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Warning this story contains adult content so if you’re a minor don’t read it or if adult content involving sex, violence or super powerful women offends you don’t read it either. This story was written with input from Supernaught whose real name I haven’t inquired about.

The author namely me can be emailed or contacted on yahoo messenger at: happiest_in_shadows@yahoo.com . Reviews are welcome

“Where is mommy?”

Natasha’s attention was taken away from the report from Alex and directed towards the young girl that currently tugged at her dress. “She’s upstairs. Would you like to go and see her?”

In response Kelly gave her head a quick nod. “Yeah, I want to show her something!”

“Oh, did you find something neat while you were out playing.”

“Yes.”

“Well then come with me.” As Natasha stood up she slipped the report from Alex inside the desk. The vast majority of it dealt with things that she and her mistress would have known long before Alex did let alone wrote his report. Still, Meridea seemed to consider it to be good practice in obedience which was a very important trait for any of her hands that wanted to last for more then a few weeks.

Kelly took hold of Natasha’s hand as she was lead through the hallways. All the children knew their way around their new home quite well by now however they also knew that the upper most floors and certain parts of the basement were restricted. The only times they were allowed to go upstairs was when they were with one of their elder sisters or when they were told they could while the lower reaches of the basement were off limits all the time.

None of the children knew why this rule was put in place but they were use to such things even before they were taken to their new home. Of course some had tried to sneak upstairs without permission but they had always been caught by one of their elder sisters. Those children who did get caught doing this received varying degrees of punishment. The worse to date though was being sent to bed early and without dinner.

A knocking on her door drew Meridea’s attention away from her research for a moment. “Yes?”

“May we come in Miss Meridea?”

There was no attempt on Meridea’s part to hide the documents as she turned to face the door. The writing, words and symbols she used were well beyond even most death mage’s ability to understand without a significant amount of time to study her notes. “Yes come in.”

Before Natasha had opened the door halfway Kelly burst through. The young girl was respectful enough but seemed to explode with energy whenever she learned she could do as she asked. “Mommy, I found something for you.”

Clapping her hands together Meridea bent over so she was more level with the young child. The effects of the thrall were by now deeply rooted in not just Kelly but all the children. So much so that they had not only forgotten their natural parents but had come to consider Meridea their mother. “Really, what is it?”

Instead of answering with words Kelly reached into the large pocket on the front of her dress. A moment later she brought out a flower that in its basic shape was a lily the difference in the flower and a true lily though was the coloring. At the center of the flower it was blood red, the flower’s peddles were deep black with a tiny sliver of red running through the centers. The same red rimmed the outer edges of the flower. In all appearances it seemed to flow from the center, along the flower’s peddles and to be dripping off the edges.

“Isn’t it pretty mommy?”

“Yes it is and did you pick this for me.”

Kelly quickly nodded her head and held the flower out for Meridea to take. “I’ve never seen one like it.”

Natasha had wondered over to Meridea’s side and was looking over her notes when she heard Meridea’s voice in her head. “Go to the port and tell Alex to retrieve those that he knows of that would be willing to give up their humanity for greater power. I need willing life for this. He should also go and gather up at least ten of the best suits of armor he can find. Then I want you to go and fetch me a werewolf or two. They shouldn’t be hard to find. Take Maria with you her eyes should prove useful.”

Turning around Natasha glanced to Kelly. “I’ll see you later sweet heart. I have some things I must attend to.” Natasha knew when her mistress felt something was urgent and she knew that asking questions during those times was a bad idea.

“Okay big sister. Mommy do you know what kind of flower that is?”

“Yes I do Kelly. It’s called the heart’s blood and it’s a very rare flower. Are you sure I can have it?”

There was no hesitation as Kelly nodded her head. “Yeah, I want you to have it mommy.”

Reaching her arms around Kelly Meridea pulled the young girl to herself in a hug. Upon releasing the child she slowly stood up. “Would you mind showing me where you found this flower?” Meridea had known that the heart’s blood would begin growing due to the temple’s presence. The flower was very rare in large part due to the fact it wasn’t part of the life that infused the world it was the opposite. It only grew when the taint of the undead was exceptionally strong.

The temple provided the strong taint that the flower needed to grow. However, Meridea didn’t realize the temple had grown so powerful with her, Jahnah and Xyra tied into it so that it could cause the heart’s blood to grow so far from it. She had expected it to be confined to within the city where her skeletons and wigths could gather them up. Clearly she had underestimated the power the temple was generating.

“Kelly, I want you to promise me something. If you see any more of these flowers don’t pick them and don’t play around them. I want you to come and get me instead or one of your sisters. Is that okay?”

“Why mommy, you said you like it?”

“I do. I do. It’s just that these flowers can be very dangerous and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

“Are they poisonous?”

“No and if you have one of your big sisters with you then you can pick them if you see any. Just never do it by yourself.”

“Why is it dangerous then?”

“Monsters like to eat them and if they happened to see a sweet little thing like you with the flower. They would gobble you up as well.” A slight yelp escaped Kelly as Meridea gave her a little pinch.

“Okay mommy.”

The heart’s blood was of no danger to anyone by itself. However, Meridea hadn’t just been scaring Kelly when she warned her. The heart’s blood was of great benefit to undead and necromancers alike. On top of being an extraordinary focus for life and spells that required such focus. Undead could also feed on the flower as they would a living sentient being and if it was prepared properly and in large enough numbers could even increase the power of undead.

Attracting undead that weren’t currently under her control was Meridea’s primary reason for worrying about the heart’s blood growing so far outside of town. The giant skeletons presence would keep most undead out of the city while her presence and those of the guardian shadows would keep them away from the estate. It was those areas that lacked such a presence that the children might wonder off to play in or farm work may be occurring she had to worry about.

Meridea’s concern was increased even further by the secondary effect the temple was having. With such a strong taint that reached so far and was still growing free roaming undead were beginning to appear. The energy from the temple could actually cause those that had died before hand to rise again as lesser undead that held no master until Meridea could bring them under her control they were a threat to her efforts.

Now those free roaming undead would be drawn to the flowers. This was unacceptable to Meridea for two major reasons. The primary reason was it may endanger her work by hindering the supply lines, harming or killing any of the children or hindering the ability of the town to function. The second reason was it was a horrible waste to allow such low level undead to simply consume the heart’s blood and not take advantage of its true potential.

Alex looked out over the port watching as the latest shipments of golems arrived. All together they had managed to construct five ships capable of effectively transporting golems and were still building more. Currently two were in port one was receiving repairs due to damage caused by a strong storm while the other was being unloaded. Three others were on their way to retrieve additional golems. He was charged with making sure the golems knew where to go and were sent out of the city within the day they arrived.

He had several other tasks that he considered more then a little demeaning but had learned to keep those feelings and even the thoughts down. Still, it was impossible for him not to groan when he felt two powerful presences behind him. He didn’t even need to turn around by now to realize they were that of two of Meridea’s guardian shadows. “What do you want me to do now?”

There was a moment in which Maria was going to push a few of Alex’s buttons but she was stopped by Natasha speaking first. “First gather up ten suits of the highest quality armor and weapons you can find. Then gather up as many people as you can that you believe would be willing to become undead in exchange for far greater power then they have now. Once you have everything gathered wait for Miss Meridea outside of the temple with them.”

Neither Maria nor Natasha waited around to answer any questions Alex might have had. They had a task of their own to fulfill. Though they doubted it would be difficult. Werewolves were quite capable of benefiting from the effects of the heart’s blood and both knew they would be drawn to the region in search of them.

When Meridea had asked Kelly to take her to where she had found the flower she had expected it to be on the very edge of where the children where allowed to go or play. Instead she found it was well within the allotted area and far closer to the estate then she had thought even after Kelly had presented her with the flower. Bending down she touched a finger to just over where Kelly had indicated she found the flower. Indeed she could sense the root structure still under the ground.

As Kelly glanced over Meridea’s shoulders she was quite surprised to see the ground bulging outward. The young girl’s eyes widened as she saw the earth moving aside as the root of the heart’s blood was lifted up out of the earth. Without really thinking Kelly leaned more on Meridea as she got a closer look.

An amused chuckle escaped Meridea as she glanced out the corners of her eyes at Kelly. “Would you like to learn how to do that?”

Kelly’s eyes nearly doubled in size as she looked up at Meridea. “Yeah! Can you teach me? Please Mommy.”

It was impossible for Meridea not to giggle as she took the root into her hands. Standing up she took hold of Kelly’s hand and began to lead her back towards the estate. “Well it’ll take time and practice but if you really want to I could have your older sisters start teaching you. Are you willing to study hard?”

“Yeah, I will mommy!”

While Kelly’s reaction might have only been a child’s temporary enthusiasm it could also be a true drive and a chance to put her on the path to becoming a mage. Indeed a fair number of the new recruits in the Luvarians were children that Meridea had raised especially when it came to their death magic specialists.

Dehvess glanced up from his schematics as he felt a slight shift in the temples energy and a presence in his room. When his door opened he knew who it was. Jahnah if she was willing to shrink down or if she sent one of her small selves to the temple would have just teleported into his room. “Yes Meridea?”

“Dehvess, I was wondering if I might ask a favor of you. Recently one of my children found a heart’s blood. It seems that a fair number of them are beginning to grow outside of the city and I need a safe place to store them and perhaps grow some more.”

“Are you serious? I wasn’t even sure they existed and never expected to see one.”

Meridea gave a quick nod. For the most part only the more knowledge death mages knew that heart’s blood truly existed and a few alchemists. The death mage’s layers were often the only places they could be found and even there the numbers were far from spectacular. “They’re quite real. This is the root of one.” As she spoke Meridea held out her hand for Dehvess to see the root.

Standing up Dehvess walked over to Meridea to get a better look at the root. “This is quite interesting. So you want me to try and find a way to get them to grow under controlled situations?”

“Well as they can also serve as a focus for life energy I believe we both have an interest in them. I was thinking while Kelly showed me where the heart’s blood. Death mages have never found a truly effective way to grow heart’s bloods perhaps a life mage might have a different perspective that could solve that problem.”

“Wouldn’t saturating an area with the taint of the undead be effective?”

“Oddly no, it seems to behave like rain almost. Too little rain and the plant will never grow however too much focused in the same area and they drown.”

“Do you have any information you can provide me with?”

“Of course I do.” Reaching into her robe’s pockets Meridea produced a small booklet. From its appearance it was clear that it was around one hundred pages thick. “Now this isn’t my research notes. Well I suppose they are now. I gathered these research notes from a group of death mages I previously belonged to. We had corrupted a temple and noticed the flowers growing in enough quantity to study sense they had so much room to grow in.”

“You didn’t bother to study them yourself?”

“Well they were enough for the group to study but not each individual mage. We picked five of our members to study the heart’s blood and see what they could find. They made some progress but well be careful.”

