail off. “Nevermind.”

Behind him, Tethis and Meg were entering. Meg muttered to Liam – Chastity’s blessings let her hear it quite easily: “Isn’t it a bit cruel to do this here?”

“I have a method to my madness,” Liam said, cheerfully as the utterly black woman flipped open the plastic and metal case. Within, Chastity could see glowing screens, dials, knobs, and a small stick with a re button at the top. Chastity’s gut reaction screamed that it was some kind of torture device. Why else would they be here?

“Ready,” the black woman said. “Assuming your Valks can get it off the ground.”

“We once lifted an entire army into orbit,” Meg said, lifting her arm and flexing it. The bicep that showed under her pale skin was almost a match for Chastity’s. Chastity sneered. Valks were born with an unnatural advantage. She had earned her strength, by her devotion to the true God.

“That doesn’t fucking count as orbit, and nothing will convince me it is,” the black woman said, flicking switches and adjusting dials.

Meg shrugged. “Well, you don’t write our history books. So there.”

“Ladies,” Liam said, lifting up one hand. “I was in the middle of coming to my point.”

“Ladies,” Meg said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Liam poked her in the nose. Meg laughed, then chomped at his fingertip.

Chastity ratcheted up her glare to cover up the very strange feeling that squeezed in her stomach. Liam looked back at her, clapping his hands together. He shifted forward, as if he was about to start pacing, then wobbled. He leaned back in a hurry, grabbing onto the wall as he gritted his teeth. “Fuck, forgot, no foot,” he said, then shook his head. “Listen, I know that you can track radio signals. Is it a ritual? An innate magical ability Ares gave you?”

Chastity’s lip curled.

“Stick time,” Liam said, his voice very soft. The black woman turned the torture device around, showing Chastity a strange view. It looked like an image rendered in grainy black and white, nearly abstract with its utter lack of colors. But a few seconds of looking resolved the images of trees and...cannons. The glowing white, humanoid figures were easier to grasp. It was a view of an army of people. There were at least two thousand of them, streaming out of a hill, forming up into regiments. “This is an army coming to attack us. This image is being sent to us by a Predator drone, the weapon you were trying to use. It’s loaded with a twenty five hellfire missiles, each one capable of turning a huge chunk of that army into minced meat instantly.”

Chastity looked at Liam. He was lying about something.

“You’re lying,” she said, her lip curling.

“I assure you, I am not,” Liam said.

“Uh, Liam,” Meg whispered. “Remember what the cute doctor said? She can tell if you’re lying.”

“Right!” Liam snapped his fingers. “Fine. It’s loaded with five hellfire missiles. The rest’s all true.”

Chastity’s eyes narrowed. Her stomach knotted. This time it was an emotion she knew very well. Fear. She forced it down and lifted her chin. “You want me to beg? To promise my body to you? To simper and whimper and cry? Do it. You could bring out my family and slaughter them and I would never give you the satisfaction of a single solitary tear.”

Liam looked at her. For a few moments...Chastity saw pity. A deep, intense well of pity in those blue eyes. Liam felt sorry for her. Chastity almost saw red. Her hands clenched and her arms strained. The ice chains creaked and squeaked and she snarled. “Do it. Do it you pagan coward. Fucking do it!” She roared the last word, her arms tightening so much that she felt her muscles strain and almost pop. The ice groaned as f in pain around her. The walls shuddered. Meg reached for a strange weapon at her hip, but Liam lifted his hand.

One of the ice chains snapped. Fragments filled the air as the black woman cried out in fear and Meg and Tethis both leaped to Liam’s side. But Liam, rather than cowering or throwing himself flat, reached to his belt. Chastity’s left arm was still contained, but her right was free to grab at her wrist. She was about to try and tear the ice chain apart with her fingers when Liam casually under-handed something at her. She grabbed it from the air out of reflex.

“It’s a radio,” Liam said, his voice calm, his eyes unwavering. Every part of him said: I’ve faced scarier things than you.

Chastity was so thrown that she simply stood there, looking down at the heavy, chunky looking piece of equipment. She looked from it to Liam to it again.

“You, uh, push that button,” Liam said. “And if what Lt. Fong has been telling me is true, Ares will hear it. It’s literally a direct line to your god.” He grinned slightly. It was a goofy grin. Gormless. Innocent. Trusting. Seeing it on that face that, moments before, had been still in the face of her strength and rage, was another shock for Chastity. “I’d make us of it, if I were you.”

Chastity narrowed her eyes.

This was a trick…

Her thumb depressed the button. “Hello?” she asked.

Nothing but a roar of chaotic sounds – like ghosts screeching at her.

“Are you trying to scare me?” Chastity asked, her voice dripping venom. “What? Are you going to say that you’ve already killed God and this is his ghost?”

“Uh, no, that’s static.” Liam smiled. “Give it time. Maybe say hello again a few times.”

