[news]After November 30th, I will be taking a week off to spend time with family and friends. Patreon will probably be on December 7th, but completely optional. I will not timegate or paywall this Nullshade book. We'll see what happens. Thank you for your support. Side note: At this point, my best guess for the genre of Nullshade overall is Unhinged Fantasy? What do you think?
Once Nullshade System is complete, there will be a few sidestories from villain POVs and then another mainline entry with either a weapon hero or a character I've been cooking for a while as well as continuing other writing projects on the side with Nullshade remaining primary, however, the only time I will post for 30 days straight is when I'm going for a push month. I enjoyed pushing myself this month, and yes, sex scenes are not something I've written before, and I will write more in future, maybe some more kinky shit too.
I will probably open a few commissions in December or early January if you're interested in that.
Again, thank you for your support. Have a good one, fellas.
Writing and Everwinter.[/news]
Marching through the dark tunnels that reminded her of Dorcus, bloated arteries with a slick lining of crimson over the blasted walls. Their footsteps made faint splashing noises as they went on. Amelia felt a gloom of anxiety setting into her mood with distracted thoughts, hormones firing and the longing for combat. They hadn't heard or seen life except for more of those cloud things that were easily dealt with. Ariella pointed directly ahead when the paths split into three. She followed the succubus until they came to an open area where the path continued. Shen followed Ari's dainty finger to the left. Amelia was bloody fucking mortified.
The path ahead swirled over to the left, where they were faced with a set of massive rocks that made her think of magic meteors. Each of them was as massive as a damn island. On top of them stood a fortress that reminded her of Dun Scaith if it were in Dark Souls or Elden Ring, bloated and brutalist in structure. Forged for Blunderbore to cook, enslave and violate humans. The structure itself was at least as big as a town and had about thirty floors, she reckoned, God knows how many below.
"This job is too big." Amelia grumbled, "Do you know your way around it?"
Ari shook her head, "There's at least ten portals inside that inflate the job," she tapped her fingers against the wall, "Ephem unleashed her plan here because she's already won. Time is too short, we should go to the third location before she can do the same there."
"Chel is lost?"
Ari nodded ruefully, "I'm sorry, mistress, I'll accept whatever punishment-"
"No." Amelia spun on her heel, "Do you know where the other tunnels lead?"
"Yes," she said, "But my knowledge has expired by... that thing's presence."
Amelia looked back at it again as she followed Ariella. What should have been towers were cuboid and cylindrical structures that towered high into the black smog above. When she used her enhanced senses, she could see faint movements of creatures on tiny wings. Bloated forms of monsters and imps. Mixed in with them, humanoid creatures with wings but with goat's feet, what looked like wyverns and clouds of bats feasting on something tied to the towers. She wasn't sure if the faint screams she heard were real.
"Ariella," Amelia said, "Are they eating what I think they are?"
She ruefully nodded, "The further removed from demon blood they get through Morgulith breeding, the more their wombs become easier for young to crawl out of. When they get old, they're stuck in lactation, and eventually, after they run dry of sexual fluids and milk, they are consumed as livestock."
"I'm getting why boys love the appeal of phonk." She ground her teeth and swung her lance in their direction, imagining shooting waves of flames to scorch the demons in one swing. Another swing for good measure. A third to cook them inside their castle walls, "Nonces."
More of the living smog rushed toward them, easily dispersed by Ariella's wings and consumed by Amelia. Up the shadowed path, she covered her mouth and cursed when she realised she hoped to smell blood to ease her mood. She needed something to kill. She took a few deep breaths, lit her pipe and sucked out as much smoke as she could manage before wheezing it in a cloud. Ariella flashed her a look of concern, and Amelia waved her to move on.
The air grew sharper. It was cold in the sense of metal sapping away the heat from her flesh, a living thing in the twisted way that demons lived to consume life and other things that should be sacred. Beasts that feed on the destruction of life, her jaw tensed the more she watched Ariella move. How she turned her nose to the wind, her steps, her wings and her skin that had grown a slight shade more dim as time went on through the oppressive environment of Chel Dungeon. She looked at her hands, those same fucking hands that couldn't help Esther even after she'd broken free.
And Ammy-Mel, what the hell are you now? You feast on flesh, sex, and blood; you've eaten people. Eaten demons, and it's your job to keep eating until— a flash of silver. She tripped Ariella and moved forward to catch her as a blade passed them overhead. She shot a small ball of fire ahead. The light revealed another incubus dashing toward them. The ball hit his shoulder, and he smiled until it exploded, leaving a crater where his shoulder was. Amelia and Ariella rushed toward him. Ariella sliced his head in three, Amelia crushed his legs and couldn't help the primal hunger, primal need that had her chewing him up. As she crushed and swallowed each piece of his body, she'd found a love for... pleasure even against her will. It was necessary.