“I take it you’re concerned that the five were treacherous.”

“Oh they all were so my believed and I had to kill them after they showed their true colors. I examined the notes and did some studies of my own to confirm their accuracy after words though. I believe I weeded out the false data they placed in but I may be wrong. Once the group disbanded the temple weakened and there just weren’t enough of the flowers to study for me to test all their information.”

“I’ll take safety measures. You said that over saturation of the taint would cause them not to grow. So they won’t grow in the temple.” Dehvess gave the right wall of his room a quick glance. “Unless they happen to be in a room which has been warded against death magic but it can’t be complete like mine.”

“I’ll try to insure that you have plenty of specimens to work with.”

“I’ll wait to see how many can be provided before I make any plans for their use. However, I can only study them on the side. I’m still working on the glyph design that will be needed in the strengthening of the temple. Of course if enough can be secured they may prove quite useful in that as well.”

Meridea gave a quick nod. “I agree. Well I need to get down stares now. Alex should be bringing me some people to interview.”

Alex felt oddly relieved as he noted the smile on Meridea’s face as she looked on the group of candidates. Natasha’s orders had been more vague then he would have liked but he tried to actually think about what his mistress would expect. “Are they to your liking mistress?”

For a moment Meridea was silent as she looked at the group. Alex hadn’t stopped at those that were simply murderous. He had also gathered up those that had slipped into despair and hopelessness. That wasn’t overly surprising considering due to Xyra’s methods many men and women had been left without their spouse. Then she had taken their young children away. “You did well Alex. Keep this up and I may see fit to refine your body.”

“Thank you.” Alex had learned that they were two main things Meridea expected from her hands to determine if they were worth keeping around. One was obedience and the second was the ability to think and anticipate what she would want done. The second had to always be done though in the course of obeying her primary order.

“Everyone, please come on into the temple and be seated. I will then speak to you each individually. Let me assure you that what I am going to propose to you is completely optional. However, I do require that you hear me out first.” As Meridea turned around the two giant skeletons she’d stationed to guard the entrance to the temple opened the door. With that she led the group in. Those waiting on the outside could watch as the alchemists continued to produce more skeletons.

The thick walls of the temple insured that Dehvess couldn’t hear what was going on down stairs. However, he could tell that the amount of people that had inside the temple had increased greatly. Their presence caused a slight rise in the chaos of the temple and he could also sense their life energy. It made him grateful for the thick walls as he read Meridea’s notes.

Channeling life energy was important for both death and life mages meaning the heart’s blood could help him in his plans to strength Jahnah, Meridea and Xyra. However, even though Dehvess had received extensive alchemic training during the time he was trained in the use of order magic the notes Meridea had provided him with were hard for him to understand. “Jahnah are you busy?”

Jahnah’s eyes fluttered open as she heard Dehvess’s voice. In the temple he only had to direct his thoughts towards her and speak for her to hear him. “No, I was just thinking how bored I am. Which when I think about it is kind of funny.”

“Why’s that?”

“You order mages normally kill fun but here I am bored without you.”

There was a long time in which Dehvess was silent. When he did his voice was loaded with sarcasm. “Well pardon me for being an order mage.”

“Okay, you’re forgiven.” In contrast to Dehvess’s sarcasm Jahnah’s voice was entirely cheery.

Instead of competing with Jahnah Dehvess resolved to just wait. He’d get a chance to take a stab at chaos mages if he just waited for the time. At the moment he had more pressing matters. “Jahnah, I need your help with the notes Meridea gave me. They’re written from a death mage’s perspective so they’re rather hard for me to understand or accept.”

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do.” Even as she spoke Jahnah knew that she was already helping Dehvess. Their years of intermingling their energies had given them both several benefits. Dehvess’s order magic had allowed her to focus where chaos mages normally couldn’t hold their concentration for long while her chaos had given Dehvess a passion unknown to other order mages.

Their death and life magic was the same. Dehvess allowed Jahnah to see things from a need to let life grow rather then just the death’s desire to consume it. Jahnah for her part could allow Dehvess to see the need to sacrifice life more clearly. Even without saying anything just by focusing on him and combining their energies she would allow him to better understand Meridea’s notes and death magic as a whole.

************************************************************************

Meridea had a large smile on her face as she looked at the eight she had chosen. All together she had found five men and three women that possessed the traits she was looking for. The group was all of adult age but some were quite elderly. That wouldn’t matter though once Meridea was finished with them.

The group was also highly varied for their reasons to agreeing to give up their humanity. Some had simply come to desire greater power others seemed to have lost all hope. An amused giggle escaped Meridea as she glanced at one of the men. He had been an adventurer before settling down in the little port down and had moderate skills with a blade.

He was the most amusing of the bunch to Meridea. His reasons for coming to her were a mixture of despair and what some might have considered noble goals. Soon he would learn that noble goals didn’t matter whenever you used methods you didn’t understand to try to achieve them.

The group had been quite surprised when they had seen the estate where Meridea kept the children. They had been told the children where being well taken care of by both the guardian shadows and those that worked there. However, the beautiful state of the home and the sight of the children playing happily had caught them off guard. It was as if they had forgotten they ever lived anywhere else.

Now they found themselves in the lower reaches of the estate and it was such a stark contrast that it had taken some of their breath away. It wasn’t that Meridea’s work shop was lacking for light. The walls were all very well lit and were even solid white. The thing that troubled most was the glyphs that had been carved throughout the room. These glyphs were also the source of the light.

“Everyone, I need your attention for a moment. Now before we begin I need to tell you one more time that this will end your lives as humans. As I told you this procedure is very similar to that used to change a death mage to a lich. Your new bodies will be far stronger, faster and more durable then your humans ones. You won’t age you will be immune to illness. Indeed you will get stronger with time and they’re more abilities then I care to list but you will no longer be alive. You will be undead. Now if you want to back out this is the time.”

There were a few glances around the room as each person weighed their options but it was no surprise to Meridea when none of them left. She had based her selection on two things. Skills the person had and the likelihood that they would go through with her proposal of their own free will.

One thing that had ceased to amazed her but still amuse her was how little people thought of the statement, “You will no longer be alive.” Few of them seemed to really consider the warning as if they believed it only meant they would no longer have a heart beat. They seemed to either not realize or not think about the fact that freedom of choice was very much a part of being alive.

“So is everyone staying then?”

It took a few moments but slowly everyone responded. “Yes.”

“Wonderful! You’ll soon find yourself in possession of power like you never dreamed. However, remember our agreement. In exchange for this ascension you have pledged your loyalty me for one lifetime.”

“We understand.”

Liars, was the dominant thought in Meridea’s head even as she continued to smile. She already knew six of the people would kill her the moment they believed they had a chance. Once again a giggle escaped her. The thought was far from depressing to her indeed she had to keep herself from giggling the entire time. She always liked it when people thought they were out smarting her. It always made for such a wonderful surprise at the end.

“Then please stand amongst the glyphs with your suits of armor. I know they look like they won’t fit some of you now but this spell will take care of that.”

“So why do you believe Meridea had all those people gather here today?” As Dehvess read through Meridea’s notes he was still amazed by how it felt to truly align his mystic energies with Jahnah. While in most case he preferred to focus his attention on as few tasks as possible as long as he held his connection with Jahnah holding multiple trains of thought could be done easily. Even reading, speaking and writing at the same time.

“Given what she found she’s probably making a special unit to gather the heart’s blood.”

“Why doesn’t she just have the wigths or skeletons she’s created handle it?”

“She’s needs something with some imagination for this task. The skeletons can follow simple orders but to have them do delicate work you really have to guide them every step of the way. That takes a lot of focus. While the wigths do retain some their inventive minds and most of their knowledge from when they were humans, not only is it not enough but well they come with other problems.”

“So what is she going to make them into?”

“The common term is death’s knights. The process is quite similar to making a lich really and like making a lich the person must be willing to undergo the change. It’s not too uncommon for death mages to transform themselves into one of death’s knights however most invest the extra time needed and become lichs.”

“So why doesn’t she make them into lichs?”

“That comes with a whole list of other problems. Have you ever noticed how little traveling lichs do?”

“Mm I never gave it much thought. I just assumed that they tended to become comfortable where they’re at.”

“Well that’s part of it but not all. So how is the reading going?”

“I’m about half done now. If these notes are accurate then it could help with that I have in mind to strengthen you.”

“Thank goodness. That arch-mage is looking tastier each time I see Annette walking around.”

“Hold on a while longer. I nearly have all the calculations I need finished and then I can begin gathering the exact materials. Who knows perhaps these flowers will speed along the process if enough can be gathered. So what are Annette and Maxwell been up to?”

“Well Maxwell’s still trying to teach Annette to draw energy from the elemental plain through her eye and into herself. Dehvess, please try to finish before she figures out how. She’s still getting larger from consuming life energy and now she can do it faster then me thanks to her increased scale.”

“Have you tried modifying your form?” Dehvess was amazed when he didn’t get an immediate response. Normally chaos mages were anything but slow to respond.

“Now I feel stupid.”

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess. “I’m surprised you didn’t think of altering your form sooner.”

“Well I guess I’ve become too comfortable in this body. I’ll see what I can do.”

“This is unbelievable.” Currently what appeared to be a man was held across Maria’s shoulder as she ran beside Natasha who was also carrying a human figure though hers was a well muscled female.

“What is?”

“They actually kept fighting.”

“You haven’t had much experience trying to control werewolves have you?”

After a moment Maria shook her head. “No, but I never expected them to keep fighting.”

“We killed the remainder of their pack and you consumed most of their flesh and blood. Werewolves are very passionate creatures so even if they know they don’t have a chance against an opponent if they’re enraged they’ll throw their lives away.”

“I’m thinking I shouldn’t have killed so many. Miss Meridea may want to use the one you’re carrying in our newest sister.”

Natasha gave a slight shrug causing the woman to groan as it meant shifting her position more. She had been forced to revert to her human state after being knocked unconscious by Natasha and was still quite sore from the beating. “If she does we can go and retrieve more. With a region this large I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more then one pack drawn here. Where are all the children?”

“Bed of course.”

Glancing up at the sky a slight chuckle escaped Natasha. “Miss Meridea should have finished the spell by now. Are any of them still awake?”

For a few moments Maria was silent as she examined each of the children with her second sight. “A few of them are fighting their sleep but Mercy is tending to them. They’ll be asleep by the time we arrive.”

“Okay we can just take the main entrance then. I was worried that we’d have to try to sneak around.”

A delighted grin was on Meridea’s face as she walked over to a small table in her work room. The table was kept separate from her work area and was where she placed her music box when her work required the use of both hands. Upon retrieving the object she turned back towards the eight armor clad figures in the room. Each one of them where currently kneeling on the ground. “And what is your reason for existing.”

The response came in unison as none needed to even think to answer the question. “We exist to serve you Mistress.”