Chastity pursed her lips. “Hello?” More static. “Hello, God, this is me, Paladin Chastity.”

More static.

“Maybe we should move outside?” Meg asked.

“Chastity,” the smooth, pure sound of God’s voice came from the speaker. Chastity’s heart leaped. “Have you escaped?”

“I...” Chastity’s heart plunged as swiftly as it had rose. “No, my Lord. I’m being held captive. I have Vanderbilt right here in-front of me. We’re at the Endless Mine and they only have a token force here and they haven’t had a chance to repair the walls, and they are low on cannon.”

“Hey Ares. Hows it hanging?” Liam asked, leaning over close to speak into the radio. He was close enough that, if she dropped her radio, she could snap his neck. This fact was so shocking that Chastity simply gaped at him and his audacity. Ares voice sounded taut as he responded.

“I am not Ares, Vanderbilt and you know that. My name cannot be said by your tongue. But you may refer to me as your Lord God.”

“Sorry, A-Man,” Liam said. “But I’m not Jewish. They’re the ones who can’t say God’s real name. Now, Chastity can tell you that I’m being honest when I say that you’re going to want to evacuate everyone from your temple annex. You’ll have five minutes.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Chastity said, quickly.

God remained silent for a few moments.

Liam took the radio from her nerveless fingers. “Five minutes, A-Man. Tick. Tock.” He flicked a dial on the radio.

Chastity gaped at him. “You’re insane.”

Liam grinned. “Thanks!”

“He’ll shoot the Predator down,” Chastity said, her jaw tightening.

“Will he?” Liam asked. “Or will he do what most humans do and simply assume what he knows is possible will happen? I’ll make you a wager, Chastity.” He smiled at her, then started to hobble backwards, his crutch clacking on the ground. “If he casts a spell to redirect teleportation, then you owe me a diet pepsi. If he shoots the Predator down, I’ll let you free.”

Chastity’s lips formed the words ‘diet pepsi.’ It should have been translated if it was an actual word, but the spell Liam used to turn his foreign tongue into something a Purgatorian could understand had clearly fucked up. As she watched, Liam leaned forward and looked over the balck woman’s shoulder. His voice was firm: “Okay, fly to New Sparta and target the temple annex.”

“Right,” the woman said. Her hands went to the controls and, by craning her head, Chastity could see the view on the screen. The army had vanished in remarkable speed. The view was panning over thick jungle, then into open plains. How fast was the Predator capable of going? Liam tapped his chin as he watched, leaning against Meg, who had slipped up behind him. Tethis, though, was unable to take her eyes off Chastity. Her hands nervously twiddled her foci – the implement used to cast her magic. Chastity, though, was unable to tear her eyes from the screen.

Even in grainy black and white, she could recognize the temple annex. It had been built to honor God in all his glory. There were statues of God in each of his forms. Him as a warrior. Him as a farmer. Him as a scholar, reading a scroll. Chastity felt a dread growing in her belly – but she enfolded it in a warm blanket of faith. God was more powerful than any of the false gods that filled Purgatory. She had to believe that. And, unlike the false ones...God was wise. He didn’t wage petty wars or fuck everyone that moved…

Liam murmured. “Can we tell if it’s been evacuated?”

“We can spot a terrorist picking their nose in a fucking cave,” the black woman said. “Shit, we could spot Tony Stark building the mark 1. We could-”

“Has it been evacuated?” Liam asked, laughing. “Also, holy shit, yes. Thank you. I haven’t heard someone else make a Marvel movie reference in two years.” he leaned awkwardly forward and bumped his knuckles against the other woman’s. She lowered her hand, flicking a few switches.

She shook her head. “No good, sir. There’s still fifteen people in there, clustered there.”

The alter room. Chastity smiled. The high priests were there, praying.

“And...holy fuck what?” the black woman whispered. “Look at that.”

A glowing figure was standing before the temple. That, in and of itself, was not odd. The strange eyes of the Predator made all living people glow a brilliant white. But this figure was surrounded by another aura, one that radiated a brilliant black. The view started to flash with strange splotches and lines, creating a series of arcing lines that surrounded that figure. Chastity grinned slowly.

“Behold God,” she said.

“What’s he doing?” The black woman asked.

“Some high level superhero shit,” Liam said, quietly. “Tethis, you got a bead on this?”

“I’ve never seen a god’s powers visualized like this. This is fascinating, can you record this?” Tethis asked.

“Sure,” the woman said. “It’s all being saved for a hard drive. The other sensors are all on too. The radar’s going nuts. Same with LIDAR.” She licked her lips. “We got a lock on him, though. He’s basically sending up a signal.”

“Let him finish,” Liam said, his voice grim.

On the screen, the temple annex shimmered with a black radiance, which shifted to a throbbing pulsing that made it nearly impossible to see the heat signatures within. Tethis’ brow furrowed as she leaned forward. “All right, that definitely has signatures I recognize. It’s a teleport re-direction, with some minor architectural enhancements. I think he’s basing his powers off arcane magic...” She rubbed her chin. “Like Kailey. We should really-”

“You’re a go,” Liam said, his voice flat.