Thrown into a world of madness, humanity and its existence are in peril of becoming livestock. "Ariella," Amelia licked the black iron off her lips, then her hands, "What do you think I am?"
"What do you mean?"
"I've eaten people, demons, lesser creatures, sex is sustenance and one of my strongest outputs besides fighting, what good am I but for primal—"
"With respect, stop crying like a stupid, petulant, indolent child." Ariella said, "You're still human, a transfigured human morphed into a different variation of humans."
Amelia stared at the unexpected outburst from the usually demure demonness.
"You're so conceited with yourself and using it in the wrong way that you're feeling sorry for yourself. Do you know how addictive your semen is? Do you know how many people would kill to be able to return from death? Are you stupid? If you feel guilty, then protect your harem, dedicate your life to it in the forest and the trees, you fight demonkind to protect humanity, by extension protecting the men and women you want to breed with. Now get up and move." She took up a chunk of the incubi's flesh and swallowed it. "I only agreed to work with you instead of taking my own life because you're effectively unstoppable."
Amelia sank back against the wall, "I do need a moment," she swallowed the incubi's tendrils and wiped her lips as Ariella's words sank in. But this was unfair, as much as Airella had it worse, and the girl did, that doesn't invalidate her suffering... Uncle would talk about how, as a ma,n you have to 'just muscle it' and get on with the job.
"Perhaps they should not have summoned a lone person to do the job, or summoned a man if they were going to make him see all of this," Ariella said frankly.
"Bitch," Amelia spat and swallowed the demon's hamstring, if it was called that. "You're really human under there, Ari."
"I'm trying." She said, "But the hunger, it's like maggots in my decaying brain. I want you to pin me down and breed me until I'm crying my eyes out begging for more, but then I want to get this reconnaissance finished."
"I hear you, I do." Amelia stood up and resisted the urge to kiss her, "Thank you for reminding me of perspective." She needed another puff of smoke to keep the feelings down, but for now...
She snapped bones, broke and regrew a few teeth as she devoured the rest of the incubus. When she swallowed its genitalia, she noticed a particular stat.
« ───────« STATUS »─────── »
Abilities:
Pyromancy: Echoflame blaster - 2 hours
Shadowhands
Bones have been converted to Hamalasteel: Hamalsteel bone projectile conversion
Craft bone missiles on arms to fire at enemies
Stats:
Lesser+ precision bonus: 2hours
Lesser+ agility boost: 2 hours
Lesser+ enhanced healing: 2 hours
Lesser+ strength: 2 hours
Stored:
Mana: 100% -> stored additional mana from food supply: 200%
Stored:
Genitalia augmentation -> lost when used to enhance or add genitalia x1
>>>Bonuses: Girth, length, tightness, wetness, additional musk and production
>>>Optional: Tentacles, amorphous genitalia -> can morph into any genitalia imagined or requested
>>>Succubus: stretchy
« ────────« END »────────»
"I've got a present for you once we're done here." Amelia said, "For your speech." She patted her head.
Ariella stared at her flatly with cherry cheeks, "Please don't tease me."
"I do apologise." She said, "Let's continue."
The Nullshader and the succubus marched through the arteries of human despair, shadows seemed to flicker and move unnaturally, shiver and grow darker as if they were shadows cast by further shadows. Amelia thought back to the urges, the hunger for violence and sex, and something else. She'd have to go talk to more men after this. She licked black liquid off her gauntlet. It tasted... sweet.
Toward the end of the jagged tunnel contained no enemies, Amelia kicked loose rocks ahead. They exited to a shaft that went up with a spiral of pathways running on the side they could use to climb. The further she peered, the further up it went until it was too dark to perceive anything. She couldn't see the top of this place, which bewildered her. They were certainly not that deep underground. Ariella raised a hand and pointed down. The shaft looked the same. Then Ariella created a small sphere of purple fire and hurled it down into the yawning abyss and pointed for Amelia to look up. She could see the fire above and below.
"I don't know what this anomaly is, but Ephem created it to confuse people. This is just the test." Ariella said, "I flew up here."
"Is there anywhere else?"
"At the bottom is a set of caverns and mazes that demons hunt and breed each other, but these creatures are akin to insects. They have two hives with four queens, and the queens have their own guards who are... the system you use, minor, lesser, intermediate, is outdated. The terms are—"
"We don't care, and neither should you unless you're gonna tell me that there's a significant difference in threat classification," Amelia said.