“Okay, now whoever wants to kill me please stand up.”

Once again the response was instant as five of the figures stood up. Three male two female, this wasn’t an act of fear on their part. They simply had no choice but to comply with Meridea’s desires. The spell she had used in their creation had given her complete dominion over their bodies.

“Wonderful! Can you kill me?”

“Yes.”

“But what must happen before you can do that?”

“You must grant us permission to do so.”

It was impossible for Meridea not to giggle. In truth all eight of the knights had no chance of killing her even if she granted them permission to attack her with everything they had. Their answer had been based on their limited knowledge of what she was actually capable of doing. “Okay, now I suppose I should tell you why I made you. You’re going to search for the Heart’s blood flower.” As she spoke Meridea retrieved the flower Kelly had given her from the same stand her box had rested upon. “You will gather the flowers up with their roots and bring them to Dehvess in the temple.”

“When shall we begin?”

“Soon, I have Natasha and Maria bringing something to help you track the flower. I’ll need some time to break them so they’ll follow orders but you should be able to begin shortly. Until they arrive I’ll tell you what I know about the heart’s blood.”

As Natasha and Maria made their way lower beneath the estate they finally came to the door which led to Meridea’s work room. It had actually been a wine seller in previous days. Neither of them bothered knocking before entering the room. Meridea already knew they were coming. That however didn’t stop Maria from calling out. “We’re back.”

Meridea turned as Maria entered. “Welcome back. Oh!” Meridea’s eyes seemed to light up upon Natasha entering carrying the woman. Her gaze instantly fell upon the female werewolf’s left arm and quickly traveled to her leg muscles.

A sigh escaped Maria as she glanced back at Natasha. “I told you.”

“Natasha, please set the werewolf down upon the table. I want to examine her for a few moments. Maria if you don’t mind put some shackles on yours and put a muzzle on him as well.”

Upon setting the female wolf down Meridea quickly walked over to her and began to examine the body. She had to think the woman was left handed as she felt of her muscles. Despite being well developed though the arm wasn’t bulky and showed the development of one that needed both speed and power to survive. “Wow, this is quite impressive. I rarely see.” Meridea grew silent as she noted a slight residue on the woman’s teeth. “OH I see.”

“What is it Miss Meridea?”

“It’s rare I see a werewolf alchemist especially one that is this developed. I’m afraid the flowers have been growing longer then I believed they had been. They may well have started even while Xyra was here.”

“What makes you believe that?”

“There is a residue of processed heart’s blood on her teeth.” As she spoke Meridea reached into the woman’s mouth and pulled her gums to the side a bit so Natasha could see. “It explains why her body is so well developed as well.” Turning her head Meridea glanced over at the male Maria had just chained. He was another exceptional specimen of a werewolf though not on par with the female.

“So they’ve been refining and consuming the flowers?”

“Mm, I doubt that. The pack probably came here drawn by the heart’s blood but few know how to process it to truly enhance their abilities. If I’d had to guess I would say this female was the only member of the pack that did so. Tell me did you see anything to indicate leadership had recently changed?”

“Well we didn’t do this.” Drawing Meridea’s attention Maria pulled the male’s head to the side. While not on the neck there was a rather large scar rather close. Most likely it was a warning that stated quite clearly. I can kill you. “Do you believe she used the flowers to gain the strength needed to take control of her clan?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me. You’re the one with the seer’s eyes though.”

Reaching up Maria gave her head a quick smack. “Whoops. Give me a second and I’ll see what happened.”

“Miss Meridea. Should we go and seek another wolf for you? You seem to have taken an interest in this one.”

Glancing up at Natasha Meridea shook her head. “No. That won’t be necessary. I’ll wait and let her develop further before I use her. Well as long as she doesn’t force me to kill her. Training werewolves can be so troublesome at times.”

While in most cases Meridea could easily dominate an undead’s mind a werewolf wasn’t quite the same story. They were similar to undead but not quite the same. A being of flesh and spirit that shared many traits of the undead but lacked others. They were just alive enough to prevent Meridea from easily dominating their minds.

“You’re right Miss Meridea. Two weeks after Xyra’s arrival they made their appearance. Apparently they even snuck into the town and gathered the flowers while they were still growing near the incomplete temple. She secretly processed them.”

“Did she have any left?”

“Yes, I can see her hiding place now. Should I go retrieve them?”

“Yes and take them to Dehvess. Also if she has any notes on the subject acquire them as well.” As Meridea was speaking with Maria the female werewolf began to awake. Finding a human holding her cheek out slightly was far from a welcome way to make up and instantly she bit down on Meridea’s fingers. She wished she hadn’t only microseconds later.

There was a surge of energy that rushed into Meridea the moment the werewolf bit down on her gloves. Even though she was in her human state the werewolf had managed to cut through the fine material and get to Meridea’s skin. The end result was that Meridea had begun drawing in her life force the moment she bit down. A slight giggle escaped Meridea as the woman quickly opened her mouth back up.

“Well that serves you right for damaging my glove.” With the woman now clearly awake though in a horrendous amount of pain due to the beating Natasha had given and now biting Meridea’s finger there didn’t seem to be a immediate need to chain her. It wasn’t likely that she’d be able to do more then crawl if even that for some time.

A slight chuckle escaped Natasha as she watched the female werewolf tremble from the pain. She wasn’t sure how much the woman had lost in that moment but it was clearly enough to make a werewolf even regret its actions. “Well I guess that’s what happens when one bites the hand that feeds them.”

For a moment Meridea sighed as she looked her glove over. Though the sigh wasn’t due to the glove, “I wish my hands could truly nurture. However, as the young lady just learned they can only take. At least I doubt I’ll have anymore trouble with her trying to bite me. Well I believe I have everything I need now. Natasha this may take a while you can stay if you wish or leave.”

For a moment Natasha looked at the werewolf. Then she gave a slight shrug. “I’ll go and tend to some of the other chores. My sisters will give me a hard time if I don’t help out a little.”

“Alright, feel free to take the time to relax though.”

************************************************************************

Even though no one could have seen it if they had looked at him due to their connection Jahnah could feel it. Dehvess was becoming quite frustrated with something. “What’s wrong?”

“Jahnah I have some bad news.”

“Huh, what is it?”

“I’ve figured out how to strengthen the temple and made all the calculations as to what will be needed. I effectively have everything that I need except for one item and it may take me a while to get it. I need something to serve as the focus point within the temple a flesh golem would be idea for it but it would have to be relatively high level and we don’t have any on hand that would work. It’ll also take me a while to construct the golem myself.”

“Are you looking for something to serve as a focus for life energy?”

“Yeah, that would be the golem’s purpose.”

“What about the heart’s blood? They are wonderful focal points and even have many of the properties found in flesh.”

“That’s a very good idea. I don’t know if it will work though. I haven’t studied all the properties of the heart’s blood. Huh, that is amusing.”

“What is?”

“The heart’s blood’s peddles remind me of someone’s clothing. I know a particular chaos mage that likes to wear red and black.”

A slight giggle escaped Jahnah. “Well it is a rather pretty color combination. I never thought I favored any particular colors though.”

“You do whenever you have enough order in your system. However, I don’t believe it’s a good idea to depend on the heart’s blood. I’m going to have to secure a supply of properly processed flesh to make the golem.”

Both Jahnah and Dehvess were surprised when a third voice entered the conversation. Xyra had been listening in. “Pardon me Mistress but I believe my flesh would be suitable.”

Jahnah was quite surprised to hear Xyra speaking up and even more so to have her volunteer. Xyra was right though the flesh that composed her body would be suitable for the making of a flesh golem. “Now Xyra you do realize what will happen if we remove the flesh from you.”

“I’ll shrink in size and diminish in physical power for a time. How much of my flesh is going to be required though?”

“I would need enough to make a human sized figure.”

“Then I have plenty for that purpose.”

After a moment of thinking Jahnah spoke up. “Xyra, why did you volunteer to give up your flesh so quickly? I know you like your size.”

“I do Mistress but my first priority is to serve you and Dehvess to the best of my ability. When I started the temples construction it was to help you first and myself third.”

“Oh so you did it for Dehvess as well?”

“Yes, as it allowed you to lesson the strain you put on him to control the tiara’s energies.”

Reaching up Jahnah felt of her forehead. The tiara had vanished entirely within her a few weeks past and now all of the jewels had been absorbed within her. The only exception was a large jewel that was on her forehead. “Well thank you Xyra. You’re proving to be more and more useful.”

“Thank you Mistress. Should I return now?”

“Well Dehvess should she?”

“Give me a day to get everything ready. I’ll need to prepare a room to craft the golem. During the intermediate stages of golem construction I’ll continue my research on the heart’s blood and see if there is a use for it.”

************************************************************************

“Hello Dehvess.” Xyra smiled as she bent down in front of the temple doors. She had gained a great deal of size and strength sense she last visited the town. However, despite her increased size it was clear the town’s people recognized her. The feeling of despair was so great it was almost palpable to even those that hadn’t been trained in magic.

For a moment Dehvess just looked up at Xyra. She wasn’t as large as Jahnah but he knew she couldn’t stand up in the temple any longer. “Hello Xyra, I see you’ve done well for yourself.”

“I’ve been feeding so well I haven’t even had to call on Mistress Jahnah except to provide me with the lowest energy levels. Your idea to have me terrorize the towns I cross has yielded other results as well.”

“I haven’t been able to keep track of things sense I’ve been here. Tell me how are things going?”

“The golems that were recently shipped have been used to reinforce the defensive line. Mistress Jahnah and Annette have taken a few towns and left the remainder of the golems and some soldiers there to hold them.”

“Huh, Jahnah hasn’t mentioned going further into enemy territory to me. How far has she been going?”

Xyra was about to respond when she felt Jahnah’s presence in her mind. Clearly this was something her Mistress didn’t want Dehvess to know about. “I’m not allowed to say.”

“Huh?”

“Mistress Jahnah just told me I’m not allowed to tell you more about her activities then I have.”

It only took Dehvess a moment to realize what was going on. “So while she still complains about not being on par with Annette she has continued growing. No wonder she only sends her shadow selves to visit me.”

Jahnah hadn’t planned on getting involved on the conversation but now she saw no reason not to. “Darn it I wanted how much I had grown to be a surprise.”

“Well I still don’t know how much you’ve grown.”

“Yeah, but you do know its enough that I believe it would surprise you.”

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess. “Yes, but if I hadn’t known I might have thought it was due to the temple. That is unless you plan on coming to visit me in your true body before then.”

“And let Annette get a further lead on me? No, I’m not going to allow that to happen.”

“Well then I suppose I should get to work. There is a lot to be done.”

Meridea hadn’t bothered listening in on Dehvess’s and Jahnah’s conversations. However, as they spoke outside of the temple and due to Xyra’s arrival her attention had been drawn through the giant skeletons that served as guards. Now she decided to offer her services. “You know Dehvess isn’t the only one around that can work with flesh golems. I can’t animate them of course and they’re a few other problems but they are several areas I can help with.”