“Uh, you said you’d give em five minutes to evacuate,” the woman said.

“It’s been five minutes,” Liam said. “You’re a go.”

The black woman inclined her head.

Chastity tensed, her eyes widening.

Silently, the temple annex bust. Dust obscured the view, spreading outwards, then flaring like a wave. The temple walls were falling, tumbling away. Her God backed away, a brilliant white sphere surrounding him. That too was covered by the dust. The worst thing, though, was that there was no sound. No roar, no splintering, no crumbling of rock and no crashing of stone. As the dust started to clear, Liam breathed out a slow sigh. He pulled the radio off his belt.

“I have twenty four more of those, Ares,” he said. And Chastity was too stunned to even call out.

How could God let it happen?

How could…

Static came from the radio.

When God’s voice came from the radio, he was coughing. “Tell me your terms, Vanderbilt.” The venom in his voice was so intense that Chastity felt it, deep in her heart. A vicious, almost insane hatred poured from that radio.

Liam sagged slowly, and Chastity saw him put his hand over his face. A weight had settled on his shoulders. A heavy one. He didn’t look triumphant, like he had just pulled one over on God. He just looked tired Chastity looked away, unable to witness as Liam started to lay out the place for the meeting that would end the war before it had even started.

Chapter Eight

“All right, boys!” Meg called through her cupped hands. “Lower it. Gently! Gently!”

“It’s made of solid freaking stone!” Sunchaser said through gritted teeth, his wings beating fiercely as he and the ten other Valkyire who all clung to straining ropes lowered the massive, ring shaped artifact to the plaza before the Free Lord’s palace. This plaza had once been a forum for debates and arguments, back when Babylon had been the City of Dead Gods. Then, when Sysminor had occupied it, it had been the place where slaves were sold.

Once again, times were changing.

And, Meg thought, the gate wasn’t even the biggest change.

She glanced backwards and frowned. The ambassadorial household set up for the Monodeists was as ostentatious as she had dreaded. Gold leaf covered the front door, while great silk banners displaying the golden cross on a purple field that was their symbol flanked the walls. Two Paladins stood in full steel plate mail. If they sweltered under the punishing Purgatorian sun, they didn’t show it underneath that gleaming, glittering armor.

One of the Paladins, though…

The faint creak of the gate settling into its carefully constructed platform drew Meg’s attention back. She gave huge thumbs up to the valks, who all landed about her with groans and grumbles. Sunchaser rubbed one of his arms, wincing as he did so.

“Why’d we have to fly this orbitally?” he asked. “We have boats! Boats can do this!”

“It took the Endless Mine three weeks to build it,” Meg said, shaking her head. “And according to Liv, the nanites are running low. Something about a recharge cycle and regeneration growth rate.” She shook her head. “It didn’t make much sense to me, but Dr. Cole seemed convinced that we’d need to wait months, if not years, before we could try and build another one.”

“That doesn’t mean we couldn’t have used boats...” Sunchaser muttered.

Meg ignored him as Tethis and Dr. Cole walked out. Dr. Cole was dressed in her normal mixture of Purgatorian clothes and what she had scrounged up from her supplies, after Ares had repatriated the rest of the science team. Behind the two of them came the rest of the Earth scientists. Meg had to admit, privately, that she was quite glad that a bit of serendipitous questioning and a bit of peeking at the bath-houses had proved that Liam remained unique among Earthers.

She liked Liam being special.

Made her feel better about getting her hands on him first!

“Your gate has arrived!” Meg said, cheerfully as the science team tore their eyes from the stone circle to her. Several of the science team turned as red as their complexions would allow. They all hurried over to start attaching the control interface they had been working on – cannibalizing parts from every bit of Earth tech that had been recovered while Mary and the Monodiest diplomats had danced around.

“Why does every man on the science team look at you like you’re a rampaging crystalback?” Tethis whispered.

Meg shrugged. “I dunno.”

Tethis narrowed her eyes. “I’ve heard some of them mentioning rulers.”

Meg grinned. “I was just engaging in my own scientific research. And I proved my hypothesis: Liam’s mom fucked a horse at some point.”

“Measuring dick size isn’t science!” Tethis said, putting her hands on her hips. “A-And don’t talk about Liam’s mom that way.”

“She’s my mom too!” Meg grinned, holding up her hand, spreading her fingers. Her golden ring glinted marvelously in the sunlight.

“That doesn’t make it better!” Tethis spluttered.

“Speaking of fucking,” Meg said, rubbing her hands together. “When are you going to cast that fertility spell? You promised me soon...”

“We’ve been trying to get a hyperspace gate to work, I’ve been busy!” Tethis put her hands over her face, covering her blush. “A-Also, can we not discus this in public?”