"Well, yes, I see your point. Numbers not creatures, it should be, minor, lesser, notable as these have unique mutations, intermediate, greater, elite, general, dreadlord, archedemon, and these are all below the first class of fell demons, the Maliddad or Mashaddar." She said with exemplary manners like a student.
"So we're done here?"
Ari sat nodding stoutly, "The other path loops around to here. Now you've seen it for yourself, they'll believe me."
"I haven't seen the other path."
"Do I have a reason to lie to you, mistress?" She offered her neck.
Amelia bit down lightly and drew her blood, then forced obeisance, "Tell me the truth."
Ariella winced, "I told you the truth, the other path loops around to this place."
Amelia regarded her carefully and nodded, "Good, very good..." She noted the faded colour of Ariella's skin and undid her skirt, "Suppose it's time again."
"Thank you," Ari whispered. She took Ammy's cock into her mouth and started sucking like she hadn't had a drink in months.
Amelia winced as the sunlight hit her eyes at the entrance. Reconciler stood at the end of the cavern entrance with a hand resting on his sheathed sword. Akatsuki stood off to the side with Tolmyr and Sabreman flanking her.
"You set the demon free?" Reconciler asked almost apologetically, "And you came back alive?" he raised a hand.
Warbringer appeared at their side. Ariella squeaked when she jumped. Warbringer regarded her carefully before he stepped closer to Amelia; she could almost see his eyes behind his visor. He pulled back and gave Reonciler a nod, "She is too human, perhaps God will redeem her upon her death." he marched away, "Report, Nullshader."
She stopped herself from making the obvious joke, "This will take a while, Ariella has a wealth of information to give us."
"How can you ensure it's authenticity?"
"Ari, go down on all fours and bark like a dog."
"You-"
"Obeisance."
She winced, then hissed and spasmed before she went down on all fours and barked, much to the humour of the soldiers who openly laughed. Warbringer raised a hand, "Tell her to speak on Ephem's existence and how she may be harmed."
"No, I'll do that happily." Ariella stayed on all fours. "The only way to harm Ephem is to isolate her from her armies and portals; otherwise, she will redirect any damage to her drones, each of which is as strong as an elite archdemon with a particularly strong resistance and healing factor. But I don't know if she can be killed."
"She will die in time," Warbringer said, "Walk with us, we will hear details upon details, Nullshader, keep the spell applied, and I hope before God that you have a good reason to return without eradicating every demon inside."
"Ser Warmonger," she relayed the details of what she had seen inside. With each word, Tolmyr stepped closer and closer as the soldiers and Knights clenched fists and muttered curses.
"We are to abandon and blockade Chel; the next location must be pressed upon before an event like this occurs. Prepare to depart and await further orders." Warbringer said, "Hobbes!"
"Ser Warbringer." He approached on horseback.
"You will listen to the report with us, and we will conduct plans for a joint operation at Dragonspine." He raised a gaunleted palm, "We depart in an hour, bustle fellows of war!"
Amelia watched the men around her briefly, and Akatsuki had something similar to them. The persistent threat of violence. Force, that was it. The reason for a patriarchy, the reason it's men building, men fighting, men leading. Force. If what she heard about Thomas Hobbes on social media was true, the leviathan is man, and males make up the strength that becomes the power of the leviathan.
Ariella stood up and made a needy noise. Amelia harrumphed and turned to the old man, "Tolmyr, can I have a smoke?"
"Esther will be overjoyed to see you." He handed her a sack of herbs.
"I don't know about that. Masa is down there. Did we recover the object she was talking about?" She raised her eyes to the heavens to remember that the sunlight she saw was dulled by overbloated clouds that were demonic in origin. She saw a glimpse of that sphere— a whistle followed by a warning horn and the tolling of a bell froze everyone like a wind at absolute zero.
"Bollocks." Tolmyr spat, "Let's hope that duchess whore is coming to you."
"Men, prepare siege weapons for dragon hunting!" Reconciler bellowed, "Healbearer, ride to Outpost and bring Crossbridge the Elder. Tell him it's time to test the King's first gambit."
Warbringer laughed like a madman with a strange red aura about him.
"Amelia Carbyne Bailey Blunt," Reconciler said, "The time for dragon hunting is upon us. You and your demon shall work with us as shields for the regular army as they prepare for the King's Gambit. God is with us, and our shadows are over you. Bear your cross, be it upside down or no."
"My soul is worthless; I failed to protect Esther Crossbridge."
"Let the Lord judge that, we humans are unfit outside of what is mundane." He drew his sword, it glittered in the dim light and spawned a beacon of radiant light that burned Ariella's flesh and made her body feel lighter, "Reconciliation with God for man, reconciliation with nothing for demon!"
"Deus vult!" The Knights and Paladins chanted.
The dragon's roar shook the ground from a far-off distance.