“That would be very helpful Meridea and if you wouldn’t mind. Would you check over my work?” While Meridea couldn’t perform certain parts of the flesh golem’s construction process Dehvess knew it wasn’t due to a lack of knowledge. In order to construct a flesh golem one had to be able to invest life energy into it and that was something Meridea couldn’t do not because of lack of skill or knowledge but lack of ability.

“I’d be glad to. After all, your research of the heart’s blood flower may benefit me even beyond this project.”

“I hope so but for now. Xyra are you ready?”

“Yeah, I’m as ready as I’m going to get.”

Dehvess gave a nod. “Very well, I’ll have to go back inside and retrieve the container for the flesh. I didn’t expect you to grow so large so quickly so I left it inside.”

“Okay.”

“Xyra, before I go. Where did you leave the copper golems you left with?”

“I had them wait at the main gate.”

“Have you lost any yet? While you’re here we may as well replenish any that you’ve lost.”

“Nope I haven’t lost any. I’ve been very careful to deal with anyone wielding an enchanted weapon myself. I’m hoping one of them will prove to be the golem breaker but so far none have had the skill needed.”

Dehvess gave a nod and made his way back into the temple. Near the back of the main hall he came to what some might have mistaken for a rather expensive coffin. Before leaning down to pick it up he pressed his right hand to his chest. A stream of life energy was made to flicker across his fingers as he used a medium level strength enhancement spell. A low level would have been sufficient to let him carry the case by himself but he didn’t feel like exerting himself with the task that lay before him.

Xyra continued to watch Dehvess as he lifted the case and made his way back towards her. She knew that he wouldn’t be able to leave the steps of the temple or the link between him and Jahnah would be broken. If it hadn’t been for that she would have liked to try picking it up. “So you’ve spent a few weeks in here?”

“Yes.”

“That must get boring.”

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess. “Not to a mage of my order. We prefer if things remain consistent.”

After a moment Xyra gave a nod. She could feel her mistress all around her and inside of her. Still, she liked to think she was having a somewhat private conversation with Dehvess. While she didn’t feel the same level of devotion Jahnah felt. Jahnah’s will was still her own so she was more then a little fond of Dehvess. “Do you like the architecture?”

“It goes against every aspect of my training. It’s primarily focuses are death and chaos. Despite that I can’t help but love it given the core subject matter.” As he spoke Xyra and Jahnah were both made to giggle.

Upon seeing Dehvess set down the container a sigh escaped Xyra. She hadn’t been kidding when she said she didn’t like doing this but she had her priorities. Reaching out she held one of her fingers out over the coffin. Her finger then began to glow bright red while a light aura surrounded the rest of her body. A very thick red liquid then began to flow from her finger and fill the coffin.

Dehvess’s eyes widened for a moment as he saw the red flesh forming. Depending on the amount of life energy the refined flesh for a flesh golem took on different textures. Most of them time they looked like regular healthy human skin if it was pale the flesh was low quality. Often what was considered the less important areas of the golem would be made from the paler flesh.

Red on the other hand was rare. Most often it was gained by using nothing but blood which contained a disproportional amount of life within it. Glancing up at Xyra he noted she seemed to be losing more size then the volume of the flesh would have indicated. “Xyra if you’re going to give me that high of quality of materials that is all I need.”

“Will more help you with your work?”

“It would let me build a stronger golem but it isn’t needed.”

“If the golem will be stronger then I’ll fill it up.” Despite her words Xyra already felt incredibly hungry. She had thought about asking if she could stay for a day but now she’d changed her mind. She wanted to get back to enemy territory and stop the burning hunger she was feeling.

************************************************************************

Natasha was used to the concept that chaos mages became mentally unstable do to the magic they practiced. However, she had recently decided that order mages had no grounds to call chaos mages crazy. As far as she was concerned now they were both insane given that Dehvess had run her out of the room he was to build the flesh golem and perform the actual ritual to strengthen the temple in.

She had come to help him with the glyphs that he had to carve throughout the room. He had told her that he’d rather due it himself. She’d then insisted that he could guide her while she did the actual cutting. The conversation had gone on a little longer and he’d finally shoved her out of the room when she wouldn’t leave quickly enough.

At least he had stopped once she was out the door. Now he was using an enchanted cutter to make the needed glyphs. He’d already covered half the floor with them and showed no sign of stopping. When she looked at the edges of the room it was clear the glyph was meant to extend up the walls and it wouldn’t surprise her if it ended up covering the roof.

While Dehvess knew Natasha was quite capable of making very precise cuts. He didn’t feel comfortable having her draw the glyphs for him even if he did lay out a design as she’d suggested. Not only did the glyphs have to follow an exact design but they had to be cut in an exact order. He had to also insure that none of the glyphs were actually finished until they were all connected.

If one of the glyphs was activated before it was time the whole ritual would be ruined. Much like if a note in an orchestra was finished before it was meant to be. He’d have to have the glyphs removed and start over again. It had taken him a considerable amount of time to figure out the exact layout that would let him interlink all the glyphs but not finish any of them.

“Natasha, would you please go and get me some water?”

“Will you shove me to the kitchen if I don’t?”

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess and he glanced up from his work. “No. Though when you return please insure there is no dirt on your feet. I need to make sure this room remains clean.”

“Well sense you’re asking this time and not pushing I’ll be back in under a minute.”

Before Dehvess could even nod his head Natasha vanished. At least she wasn’t truly upset with him for running her out of the room. He just didn’t want to risk her completing one of the glyphs before it was meant to be finished. While something disturbing the glyphs wouldn’t ruin the project it would delay it and time was something he had to concern himself with.

Ever sense Annette had returned to the battle field the main army of the kingdom had been avoiding her and playing defense. Of course they could only do that for so long as more golems arrived and allowed them to hold more land. Still, this would mean they were getting desperate and given that they had summoned the monolith before hand he knew that desperation would lead to something big.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Setting up Dehvess took the glass from Natasha. As he drained the glass he looked around at his progress. The stat boost he gained while in the temple due to Jahnah’s aura had allowed him to make a great deal of progress. Still, he could feel fatigue beginning to set in and knew that soon he’d have to take a break or risk making a foolish mistake.

“So does this require you to cover the sealing as well?”

“Yes, or I would have to try to compact more of the glyph on the floor. Spreading the glyphs throughout the room makes it much less complex.”

“Does that mean the glyph could be concentrated into a small area?”

“Yes, nearly any glyph can be concentrate in as small of an area as a coin. However, by spreading them out it simplifies the task and lowers the risk of a little slip up ruining the entire project.”

Once Dehvess was finished with the glass Natasha snatched it from him before he could even lift it to her. “Should I go get another? You’ve been sweating the entire time.”

Instead of responding right away Dehvess took a moment to try to focus on the glyphs. While he could use his life magic to restore his body’s fatigue his mind was another story. He needed to take a moment and see if he could remember what the glyph should look like at least three stages before he began drawing in that area. “No, I’ll go get it myself. I thought I would keep working for a while longer but I don’t want to run the chance of damaging anything.”

“Very well, now are you sure you don’t want me to carve some of the glyph for you?” A delighted giggle escaped Natasha the moment Dehvess looked in her direction.

For a moment Dehvess was made to scowl at the guardian shadow. However, when he heard her giggling and realized she was joking he was made to grin as well. “I believe I’ll go to my work shop and check on the flower’s progress and check over what Meridea’s done with the golem.”

“Alright, I’ll go find something else to occupy my time. I’m sure the children would like to go for a little walk.”

When the giant skeleton moved to the side a few of the alchemists glanced over at them. The door leading down to the lower levels where Dehvess was making the glyphs was guarded by three of Meridea’s giant skeletons. Two stood on either side of the door while a third stood right in front of it. The same had been done for the stairway that led to the higher areas.

Despite this there had been some talk that they alchemists were in a perfect position to do something about the temple. Though such talk was very rare due to memories of Xyra and fear of what consequences there may be for such actions.

Still some had talked about the alchemists blowing up the temple. Given that they spent their days in the main hall working on making the skeletons it seemed too many they were in the perfect position to blow the entire thing up. This however was a falsehood. While far from intelligent and completely lacking in imagination the giant skeletons could follow basic orders and this included memorizing the details of a simple alchemic process.

They kept a constant eye on the alchemists to insure they didn’t attempt to contaminate the alchemic chambers Meridea had built. Indeed they not only prevented them from adding anything in but they were smart enough to keep track of their work. Once they had even prevented them from adding the burning coal to the solution before it was fully prepared.

With that knowledge none risked more then a glance at Dehvess as he made his way through the main hall and up the stairs. A few of them did risk a few moments on thoughts of sneaking past the skeletons to see what he was working on however even those brave enough for that dared not give the thoughts voice.

In total, Dehvess had three work shops in the temple. The one in the basement was where the spell to strengthen the temple was to be performed and the flesh golem would be stationed. The other two involved expansions to his room. In one he stored all his notes and performed all his calculations. It was completely warded against death magic as was his bedroom.

The final lab was actually sectioned of. Several flower beds lined the walls and each one of them had a protective glyph of different strength against death magic. This allowed Dehvess to study the hearts blood when it had certain levels of death magic to draw from. A few of these had been thrown out as they were clearly either two weakly warded or too strongly.

Then in the center of the room were two coffin-like structures. One of them contained the refined flesh Xyra had provided him while in the second the golem was being constructed. These were both completely warded against death magic. Dehvess didn’t want to run the risk of the heavy taint of the undead affecting the golem while it was still vulnerable.

Upon entering his lab he found that Meridea had made some progress. She had begun shaping the frame work or bones of the golem. She hadn’t been able to finish though as she hadn’t connected the bones to one another yet and Dehvess needed to further refine them. Jahnah and Meridea could both construct the basic components for flesh golems and the lower level golems themselves but they had only gone so far then in their studies of that field then taken other paths.

Dehvess for his part had been fully trained in the construction of flesh golems and had developed some unique methods himself. Such techniques were what allowed him to consider himself a master of the craft and not just a veteran.

There was a moment in which he was tempted to begin work on the golem when he saw it but he stopped himself. Much like the glyphs he couldn’t afford to make a mistake with the golem and at the moment he was too tired. He’d have to settle for studying the heart’s blood, eating dinner and then getting some sleep.

“Well that’s an awfully boring way to spend your day.”

“Hello Jahnah.” This time instead of just hearing a verbal response Dehvess felt something brush against the top of his head and two arms wrapped around him. A moment later he was pulled backwards against Jahnah’s chests. When he looked up all he could see what the underside of her breasts.