“But I wanted to show off,” Meg said, enjoying twisting the knife. Tethis squirmed so delightfully when she was embarrassed.

“Technically,” Bella said, smiling as she walked over. “It’s a wormhole gate. Not a hyperspace gate. It’s not going to another dimension, it’s finding a short cut in this one. Basically, the exotic particles generated by the inner surface create, via some kind of fundamental interaction with one another, a rotating point of gravitational disturbance that punches a hole in space time from point to point. The thing that’s amazing me is that this gate doesn’t just have the emitters, it also has the power source. We had to hook fission reactors to each emitter we built and our gateway was barely stable enough to get here. This should land us exactly where we aim like that.“ She snapped her fingers.

Meg snickered. “They sent you over here because your skill as a geologist isn’t really applicable to gates, is it?”

“No, not really,” Bella said, sighing. “Though, speaking to Loki about Odin’s excavations to explore the inner skin of Purgatory was fascinating. I can’t wait to get more supplies...”

“Did you guys ever manage to call Earth and tell them that you’re coming?” Meg asked.

Bella shook her head. “The communication systems we brought were all destroyed. Or at least, we haven’t found the replacements yet.” She made a face. “We didn’t think that the dispersal would be so huge, or that so many people would be around to bash them open and muck around in the crates...” She shook her head. “Still, if the first tests go well, we can send a signal through the wormhole before we arrive ourselves. It’s really fascinating how electromagnetic radiation interacts with the-”

Meg mentally reached for some way to cut Bella off before she drowned her and Tethis in jargon. Tethis might be interested, but Meg was more of a philosophy girl. She preferred to know why to do something, not how to do it. How usually ended up being ‘hit it with a stick’ or ‘out think it.’ Or some variation thereof. And so she leaned forward and grinned.

“Sooo, how is Xapanos?”

Bella stopped like someone had reached out and smacked her butt. “I, uh, we...t-talk sometimes.”

Meg’s eyes sparkled. “And his wiiiife?”

Bella whimpered under her inspection.

“Meg!” Tethis whispered.

“What?” Meg grinned. “Nothing’s juicer than gossip.”

***

Simone panted, softly, looking at the ceiling, and tried to figure out how she had gotten here.

She had been in the gymnasium.

“You’re looking good!” Liam’s cheerful voice rang through the room as Simone paused between reps. Simone grinned slightly at him, her forearms gleaming with sweat as she swung the bronze weight that she had been using to replicate a bar-bell down. She set it on the ground and started to stretch, enjoying the pleasant burn in her muscles. Her wound hadn’t even left a scar. Healing magic. She really was going to be spoiled rotten, the first time she broke or sprained or cut anything on Earth, it’d be like she had suddenly become a hundred year old woman with brittle bones, incapacitated by even the tiniest of bumps.

“Thanks,” she said. “You’re looking good too.” She grinned. “What happened, you walk through a kitchen?”

“Oh, uh, no, Brax invented a catapult,” Liam said, looking down at his chest. “I was just going to get some wash cloths.”

His chest was smeared with cherry red stains and purple marks. Simone walked over, brushing her hands through her hair as she looked at his chest. Marks or no marks, it was a fine chest. Muscular and strong. Her tongue darted along her lips as she reached out with her hand, rubbing her thumb on one mark. It smeared and she arched an eyebrow. “Paint?”

“Grapes. And cherries.” Liam grinned.

Simone popped her thumb into her mouth without thinking. She could taste the faint tang of a grape. Thank god the Purgatorians brought some seed-stock with them when they were banished, she thought, even as her tongue also tasted the salty muskiness of Liam’s sweat. She slowly drew her thumb out of her mouth. How had she gotten so close to Liam. She gulped, slightly, then looked down. There was his kilt. And, ah. A reason to look down that wasn’t the slowly growing bulge there.

“Your new foot working out?”

“Hephaestus added some improvements over the last model,” Liam said, his voice husky. He tapped his heel twice in rapid succession and a blade snicked out of the pad of the foot, glittering as it thrust beyond the metal toes.

“Sick,” Simone purred, moments before her inner snide voice started to scream at her that it wasn’t 1999 , she wasn’t a teenager trying to impress a girl with her fucking Van Halen T-shirt, and if everything went well, she’d be reporting to her superior officer about the results of the mission within a few days. She shook her head and turned around, striding away from Liam. He started to tap his foot again – and she heard the faint click click click of the blade retracting.

One of the many innovations that Liam had brought from Earth had been punching bags. The leather was hand crafted rather than machine stitched, but it worked the same. Simone started to punch it, bouncing from foot to foot. She wondered if Liam’s eyes were glued to her ass. She was wearing shorts and a tank top – some of the only clothes that had survived the transit and the looting intact. She wondered if he liked how her ass looked, now…

“You okay?” Liam asked, sounding a bit concerned.

Simone realized she had been throwing herself into the punches, kicks, knee strikes. She grunted, then slammed her leg in hard enough that her shin went numb and the bag started to swing from side to side like a wrecking ball. She grabbed onto it and sagged forward, hanging her head forward. She closed her eyes. The heat of Purgatory pounded against her...and the tension of the past few weeks. Of watching Liam’s back during the negotiations, of getting the science team and her soldiers back together. All of it.

“Honestly?” she asked. “Honestly...I want you...to throw me on that judo pad and fuck me until I turn to butter.” She slammed her knee into the punching bag hard enough she swore she heard the stitching creak. “I want you to slam me harder than I’m beating this fucking bag. But!” She punched it again, glaring into the leather.

Liam’s hand went to her shoulder. Simone tensed, then gasped as he spun her around. Her back pressed to the bag. It swung, then was caught against the wall, crinkling against her shoulder blades. Liam’s eyes met hers and his hand cupped her cheek. His voice was husky. “But?”

Simone panted, her mouth opened. Her skin tingled.

“B-But...” she whispered. “It wouldn’t be...right, you’re...my...I...”

Liam leaned forward, slowly.

Simone let him kiss her. Her lips didn’t move, even as his tongue spread them. Then his tongue touched hers and Simone felt every repressed feeling she had surge to bubbling life. She remembered watching him as he plowed the goblin pirates...and remembered the intense heat that had filled her. But what was more important was what she forgot. Her hands went to Liam’s wrists, dragging them to her chest. He knew what to do. His hands cupped her breasts through her tank top and he kissed her harder and more desperately, his hands tugging at her tank top. He had to break the kiss...just long enough for her tank top, still tasting of her own sweat, to skim over her head and land on the floor.

Simone whispered. “We shouldn’t.”

“Why?” Liam asked, reaching back, working at the buttons on her bra with...actual shocking clumsiness. He gritted his teeth, his cheeks flushing. Simone laughed, softly. Her hands shook as she put them on his wrists, feeling his strength. He tugged, twisted, gritted his teeth. Simone knew she should be pushing him away. Telling him the reasons. He was possibly going back to Earth and going to jail, depending on how President Deinhardt decided to react to a civilian appropriating military equipment, acting as a mercenary for foreign countries, and establishing his own quasi-dictatorship. But her body was begging her to let him fumble. Fuck, no, it was begging her to help. Her cunt ached with a wanton neediness that shocked her.

I’ve never been fucked like this, she thought, her eyes widening as Liam finally got the clasp undone.

“Purgatory has spoiled me,” he said, grinning.

Simone licked her lips. “It has...” She leaned forward. Kissed his neck. Nipped at his skin. Her tongue traced the beating pulse point on his neck and she groaned into him, her nose flaring as she inhaled his scent, reveling in the feeling of air on her breasts as her bra hit the floor. Then his hands cupped her skin directly and it felt as if electricity was surging along her spine. Her nipples were hard enough to cut glass, and Liam stroked and tweaked them with an expert’s care. Neither too hard nor too gentle…

Simone moaned into him, her hands slithering along his arms to his shoulders to his sides to his kilt. Then under the hem. To his cock. Her hand closed around him awkward, and she hissed softly as she found that her newly shrunk hands couldn’t quite touch finger to palm. She squeezed tighter, trying to fully encircle him, but she couldn’t.

“Jesus,” she breathed.

Liam chuckled, his voice catching slightly. “G-Gently, please.”

“Sorry, just...Jesus.” Her hands slipped up. But only so she could undo his kilt with desperate eagerness.

As his kilt hit the ground, Liam took her in his arms. His member ground against her belly, smearing pre along her muscles. His hands cupped and squeezed her ass, then shoved her shorts down, even as he bore her to the mat. The mat absorbed the gentle landing and Simone realized just how literally Liam had taken her as he spread her open. She had never felt quite so...vulnerable there, spread eagled on the floor, her sex glistening with moisture. She whimpered softly, her eyes half closed as Liam leaned forward to kiss her on the mouth, his cock teasing her sex.

He didn’t even try to penetrate her. At first. He simply ground his girth and his length along her. Simone squirmed, writhing as she grabbed onto his shoulders, then his back, her fingernails sinking into skin as her desperation mounted. Mounted. She broke the kiss, gasping. “C-Condom?” she hissed. Honestly, she was fucking shocked she had managed to think that far ahead, considering the things that Liam was doing to her mind with that fucking cock.

“Don’t worry,” Liam said, his voice husky. “Tethis gave me a bit of an enchantment, with so many pretty humans wandering around.” He grinned at her. “I’m only fertile for one woman right now.”

Simone practically melted as the tip of his cock pressed to her sex. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact she had been altered via magic, or the fact that no one had barebacked her in...ever...but the feeling of his cocktip gliding against her sex was ludicrously decadent. He looked into her eyes, then slammed into her. The motion was shocking and skillful, filling her utterly in a single smooth motion of hips and belly and arms. His balls slapped her ass and Simone cried out in purest bliss.