While the temple limited what size she could take on when she sent one of her lesser selves to visit Dehvess there was enough room to make herself into a mini-giantess. Her favorite height was just tall enough to insure that the top of Dehvess’s head brushed against the bottom of her breasts when she pulled him against herself. “Why do you believe the head priest wanted to have such a high sealing?”

“A large room tends to confirm status as long as the architecture is costly as well. I’m glad that their ego demanded such a large room though.”

“I am to. So do you mind if I take a look at your workshop?”

“Feel free to.”

Instead of just backing away from Dehvess Jahnah reached one of her arms behind him. Placing the palm of her hand firmly against his but she then lifted Dehvess into the air. “I haven’t been able to see what you’ve been doing sense you warded it so heavily.”

“I like to make sure the rooms I keep my notes in are well protected from scrying.”

“Yeah even from the gods it seems.” A delighted giggle escaped Jahnah as she opened the door and stepped into the room. On every wall powerful glyphs resigned. The room had as many glyphs to protect from scrying as it had to prevent death magic from affecting those inside of the room.

This wasn’t a real surprise to Jahnah considering how carefully Dehvess tended to protect his secrets from mystic viewing. She didn’t realize that Dehvess had actually gone further then what was needed to insure that even she couldn’t see everything that went on inside of the room. She knew if he was in there and if he was distressed. They could also still speak but he had worked very hard to block her sight.

While Jahnah and Dehvess had been teaching and continued to teach each other their primary fields of magic. They had never taught their secondary skills of life and death magic. This was fortunate in some ways for Dehvess as it meant Jahnah didn’t realize there was a certain level of danger in the spell he was using to strengthen the temple. It wasn’t so great he felt he shouldn’t perform the spell but he knew it was great enough that Jahnah would stop him if she knew about it.

Letting Jahnah into his work area was a calculated risk though. He knew that she might notice the spell and see the danger regardless. However, if he didn’t allow her inside he knew she’d suspect something.

The first thing that caught Jahnah’s attention upon entering the room was a massive sheet of paper that hung against the far wall. Upon that paper was the glyph that Dehvess was actually using in the basement though he hadn’t been as careful while making it as he was with the one in the basement. He hadn’t needed to be careful about the order he made the glyphs on the one that hung in his room as it was never meant to be used.

“Are those circles where you made mistakes?”

“The circles represent corrected mistakes. They’re areas that I had to refine so that the glyphs would work as one spell.”

“So they represent mistakes.” A slight giggle escaped Jahnah as she noted the look of annoyance on his face. Playfully she stuck her tongue out at him. As she looked past Dehvess she noted one of the glyphs on the wall. “Hey, doesn’t that glyph require an energy source?”

“Most of the ones I used in this room do.”

“What? Are you re-casting the spell to empower them periodically?”

“No, I just decided that sense I have that available.” As he spoke Dehvess pointed to a corner of the room, “I might as well use its energy.”

Glancing to where Dehvess pointed what Jahnah found was the golem armor Hellik had sent. Dehvess had set the armor up so that it was providing the energy the glyphs throughout the room needed to function. “I see. I suppose it is a bit much to wear around on a regular basis and speaking of what we’re wearing.”

Even before Jahnah could make her suggestion Dehvess reached a hand out and grasp the front of her breasts just over her nipple. While she was no where near as large as what she’d been the last time they were together at her current scale her breasts was still far larger then he could hope to grasp even with both hands. “I’m not sure my bed is large enough.”

“That isn’t a problem. This body is quite comfortable on most surfaces and you’re never going to touch the ground.”

************************************************************************

Annette couldn’t help but grin as she strolled throughout enemy territory. Maxwell had sent her on an errand to obtain some information and cause some damage while she was there. Of course she couldn’t really be sneaky about the information gathering. She was entirely too large for that.

The solution to the problem was simply to have her cause so much damage they didn’t notice her retrieving the information. Maxwell’s spies and scouts would pick a town or city that was largely pro-kingdom. They would then leave the information in a specially marked barrel and use a signal spell.

When one of the spells was detected it was then used to locate the town and Annette or Jahnah or both would be sent to deal with it. On this particular mission it was Annette by herself. Of course this concerned her. Jahnah wouldn’t normally allow her to go on such a mission by herself not for safety’s sake but to insure she didn’t grow that much more then her.

She knew that Jahnah would have to be up to something if she wasn’t coming along. Either she had found a way to increase her size and believed it would be more effective then the usual means or she had no choice but to take care of something. However, if something was causing Jahnah such a high level of concern Annette couldn’t help but believe Jahnah would tell her about it. Thus it meant she must have found a way to increase her size.

Despite that concern Annette couldn’t help but grin. This would be the largest settlement she had gotten to play with in quite some time. She was making progress in learning to pull energy from the elemental plain as well. At the moment she could even do so herself as long as she had a catalyst like a fire near by. Though she could only draw on the energy that the catalyst represented.

She’d been a bit surprised when she discovered that she needed to be outside to draw on earth and had to be near a natural flowing body of water for water. Apparently whenever humans processed the stones or forced the water to take a different rout then its natural path it caused it to shift slightly on an elemental level.

Fire surprisingly didn’t have to be of natural origin to work while wind had to be particularly strong to be an effective catalyst. She had taking to keeping an oil lamp in her room burning at all times so she could draw energy throughout the night. She had also found that she could now absorb the more basic fire spells that Maxwell used against her. At the moment she was trying to convince him to let her borrow his sword for a while.

Maxwell was hesitant to do that as he worried she might end up draining the core enchantment out of the weapon and leave it just a regular bit of high grade metal. Annette had resolved that later she’d have to go through her trophy room and see if there was something that she could trade him that would convince him to give her the weapon.

As the town came within view Annette pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind. In truth the town was border line to being a city. Even the streets had been paved. It was clear to her that the populace had seen her coming as they had already began to both flee and hide. This didn’t bother Annette she’d leave a few of them alive to let everyone know what happened. The rest she’d eat and use their life energy to increase her size further.

As she noted the people leaving through the gates she did wish that she’d learned to summon elementals. It would have been wonderful to be able to summon a few earth elementals to block their path. Maxwell believed that she had the ability and simply needed to learn how but for the moment such skills escaped her.

“Hi I hope no one minds if I stop by for dinner.” A delighted giggle escaped Annette as she made a strait line for the town and stepped over the protective wall. She loved making use of protective barriers to trap her prey. The very thing they build to protect them from raids often doomed then whenever she arrived. After taking a moment to admire the panic she’d already caused Annette began making her way towards the center of town.

With each step Annette took near by buildings would tremble and several of the panic stricken people were made to stumble and even fall. Once she drew close enough that she couldn’t avoid stepping on people if she moved further she began clearing a path. Bending down Annette reached her massive hand into the ground and grabbed up a handful of the little people.

An absolute shriek of horror could be heard coming from Annette’s hand as she lifted the people towards her mouth. Even before they weren’t close enough she opened it allowing them to see into the massive void. Holding them slightly above her head she released her grip on them. Several of the people who had been struggling to escape her grasp now grabbed hold of her fingers in hope of avoiding a fall into her mouth.

In response Annette’s massive tongue darted out and began to lick along her fingers. With each swipe she took another clinger into her mouth. Due to her larger scale she no longer needed to chew and even swallowing required little effort on her part. She was now so massive that two or three people at a time could slip down into her throat. “Mm”

Those that dared to look back as they heard the giantess moan put more energy into their sprint. However, this only made them push harder on those in front of them as they tried to squeeze through gates that were never meant to handle such heavy traffic.

There was no real need for Annette to move as the people continued to try to escape. They quickly filled the space she had only emptied a moment ago. Reaching down this time she took two handfuls.

Annette could feel the struggles of the people as they slid down her throat. Though she could no longer hear them she imagined they continued to scream and struggle to climb out of her even as she sent another group down into the void. She couldn’t feel any extra life energy meaning the first group had yet to make it into her stomach. An amused giggle escaped her when she realized that she’d grown so large that it was actually taking some time for her muscles to work the people down into her stomach.

The heat within Annette’s body was horrific as they slid down her throat. They could feel the pressure increase around them every time her muscles would work them further down. As they struggled their body was further coated with her fluids which only caused them to slide down towards her stomach more easily. The entire journey seemed horrifically long thanks to the distance they had to travel and their fear.

No one could be truly sure where the screams were coming from. As they descended they seemed to be coming from everywhere. Those around them screamed while those below did as well. Then they heard new screams and pleading coming from above. The people that were bunched together whether they had been holding onto one another or simply ended up that way would feel as if they were being crushed from time to time as Annette’s throat muscles worked them further down.

The heat within Annette was oppressive and only seemed to grow more so as they slid further down inside of her. Her heart beat couldn’t be heard due to the people’s screams but it could be felt as her entire body pulsed with each beat of her heart. The air was becoming more and more tainted as they drifted lower into her body and it seemed to even burn at their eyes and lunges.

While Annette gorged herself she didn’t notice the buildings to either side of her. She’d grown so large that she couldn’t prevent her legs from crushing several of them that lined the road as she made progress through the crowds. There no real time for her to savor her food as she felt too many would escape if she did and she wasn’t suppose to chase them throughout the country side. So she resolved to simply gorge herself as quickly as she could.

Several of those captured by Annette’s massive hands ended up with broken bones even before they reached her mouth. Limbs caught between her fingers were often crushed and slowly a film of blood was building up upon her finger were these limps had been crushed.

She felt a pulse of energy as the first group finally entered within her stomach. Even before she felt any energy she felt the people moving about. It was clear that they knew where they had arrived and they began to search for an exit. Their movements only served to tickle Annette as a delighted giggle escaped her.

Those who were first to enter into Annette’s stomach weren’t immediately assaulted by her stomach acids Up until then she hadn’t eaten so for the time it was empty. However, they could hear one another’s screams and the sound of Annette’s stomach as it began to work. The ground beneath their feet shifted and several of them slipped upon the fluids that lined her stomach and that had coated her body.

For a moment Annette glanced up and towards the main gate. She could see people streaming out however no where quickly enough. Not only were they hindered by their numbers but their own panic as too many tried to push through at once.

Placing her hands together Annette reached into the crowd and scooped up to great handfuls of people. Turning her head up and holding them up to her mouth she used her thumbs and formed her hands into a v to help prevent them from sliding off the sides as she poured the people into her mouth.

Despite her efforts Annette felt several of the people sliding out of her hands and off her face. She was simply trying to force down more then she could handle at once. A delighted giggle escaped her as she emptied her hands and looked down into the crowd. Those that had fallen had been broken by the fall. Still, they had enough life energy for her to pick them up and pop them into her mouth. “I guess I’m a little over eager. Sorry about my manners I’m getting use to my new body and I suppose I want to bite off more then I can swallow.”

Now that she had more control of herself Annette slowed down. Reaching into the crowd she filled her hands as best she could this time. The people had by now started taking alternate routs and she had been thinning them quite actively in that area. As she forced several of them into her mouth she took a few moments to look around. First she located the path the most were using to travel now.