She had never felt fuller. But she was so fucking wet that she didn’t feel a single hint of pain. She only felt the pure pleasure of Liam’s dick as he fucked her into the judo mat. The impacts filled the gym with the slap of thigh on thigh, ball on ass, back against leather. The sounds were nearly as perfect as the feelings coursing from her sex as Liam fucked her faster and faster and faster. Sweat beaded on his forehead as his fingers dug into the mat to either side of her head.

Simone’s eyes went unfocused as she realized...she was cumming.

Hard.

Real hard.

Her whole body quaked and she bit down on Liam’s shoulder to keep from announcing that fact to the whole fucking palace. She wasn’t sure if that was enough, because Liam was making good on the promise to fuck her into pure butter. Her knees were already going slack, her joints loosing the battle in trying to keep her in some kind of deliberate posture. She was already letting her legs slump against the ground, simply because it was easier than keeping them up. Her eyes closed and she released Liam’s shoulder.

It was safe now.

She couldn’t...quite form words. Or sounds. She was too busy hyperventilating as Liam fucked her.

“Simone!” He groaned, low in her ear, then slammed home once more, his balls slapping against her ass. Simone knew, moments before it happened, that he was cumming. And he was going to cum hard. She wanted to lock her hips around him, to keep him from pulling back. But she was too fucking spent, too limp, to do much more than gasp out a soft plea.

“Cuminme!”

Liam thrust home once more. Her sex tightened around him like a fist...and then warmth bloomed inside of her. Simone closed her eyes, focusing purely on the tactility of the cum spurting deep inside of her. Filling her womb. She shuddered. She hadn’t been fucked bareback before the spell had been worked, so she had no...way to compare the feeling between being cummed in when she had a womb and now. But she knew that a deep, shameful part of her brain reveled in the simple knowledge that it was happening. She closed her eyes, then lay limp.

Liam nearly collapsed atop her. But he was enough of a gentleman to keep his weight on his arms just long enough to roll aside. He lay on his back.

Simone panted.

That was how she gotten here: Sprawled on her back in the gym, cum dripping from a well fucked pussy, Liam Vanderbilt laying beside her. He started to laugh. Simone blinked, then slowly managed to get her head up, lifting it as she looked at Liam, trying to see why he was laughing.

Liam weakly pointed.

Simone looked over.

Like a flag planted on some beachhead, Liam’s false foot remained where it had been. The leather straps had slipped free as Liam rolled aside, and the foot looked stuck there. Slowly, Simone lifted her toe and bumped it. It wobbled and she realized that it was stuck fast on the blade.

“Gonna,” Liam said around gasps. “Gonna have to, ah, ask Haphestus for a redesign on that.”

Simone couldn’t help it. She laughed. “Holy fuck.” She shook her head. “I...am really embarrassed of how badly I needed that.”

“That’s Purgatory for ya,” Liam said, groaning as he laid back. Simone slowly slumped to the side, pressing her face against his chest. She licked gently at some of the cherry smears. Then she saw that similar smears had pressed to her own skin. She sighed, dramatically.

“Great.” She muttered. “Now I gotta get clean.”

***

“I’m not sure if I’m comfortable having you here for this,” General Sung said, his voice clipped, the way he always got when Deinhardt did something without asking for his permission first. As one of the most senior members of her joint chiefs, he was also one of the few that she could speak to as a friend, thanks to their shared experiences. Both had gone to the same college. Both had been in the same chess club. And both had kept in touch, even as one went into politics and the other into the military.

It added a touch of familiarity that made getting the straight truth a hell of a lot easier and less wrapped in comfortable bullshit. But considering half the people who interacted with her administration were still unlearning bad habits picked up under the previous administration, Deinhardt was just glad to have someone who had skipped to the end of that adjustment period.

Even if Herbert was sometimes a bit of a worrywart.

“If Four layers of bulletproof glass, two machine gun nests, and one of those tank guns aren’t enough to stop a sneak attack,” President Deinhardt said. “Then the Old Man deserves to take over.”

“Because a competent president should have spotted that kind of threat?” Sung asked.

Deinhardt nodded. “I may not know Lieutenant Fong personally, but if I can’t tell when I’m being handed a bill of goods, I’m might as well turn in my rancher card.” She chuckled slightly, letting some of her Texan twang slip back into her voice with that last bit. It had played well in a few choice demographics, but being able to suppress it had gotten her a shockingly large amount of California. And she hadn’t even changed her policy talk.

Sung didn’t look happy.

But, fortunately, the gate chose that moment to open.

The coordinates had been hashed out between the State Department, the Pentagon, NASA, and a few eggheads from DARPA and a few other, slightly more secret think tanks. The site chosen was a base that Deinhardt hadn’t even known existed before  it had been suggested by the high forehead types. It was underground, distant, and easily destroyed if needs be. But it also was the one nearest to the equator. That, apparently, made the math needed to be done a hell of a lot easier, and since the Purgatorians (funny term for a group of people) didn’t have many computers…

The gate looked beautiful. A sphere of blue-white light exploded in the center of the room, emerging from nowhere. It rippled like water and shone with an inner radiance. Deinhardt leaned forward, her eyes glowing in the reflected light. She knew the cameras in the rooms would be recording her for posterity, once this got declassified. And unlike a lot of shit that went on at this base, she was pretty sure it’d get declassified fast. According to the CIA, the Russians were already probing at Project Orpheus and trying to figure out just what they had done.

She grinned.

Probe away, Putin, she thought. You’re going to be greener than a ten dollar bill once I’m through revealing this to the world.

The sphere rippled.

Flexed.

And emerging from it came a warrior clad in armor and carrying a shield. A sword was strapped to their hip and a musket was slung from their back. But the most striking thing about him was that he wasn’t human at all. He was a broad shouldered, incredibly muscular fusion of human and lizard. It was the kind of thing that you’d see on Star Trek, but...this guy wasn’t CGI. There was a terrifying, surreality though, to seeing something that everything your mind said was unreal be there. Real. Deinhardt’s mind felt like it was reaching for a seam, looking for a zipper. She was desperate to find something that would make it a costume.

Then the elf came out, and the goblin, and the winged woman, and Liam Vanderbilt himself.

Seeing each of them was like a fresh shock. Liam shouldn’t have been a shock, but...he managed it. Despite knowing that he would have changed in the two years, it was still an eyebrow raising moment to see him shifting from her mental picture of the muscular college student to this bronzed, chiseled warrior. His foot clicked as he took a step forward. He was dressed in a silken tunic and a kilt, which flared around his thighs in a wild profusion of jewelry and colors. Fancy. Very fancy.

He smiled, then waved at the guns aimed at the group.

“Take me to your leader,” he said in cheerful, Californian English.

“See?” Deinhardt said to Sung as the science team and the surviving members of Fong’s squad started to emerge. “Told you.”

Sung chuckled. “I’m heartily relieved, Madame President.”

Deinhardt looked back and watched as Lt. Fong saluted to the officer who had come out to lead her away for a debriefing. The soldiers started to troop out, and another officer led the surviving members of the science team away as well. Lt. Fong glanced backwards at Liam.

Deinhardt’s brow furrowed.

“What?” Sung asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Deindhardt said, shaking her head.

But she had been in the buisness long enough to tell...when someone was fucking someone else.

This was going to be an interesting first meeting. Wasn’t it?

She smiled to her old friend.

“Well, General Sung?” she asked, gesturing to the door that would take them to the meeting room, where Liam and his friends were going. “History awaits.”

THE END

EPILOGUE

The door to the makeshift bunker burst open and the man who entered looked as if he had sprinted through hell to reach there. Several grazes marred his left arm, as if he had just barely escaped a flaying wind. Blood dripped from a cut above  his eye, and his skin was dusted liberally with white powder, making his bronze skin look as if he had caught a deadly infection. Which he might, given time enough for the wounds he had to fester.

“Sir,” he said to Mendoza in rapid fire Spanish. “The Federales, the army, they’re landing men with helicopters. They’ve already put down machine guns.” He blinked as one of the other fighters in the bunker tossed him a plastic water bottle. He drank, splashed his face, sighed.

Mendoza forced himself to regard the map. He tried to see a future for himself and his men. Instead, he mentally placed the machine guns where they would be the worst for him on the map. A few seconds later, when directed to point them out, the fighter placed his fingers at exactly those points. Mendoza bit back on a groan of frustration. His men needed to see him as they believed him to be.

As if he always had a plan.

“You, you,” he pointed. “Get the RPGs. We shall have to expend our last Russian presents early. I will take squad two and three out and we shall see if we can get the helos into the air. Take those ball-less whores out of the sky, my men.”

The two men he pointed at nodded quickly.

Mendoza picked up a battered AK-47 that might have first seen service in the Cold War. It still fired, well enough, and there was enough ammo for it. Most of his men carried better weapons. Most of his men were better shots, and younger, and had eyes that could still see straight. But Mendoza knew that, in a time like this, it was about appearances. Men would stand and die, if they believed their leader stood and died beside them.

And so, he worked the chamber. A touch dramatic, but it accomplished what he wished. He saw his fighters taking heart, despite the now audible hammer of the machine guns.

The out doors were hot and painted in blood and dust and smoke. A few fires had been set – either intentionally or by gunfire or by grenades. The underbrush was dry this year and fires that would have died a decade ago, choked out by a wet rain forest, raged now. But it provided cover, and so Mendoza forced himself to grin as he breathed in the choking fumes. He remained as low as he could manage, throwing himself behind a rock. He peeked out and saw the flack vests and helmets and the moving forms of the Federal police and the army – though, as had often been the case for years, there was little difference between the two when it came to situations like this.