The second thing she found was the barrel that held the information. Maxwell had given his people a list of locations to hide them at to make it easier on Annette. Of course these locations always involved low traffic. That way she could get an idea where the container would be found by locating the path the fewest people used. It was clear why the current location was chosen. It was near a tannery, the smell from the work there insured few would go near it intentionally.

Once Annette emptied her second hand she reached back into the mod and grabbed up a few more people. Then standing to her full towering height she began to make her way towards the secondary path. By now she could feel a few more groups of people had joined those in her belly. Most likely they had began bumping into one another by now as they found their confines growing increasingly crowded and dangerous as her stomach began to do its job.

Annette had grown far too large even before she came to the town to walk through the streets and not damage the buildings. Her feet were simply so massive they’d cover the street and still heavily damage buildings to either side of her even if she walked toe to heel.

This actually gave her a bit of a thrill as she made her way throughout the streets. The feeling of the sides of her feet touching down on the buildings to either side of her was quite enjoyable to her. Many of the structures lost their front walls entirely and were made to collapse. A few of them were able to remain standing despite the sudden force being exerted upon them.

Walking toe to heel slowed her walking speed to some extent but Annette found she enjoyed it. The thought that she was taking up as little room as possible and still destroying buildings on either side of her was quite amusing to her. She also took the time to sway her hips as if she was displaying a new outfit.

Those that looked up and saw Annette moving could tell where she was going quite easily. However, they couldn’t change direction as the mob of people who were too blind to see what was coming towards them would have trampled them. Only those on the very edges could change directions and not be trampled.

As Annette walked throughout the streets she intentionally brushed her foot against several buildings. When doing so she worked to insure that the debris covered the streets to the maxim affect. By now enough people had escaped that she didn’t have to worry about the story being told. Though she had no intention of blocking off every exit she now felt comfortable guiding them down a particular path.

With every path Annette blocked off the streets that remained open became more crowded as more tried to fit through a smaller and smaller area. The people’s panic only made guiding them down a particular path easier for Annette. After giving her work one last quick look she once again lowered herself down and reached into the crowd.

************************************************************************

“You’re upset aren’t you Jahnah?”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m sorry that I caused you to miss out on one of your missions hopefully this is the only time I’ll have to do this.”

“It’s fine Dehvess. You’re doing this for me after all.” Currently Jahnah set atop her bed at a much smaller size then she had been for weeks. The only thing that allowed her to remain as a true giantess at the moment was the power she was taking in from the temple.

Dehvess could perform most acts even while control the tiara for Jahnah. However, as he worked on the flesh golem the task had required too much of his focus and he’d been forced to decrease the amount of energy that was going to Jahnah so that he could properly construct the golem. Had he tried to channel the energies needed to form the golem and sustain Jahnah’s giantess stature he might have destroyed his body.

“So what are you working on at the moment?”

“I suppose you could call it the flesh golems brain and heart all rolled into one. This is where the shard is going to be placed as well.”

“Is it me or does this seem more difficult then making a regular golem?”

“It is. If it wasn’t you would have been able to join Annette on her task today. The flesh Xyra provided me with is of wonderful quality but it’s very hard to affect.”

“Should I be quiet?”

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess. “Jahnah if I needed silence I would have told you that already.”

A slight giggle escaped Jahnah. “Well alright. In that case I’ll go ahead and ask you are they any other parts of a flesh golem that are this difficult?”

“No. This is the key area. Building the muscle fibers and tendons are the most difficult thing after this but they don’t even come close.”

“So are they arteries?”

“Well yes they are but it wouldn’t be appropriate to compare them to a human’s arteries. The golems are far more simple and don’t require enough focus for me to worry about.”

“I like making undead it’s simpler.”

“That is what you say.”

“Oh you disagree?”

“Yes. They don’t follow natural biological laws in the least. So any assumptions on how they should work based on previous medical study are completely useless. Some types can be easily destroyed by life energy yet they are all supposed to feed on life. While most golems don’t behave according to a natural biological pattern at least they don’t behave exactly opposite.”

A slight giggle escaped Jahnah. “Do you know how Xyra functions?”

“Jahnah, that’s like me asking you if you know how a regenerating flesh golem functions. I don’t even know if her heart has to beat.”

“She has a heart beat?”

“When she visited I believe I could hear one.”

“Then she must have been making it beat. That is kind of strange though she normally tries hard to terrify others. One of the methods is playing on the fact that she’s undead and doesn’t really have a heart beat or a few other functions.”

“So she was trying to seem more human?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as saying she was trying to seem human. For the most part as undead become more powerful they gain the ability to seem more alive. Xyra can actually force her heart to beat and cause her body to generate heat though really that’s a choice on her part and is no way needed.”

“Well you could just ask her why she was making her heart beat instead of speculating on it.”

“That I could but I don’t believe I really need to ask her now that I think about it. Anyway, I’ll let you focus on your work. Once you’re done be sure to begin focusing the energy again I’m getting tired of feeling short.”

“Aren’t you going to tell me why?”

“No, I believe I’ll let you figure it out. That way I know two things that you don’t to your one thing that I don’t know.”

************************************************************************

“So what did the spy’s report say?”

“Give me a second I need to remove the protective seal first.” As Maxwell spoke he placed a finger over a bit of binding material on the parchment. A red aura could be seen around his finger as he worked to defuse the fire enchantment that was placed on the bit of rope. Should it be removed from the scroll without first removing the enchantment it would burn it to ashes.

“Well what does it say?”

A slight chuckle escaped Maxwell as he glanced up at Annette. “You’re just eager to see if you’ll be getting another big meal anytime soon.”

An amused giggle escaped Annette. “Well maybe I am. So what does it say?”

Maxwell rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to the parchment. “Whoops. It’s encrypted I’ll need to have it translated.”

In response Annette was made to groan. “Are you serious?”

A slight chuckle escaped Maxwell as Annette pouted. “Yes Annette I’m serious. I’ll let you know what it says whenever I find out.”

“You didn’t have to remove the seal did you?”

“No that is normally done by someone else. You just seemed so eager when you brought it in. Why is that?”

“Well I was hoping I could get a better lead on Jahnah while she’s still unable to join in. She had a whole month of gorging herself while I was out of commission after all.”

“I see. Well I’ll go and have this translated now. Though I don’t know if that will be before Jahnah is ready to become active again and this may not lead to another meal for you.”

************************************************************************

A long sigh escaped Maxwell as he looked at the translated letter. He had been hoping for news of where the main enemy force was. He had that news to an extent but it wasn’t what he was hoping to find out.

He’d wondered why the kingdom’s army had continued to fight even after Annette’s return to the battle field. They hadn’t even sent a peace offering. Now he knew why they had continued to resist. It seemed in fighting the war Maxwell had been making more enemies then he realized and now they were ready to weigh in.

What was surprising was the aid didn’t come from any one kingdom. Rather it came from several port cities and kingdoms. Throughout the entire region and beyond a cry had gone out from amongst the sea god’s followers. Now they were rallying allies who were currently on their way to reinforce the kingdom’s armies.

For a moment Maxwell couldn’t help but sigh. Apparently one of his enemies was a god. He knew of the temple that Xyra had claimed but he had never expected anything like this. During war times temples to various gods were often burned but the god never got directly involved at least not on this level. It was completely unheard of from what Maxwell knew.

How long could the war drag on now? Maxwell knew how far reaching the sea god’s influence was. Why would she get involved over just one temple? She was bound to have hundreds more and far grander. Could it be because the temple hadn’t just been taken but had actually been defiled?

After a moment of contemplation Maxwell gave his head a quick shake. The defiling of the temple would weaken the god’s influence throughout the entire region. However, that still shouldn’t have been enough to draw so much of the god’s attention.

Maxwell gave up on figuring it out. Speculating on the sea god’s reasons was a waste of time. For the moment he had to focus on the fact that the war could drag on for much longer now.

As he took a moment to regain his composure his concern for the size of the enemy army declined slightly. There were only so many people that could be sent against them. The larger the force the more supplies they would require. With the only port of any appreciable size in the kingdom under Meridea’s control they’d have to travel a great distance from their landing points.

A limited amount of supplies would limit the number of people that could be sent against them. Of course that left the question. Would they send a force to cause a prolonged battle or would they go for a single knock out punch? Considering what they’d done with the monolith he was wagering there would be a single powerful thrust in attempt to crush their defenses as quickly as possible.

The spy’s information had been incomplete though. He didn’t know how large the enemy force was going to be though the spy had been quite insistent that it would be large. He had to agree if they’d angered a god enough for the god to send her followers from throughout the realm to attack the god was quite angry or wanting to thin its numbers for some reason.

Once again he began to carefully read through the spy’s message. After that he would pass on the information to Annette, Jahnah and then Jahnah could inform Dehvess. He’d also pass it on to the upper ranks of the military.

Dehvess couldn’t help but chuckle as Jahnah relayed the information to him. “So you three ladies have made the god of the sea feel threatened?”

“I don’t know if that is the case but she’s weighing in on the conflict. So how is the golem coming along?”

“I’m finishing up the heart now. You’ll be able to return to your giantess state soon enough Jahnah don’t worry.”

“Dehvess, there is no soon enough other then now.”

“Ah my apologies then I’ll try to finish up in a few more hours. So what steps is Maxwell taking to prepare for this threat?”

“At the moment he’s only passing on the information and will most likely call a meeting soon enough.”

“That’s good it’s always nice to gather other informed opinions before making a decision.”

“So what are you thinking we should do?”

“It would be impossible for them to retake the port with the force Meridea has built up here and they’ll know that. So they’re going to try to destroy the port town so we must begin preparing for that. We should also work on strengthening our numbers and over all fighting ability.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Well Meridea is making wonderful use of the materials of the town to construct her undead and we don’t have the materials needed to build golems. Which means the best option is to begin making undead in greater numbers.”

“So do you want me to start raising more?”

“No you work on feeding and growing stronger. If I remember correctly Xyra doesn’t consume males. She only feeds on their life energy or that is what she’s been doing. Am I correct?”

“Yes, you are.”

“Then would you request she start making units of undead that could help us in the coming battles?”

“I could but what do you want her to do with them? There is no way they’ll be able to keep up with her current rate of movement.”

“That is fine I don’t intend on them joining her. What I want her to do is start creating undead and storing them for the up coming conflict.”

“Where should she have them stored?”

“Well the defenses here are strong enough. I don’t know of an exact location but perhaps Maxwell could tell you of one.”

“Ah perhaps he wouldn’t mind storing them at his home. After all he seems to have moved in with Annette and I doubt she’s going to let him move out.”

“That should work for a while. With so many fortifications under manned I am sure that he has plenty of room to spare.”

“Is there anything else that you believe should be done?”