He let out a cry, and then leaned around the rock and fired. His men joined him. Assault rifles flashed and casings went flying. Bullets clipped branches and sparked off stone. A few men cried out in pain – but they were fighting veterans. The other group of men spread, dug in, and started to return fire. Bullets whine and hummed overhead. Mendoza broke from cover to get behind a tree. He fired a quick burst – then heard his gun clack.

Assault rifles tore through ammo far faster than they had any right too.

He pulled the magazine, his hands feeling every decade at the moment. As he fumbled the magazine around and slapped it in, he could hear the thump thump thump of helicopters. They were swooping forward, coming to provide air support to the men who were facing more than they bargained for. In the distance, machine guns hammered and he knew that their forward pickets were pinned.

It was do or die time.

One helicopter buzzed forward, blithely confident. Either the pilot was a fresh from basic puta who had believed his superiors when they said Mendoza and his cause were on the ropes...or…

Well, why did not matter. Whatever the pilot had been, he ceased when the RPG smashed into the cockpit. A roar of flames and a haze of smoke filled the air as the helicopter shuddered in the air, then slewed to the side. It smashed into the jungle with a roar of crashing trees, shattering branches. Cheers rang from Mendoza’s men. But the other helicopter jinked hard to the side. The RPG fired at it whisked off and the machine guns mounted under the wings winked and flashed like hateful fireflies.

The man with the RPG, who had been trying to reload his weapon, sprawled bonelessly. Other men were cut down, flushed from cover by grenades and rifle fire. The army was getting closer and closer. Mendoza realized that his magazine hadn’t quite clicked home. He worked at the old mechanism, thinking: An old gun for an old man, eh?

That was when the army man came out from behind a tree. He had a flack vest and a brand new rifle with a combat scope. He even had an attached laser scope and underslung rifle-grenade launcher. He needed nothing. He could have hit with a thrown rock at that distance. Mendoza froze, his eyes widening.

Time seemed…

To stop.

Mendoza was ready for the impact, the hammering feeling, the long awaited question to be answered. Instead, time continued to remain still. The army man – he looked so young now that Mendoza had time to look past the rifle and into his face – had grim expression on his face. But his finger remained caught in the act of pulling the trigger. The flash had not even begun to spring from the barrel. And then, as if reality had blinked, a man appeared between the rifle and the grizzled revolutionary.

He was fairly short, as men went. But despite that, he radiated a dangerous energy that Mendoza immediately recognized. His muscles were corded and lean, not the bulging body building muscles of those terrible American movies some of his men loved. But it was his stance that Mendoza noted. As the veteran of many fights, Mendoza could see the posture of a man who was an artist with a battlefield.

The man looked about the battlefield, his dark hair wavy. His face was Mediterranean – almost as bronzed as Mendoza’s, really. He looked faintly amused.

“It’s not quite going well is it,” he said, his voice sounding faintly distant.

“No,” Mendoza said, slowly. The man spoke English. No accent, as far as Mendoza could tell. “No it is not.” He lowered his rifle. “Who are you?”

The man looked at him.

He smiled.

“I’m god, Mr. Mendoza,” he said. “And I have to say...I really respect your little revolution. And so I have come with a deal.” He held out his hand to Mendoza. Mendoza looked at it. His eyes were wide and he felt as if he could taste the electricity in the air. He should have spat in this man’s face. Him? God? But he couldn’t help but believe him. There was a deep, earnest conviction in the man’s voice. And...well...what did Mendoza have to lose.

His hand and God’s touched.

Time moved once more.

The Army man started, as if surprised to see Mendoza standing with his hand out.

He pulled back on the trigger. Despite his surprise, training held. He put a quick three round bust down range and into Mendoza. Mendoza’s shirt tore and dust went flying. He staggered slightly. But he did not fall. He looked down at his chest and saw the bullets skidding along his skin. They fell to the ground with a soft sizzle. He hissed, slightly. The impacts had done nothing. But the bullets were still hot.

The soldier gaped at him. Then, reacting with remarkable alacrity, he switched to full auto. Mendoza felt his clothing tearing as bullets slammed into him. Nearly every single one of a full, twenty, thirty round burst. They peppered him and bounced off him and left tiny, stinging burn marks. The magazine emptied and the army man’s rifle clicked as he continued to hold down on the trigger.

More cries of alarm were coming...from the army men. Mendoza looked. He saw one of his troops standing in the open, his face twisted with a manic grin. He shot an army man in the face, then another. Two more soldiers hosed the fighter down. His clothing tore. Bullets bounced. But he didn’t fall. Mendoza looked back at the army man.

“Dios Mío!” The soldier flung his rifle down, crossing himself.

And Mendoza knew exactly what to say.

“We all have a new god now,” he said, his eyes glowing. He beamed. “We all have a new god now!”