“Let me gather some information first. Xyra how is your pursuit of the golem breaker going?”

Xyra was fairly surprised when Dehvess began speaking to her directly. She had expected him to have Jahnah tell her what to do. “I don’t know how it’s going. They seem quite mobile.”

“Do they seem more mobile then you?”

“Considering that I haven’t caught up with them yet. Yes.”

“Then most likely you’re actually hunting more then one person. Okay Xyra I want you to make finding the golem breaker a secondary priority. You’re now to focus on creating undead to help us in our later endeavors and on increasing your size.”

A delighted squeal escaped Xyra the moment she heard Dehvess’s orders. This was the first time she had been told that her only task was to create undead and become more powerful. “Thank you!”

Even thought there was no true sound waves heard the connection between them made it so they could each feel a powerful emotional impulse when someone did the equivalent of scream out of excitement, fear or any other emotion. So in response to Xyra Dehvess was made to rub his ears for a few moments. “You’re welcome.”

“What if Maxwell doesn’t like the idea of using such large numbers of undead?”

“I don’t believe that he will happen when I consider our previous dealings. However, if that should be the case then Xyra will continue as she’s been ordered except she won’t send them to Maxwell to be held. Rather she can use them to round up people for her to consume.”

A delighted giggle escaped Xyra. This was the first time she ever realized she might like the idea of Dehvess being wrong. “Yummy.”

“I like that prospect as well Xyra.” Sense Xyra had begun becoming more active she had actually quit being a drain on Jahnah and started increasing her power. “So is there anything else that you believe needs to be done?”

“What remains is what I must do.”

Jahnah was about to nod when she felt an odd feeling. “No. No you don’t. That’s bad for your body and you know it.”

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess. Jahnah knew him too well for him to hide his plan when they were connected like this. During times of extreme pressure to finish a project he had been known to use alchemic potions to restore his stamina and energy so he could keep working. However, such extensive use of alchemic potions in the body did come with a price. “Jahnah, time is precious right now.”

“Then sleep in a time bubble. You can accelerate time around your bed and get roughly the same affect. You’re still thinking of using the alchemic potions.”

“I won’t use them Jahnah and your suggestion for the time bubble is acceptable.”

“I know! I can send part of myself there to sleep with you. That way I can maintain the spell for you while you sleep.”

Before Dehvess could even tell Jahnah that he liked that idea he felt a large presence behind him. “Now Jahnah no touching while I’m working on the heart.”

“I know. You seem tired though after this you can get some sleep.”

“Jahnah, can that body of yours even fit through the door leading out of my workshop?”

For a moment Jahnah glanced over her shoulder then a giggle escaped her. “Um no, but don’t worry I can split it in two them reform into this larger one once we’re in the bedroom.”

************************************************************************

Maxwell lightly bumped his head against the wall he currently set against while he looked over the notes that he had taken in regards to the gate in Annette’s eye. She had made a great deal of progress when drawing out energy with a catalyst provided. However, she seemed to have stopped there and she could only draw on one form of energy at a time. This was severely limiting her.

Only drawing on one element at a time wasn’t even a fourth as effective as drawing on them all at once. The question that plagued him now was why hadn’t she learned to do that yet? Given her skill at drawing on an individual element he felt certain that she should be able to draw on them all at once without the aid of a catalyst by now.

At last a smile formed on his face and he stood up. Perhaps the problem was he’d only been showing her how to draw upon elemental energy. She’d seen it so many times and heard the incantations again and again. So he knew that the problem couldn’t be her having not seen it done enough. Of course they had tried drawing the energy through her eye so she could better feel it and it had helped her to an extent but now he realized there was a rout he hadn’t thought of.

He resolved that he wouldn’t tell Annette just what he was planning until he had actually tried it. Fortunately he doubted that it would be hard to get her to play along with his plan.

Annette gave a bit of a sigh as she lay in her room beneath her main home. She’d grown too large to fit in most of the structure and if it was enlarged to her scale. Well her servants wouldn’t appreciate that. For this reason Jahnah had began work on an underground structure for her. Jahnah’s use of earth magic had made the project quite easy. If so many didn’t consider it beneath them she imagined earth mages could make quite a profit in construction.

Her attention was taken away from the possible incomes for mages if they’d swallow their egos due to the sound of boots coming down the stairwell leading to her room. She immediately knew who it was even before he came within view of her natural sight. Her ability to see elemental energy allowed her to recognize Maxwell’s aura quite easily.

Maxwell glanced over at Annette as she came within view. The stairs followed a z pattern with a massive opening at each intersection so Annette could reach up and help people down. “Annette, would you mind giving me a lift?”

Nodding her head Annette reached up for Maxwell. As she did so she noted that he was holding a rolled up bit of paper in his hand. “What’s with the paper?”

“You’ll see.” Once Annette lifted her finger so that it was level with the platform he was on Maxwell stepped off onto it. As he did so he couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that he was standing on only one of Annette’s fingers and there was no need to try to balance. He could place his feet side by side and have plenty of room to stand on. “You’ve grown a lot.”

An amused giggle escaped Annette. “Don’t tell me you’re just noticing that.”

“No. I noticed it long ago. I was just remembering when I could only do this in your palm.”

A slight giggle escaped Annette and she pulled her finger away from the walkway before Maxwell could move to stand in her palm. “It’s strange to think that was only a few years ago.” As Annette drew Maxwell over to her she set up and began to lower him to her thigh.

“Don’t set me there just yet. If you don’t mind set me on the ground first.”

“Why do you want me to do that?”

In response Maxwell held up the roll of paper that he had brought down with him. “If you don’t mind set me down at arms length away from you.”

“Is it that bad of news that you’re worried I might try to smack you?” A slight giggle escaped Annette. She knew Maxwell trusted her more then that but she couldn’t help but tease him.

“No. It’s just a little something that I don’t want to risk being disturbed. Don’t worry it’s a gift for you.”

Nodding her head Annette changed Maxwell’s decent path and lowered him to the ground so that her arm was fully out stretched. “Now how do you believe it would get disturbed?” As Annette spoke her voice was practically a pure.

“I was hoping that before I called everyone for a meeting you and I could have some personal time.”

“Oh. Then this isn’t just alone time. Now what could you be intending that would have me disturbing the surroundings.” A playful giggle escaped Annette. She was more then willing to have some personal time with Maxwell. As she spoke Annette shifted so that she was lying on her side making certain to grind her hip into the floor with additional force so that it vibrated.

A slight chuckle escaped Maxwell as he continued to walk away from Annette. “I guess that means I’m going to need to set this further away then I expected.”

“Oh I believe that you might.”

Nodding his head Maxwell continued for a while longer. At last though he came to a stop and placed the scroll on the ground. After unrolling the bit of paper he drew both his swords and placed them atop the paper. Carefully drawn on the scroll was a glyph.

For a moment Annette wasn’t certain what was going on though she got an idea as Maxwell drew his swords. When he placed them on the unrolled scroll placed his hand upon its surface and began to chant she had a very good idea of what was going on. “Mm I believe I’m going to like this present.”

Upon finishing the spell the glyph on the paper lit up. Maxwell, felt a slight rush of energy as the glyph activated the swords. The wind and fire enchantment began to mix within the glyph and there by increasing each others power. The combined elemental energy was then released within the room. “I thought you’d like this more then incense.”

A giggle escaped Annette and she let her tongue flick out of her mouth to play along her lips for a moment. “You thought right.” Once again Annette extended her hand outwards. She then raised her finger several times in a come here signal.

As Maxwell neared Annette’s hand he turned to the side a bit so that he came to her pinky instead of her index finger. Before climbing upon that massive digit he removed his boots and placed them to the side.

“So where would you like to start?”

“It has been a while sense we’ve been together and I wonder if they’re any details I might have missed that I can now appreciate. So how about I just start at your ankle so I have time to appreciate all of you?”

“Just be careful on your way up my leg or you may not make it past my thighs.”

“I’ll try my best.”

As Annette lowered her hand to her ankle she set up so that her massive size could be better appreciated. “Mm how about we make this interesting? For every section of my body you explore you have to stop and list at least three things you admire about it sense you’re going to get to study me in such detail that should be easy. If you can’t do that I get to strip off a bit of your clothing and you have to explore that part again until you can think of something else.”

A slight chuckle escaped Maxwell. “Well can my shoes be counted for your feet?”

“Mm what you don’t want to explore my feet?”

“Well there’s nothing wrong with them but there is so much more of you that I find far more interesting.”

“Mm come on can’t you tell me a few things you like about my feet? Can’t you even come up with one little thing? I thought you loved every little bit of me.” As she spoke Annette leaned forward and folded her arms together. She then gently squeezed on her breasts making them push out towards Maxwell.

A slight chuckle escaped Maxwell as he glanced up at Annette’s massive foot. “Mm I believe that your toenails could make for a rather interesting canvas to paint on. The thought that someone could ride on those toes of yours is also quite interesting.”

“Oh two things” A giggle escaped Annette as she wiggled her toes. “Okay that is enough for the feet.” As she spoke Annette leaned back. “I’d much rather have you paying attention to other parts of my body anyway.”

“So may I begin my exploration now?”

“I’d be delighted if you would.”

Instead of turning around right away Maxwell lowered himself to his hands and knees. Then focusing on the bit of Annette’s leg that was right in front of him he turned around. Normally he liked to take a moment to take in the big picture, to see the vast expanse of leg that stretched before him all at once but this time he was taking a different approach. He would focus only on the bit of Annette that he could reach out and touch at the moment. He wanted to take his time and explore every bit of her.

As Maxwell focused on Annette’s leg the first thing that caught his attention was a slight depression in the skin just before him. The depression was subtle to the point that despite Annette’s scale he would have never noticed it if he had been standing up. Lowering his head further he gave the slight cut in her skin a gentle kiss. Then rising up he placed his index finger against the ridge and slowly began to trace it. He didn’t bother looking up to see where it was taking him.

Annette wasn’t certain what Maxwell had found whenever she felt him place a kiss at the lowest regions of her leg. All she knew is that a tingle ran throughout her when he kissed her. Glancing down at him she noted him beginning to make progress up her leg. His path wasn’t strait though rather it seemed to be moving around the edges of that massive limb.

As Maxwell progressed up Annette’s leg he would stop and place a kiss upon the path each time he believed that he’d moved a steps distance. He knew of certain religions that performed such acts on the ground when traveling certain paths they considered holy and felt Annette deserved no less attention. He was very grateful though that what he had to kiss was far more enjoyable then the dirt.

Once Maxwell had placed the seventh kiss on her leg Annette realized what he was doing. He had noticed the outline in her leg caused by her muscles. In her current relaxed state the depression would be exceptionally subtle where he had started from yet he’d managed to notice it. A delighted giggle escaped her and she felt a warmth building in her crotch. Resolving to have some fun she quickly flexed the muscles in her leg.

The moment Annette flexed those wonderful muscles her leg swelled and the depression became much easier to see. However, Maxwell didn’t have time to notice this right away. Annette was so massive and those wonderful muscles were so strong that when she’d flexed he’d actually been bounced a little. It wasn’t enough to lift him into the air but it caught him off guard and was much like feeling a ship rise suddenly in the water.

When he did look back to Annette’s leg he noticed the depression was far more appreciable now. Curiously he placed his pinky finger along the cut created in her skin when she flexed. He wasn’t surprised when he found that he could slip in the very tip of his pinky finger. There wasn’t much time for him to enjoy this though as Annette relaxed the muscles in her leg. He grew somewhat concerned when he heard a giggle escape Annette.

Maxwell hadn’t been the only one surprised that the muscles in her legs could bounce him. Annette was quite surprised as well and very amused. It was even more amusing to her when she considered he was still far from the main muscles of her leg. She soon resolved to find out what sections of her leg had enough muscle hidden beneath the skin to allow her to bounce him into the air. This is when she giggled and Maxwell realized that she had come up with an idea.

Annette’s flexing her leg had made it clear to Maxwell what he was seeing the outline of. He was currently tracing the outer edges of one of her smaller leg muscles. This didn’t take away from his enjoyment of the situation as he continued to follow the outline. As he continued though he became grateful that Annette had chose to flex her leg early on. The more progress he made along the path the more curved the path became as it took him along the edge of her leg.

For the moment Annette resisted the urge to flex the muscles in her leg. While Maxwell had made it to a portion of her leg with more muscles then near the ankle. It was also close to the edge of her leg. If she were to flex while it was at his current location she might bounce him clean off her leg due to the greater muscle mass and location.

If Maxwell had looked up he would have been quite concerned. A rather toothy smile had appeared on Annette’s face as she struggled to keep from giggling. He was now away from the furthest edge of the muscle and was making his way back towards the interior of her leg. Soon he would be in an idea position for her to see how far she could bounce him.

As Maxwell came within a few meters of her knee Annette finally flexed her legs. The muscles within it seemed to explode outward. The increase in width of Annette’s leg was far greater then it had been previously and Maxwell actually felt himself lifting into the air. The sudden expansion of Annette’s leg was enough to bounce him a meter into the air.

A delighted giggle escaped Annette as Maxwell came back down. The position had proved more advantageous then she’d realized as it had actually bounced him further towards the interior of her legs and onto an even larger portion of muscle. Quickly she relaxed her leg muscles and went to flex them once again.

The first time she had flexed her leg Annette had surprised Maxwell and the second time she had amazed him. However, when he felt her muscles relax he realized what was going to happen and quickly leapt back into the air. This allowed him to avoid the push from Annette’s flexing muscle and to maintain control of his direction. His first thought was to try to sprint across Annette’s leg however he truly wanted to continue his exploration so he held his ground.

Annette was fairly surprised when Maxwell didn’t sprint across her leg immediately after avoiding the push from her muscle. This time when she flexed her leg she did so in a testing manner. Once again Maxwell was able to avoid the main push from her muscle by hopping into the air under his own power and thus keep control of where he went.

After Annette’s test flex Maxwell held his ground for a few more moments. Once roughly half a minute had passed though he resumed his progress up her leg. He didn’t resume following the initial curve though. To do so would have only led him back around the other side of the muscle. Instead he made his way onto Annette’s knee and began to search around for something else that caught his attention.

“Annette what happens if you remove all my clothing before I’m done exploring you?”

“Mm you’ll have to wait until another time to continue your exploration then.” Reaching down Annette pressed two fingers against her the bit of her knickers that just covered her lower lips. “Sense if I strip you before you’re finished exploring me this is where you’ll be going.”

It was impossible for Maxwell not to grin as he turned his attention back to Annette’s leg. While in the beginning of his exploration he had limited choices on what path to follow he had several now. Annette’s thigh provided him with a lot more room to move around and a great deal more paths.

As in the beginning though he chose to focus on only a small area at a time. He considered playing Annette’s game and trying to make it up her massive thigh muscles but resolved to save that for another time. There was still plenty of muscle mass throughout her thigh to easily bounce him. Instead he chose to explore the outer edges of her most pronounced thigh muscle. “Should I give my three now?”

“Mm you mean you’ve already thought of three things?”

After placing a kiss on Annette’s thigh Maxwell looked up. “Yes I have.”

“Then please go ahead.”

“I love how your leg muscles feel whenever you flex them though I wish you’d do it more slowly. The feeling of being lifted just by you flexing your thigh muscles is just wonderful. Just the thought of how massive those muscles are and how great the stature of the lady that owns them is sends chill through me.”

“I like that.” In response to Maxwell’s comment Annette slowly began to flex her leg muscles. As she did so Maxwell was indeed lifted higher as the muscles under him expanded.

“I love the cuts that appear in your skin when you flex your leg muscles. The way they deepen so that I can just slip the tip of my finger in-between the cuts is remarkable. The way they appear to be tiny channels such that one could send a stream of water flowing through them is remarkable and I’m made to imagine them as canyons.” As he spoke to Annette Maxwell continued his way up Annette’s thigh. He could hear her breathing change slightly as she took in his praise.

In response to Maxwell’s words, the feeling of his tiny form progressing up her legs and his praising kisses Annette had slowly increased the pressure on her lips. Due to her growing excitement moisture could clearly be seen forming on her knickers just above her lips. “I never thought of them as streams even little ones. Then to wonder what it would be like if they were as canyons mm with you exploring me in more depth then even now. You could get lost while exploring my legs if I was that massive.”

“Then through all of this I have to admire your skin. Even now it feels so warm and soft to the touch. Even with all this power you’re still every bit a lady.”

Slowly Annette began to shift her position so that when Maxwell made it to her stomach he’d be able to explore it. She didn’t lie down completely though. Annette wanted to see if Maxwell would ask her to lie down or if he’d try something else. She hoped that he’d try the something else.

As Maxwell made his way up Annette’s thigh he was surprised that he didn’t have to try to avoid being bounced around by her flexing her muscles. While Annette did continue to flex she kept it slow so that he was slowly lifted into the air and then lowered back down. The feeling of those massive muscles working beneath him was having a profound affect on Maxwell as well.

Leaving Annette’s massive thigh was a rather difficult situation for Maxwell. There was still so much of it to explore and come to know. However, there was also so much of her that stretched out before him. He was faced with two wonderfully enticing situations.

Only when Annette shifted her position so that he’d be able to explore her stomach did Maxwell come to his decision. He’d continue onward and the next chance he got to explore her legs he would give them more attention. Of course by then she would have grown more so there would be even more for him to explore and come to know.

As he came to the massive wall of Annette’s stomach he glanced up towards her face. Her massive breasts obstructed his view to an extent. Still, he could see her glance over the sides of her breasts so that she could watch his progress.

Before Maxwell began to explore Annette’s stomach he glanced down towards her knickers. Given her current position it would be easy for her to wait for him to begin climbing her stomach. She could then set up slightly, pull her waste band away and let him fall in. Then again she might not even have to set up given what she could do with her muscles.

Considering the game Annette had played with him while he explored her thighs he resolved to take the most secure rout up her stomach. After all there was nothing about their game which prevented her from trying to flex her stomach muscles and cause him to fall into her knickers. For a moment Maxwell thought about changing his plans and allowing that to happen however he resolved to explore at least a portion of each part of her body before he ended up inside Annette’s knickers as he knew that would mean he’d soon be inside of her.

While Annette’s legs were wonderfully defined her abdominal muscles were even more so. Even when she didn’t flex the cuts in-between the muscles was very deep. At her current scale he felt they could even be called channels.

As he had been looking up at Annette’s massive stomach he’d actually been walking closer. However, only when he felt his hands pressing against the skin of her stomach did he realize how far he’d come. Grinning from ear to ear he reached up and tried to touch the first hand hold he’d use.

A slight chuckle escaped Maxwell when he realized that he’d need to jump slightly if he was going to reach that hand hold. Leaning forward he gave Annette’s stomach a quick kiss before he began walking backwards. As he moved backwards he glanced to the side so he could better see Annette’s face. He was quite pleased to notice her lips glistening from where her tongue had been playing over them.

The feeling of Maxwell sprinting across her leg was a delight to Annette as she realized how much she’d grown. His feet traveling over her skin was a delightful confirmation of that growth. The fact that he now needed to either use a spell to climb onto her stomach or get a running start to do so when she didn’t lie down was a delightful revelation to Annette. For a moment she felt him leave her skin and then she felt him land against the lower most parts of her stomach.

At the moment Maxwell took hold of the cut in Annette’s skin that would let him progress further upward she pressed her fingers more firmly against her lips. A delighted squeal escaped her and she jerked her head backwards while thrusting her pelvis into the air. While the action was sudden the change in position helped Maxwell in getting his hand hold.

While Annette’s stomach was incredibly solid that was relative to her. Thanks to her size the soft layer of skin that covered those muscles was more then enough to absorb the vast majority of the energy from Maxwell’s jump when he landed against her. While her sudden movement did stun him for a moment his body already knew what to do and he quickly pulled himself up onto her stomach.

Maxwell’s feet rested in the channel created by Annette’s lower most stomach muscles while his left arm hung to the side. The grip he could get with his right hand was far less generous though as the solid plate of muscle allowed little grip. As Maxwell glanced to his side he wished that he hadn’t when he caught sight of Annette’s belly button.

He knew that it was an unnecessary risk however he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like up close. At Annette’s current scale he felt certain that he could slip inside of it. Though he didn’t believe he’d be able to stand up entirely he felt that he could at least crouch.

The problem was that in order to reach Annette’s belly button he’d have to travel across the massive plain of her lower most stomach muscles. In her current condition that posed quite a problem as he didn’t really see anything that could be used as a hand hold for quite some distance. Though he would have good footing Maxwell worried that Annette could send him falling into her knickers just by quickly flexing her muscles.

A quick glance down towards Annette’s knickers told him she wouldn’t hesitate to send him falling into them either. Even with such poor odds Maxwell couldn’t resist his desire to get a closer up look of Annette’s belly button at her current scale. Instead of rushing forward though he took a few more moments to look around and consider his options.

The apparent solution to his problem came whenever he glanced up. While traveling across Annette’s lower most stomach muscles would most likely end with him in her knickers. He could climb up along the outer edge of her wonderfully defined stomach and move across the higher up muscles. He could them lower himself down to her belly button.

Annette had begun to wonder just what Maxwell was doing after he had remained still for so long. Once he began making his way up the outer edges of her stomach though she quit wondering. While he could only rub a very small portion of her belly at a time she loved the feeling of him moving across her stomach. The fact that she felt his hands reaching between the rips in her skin created by her muscle tone was especially delightful to her.

With each step upward Maxwell would give both sides of the channel that supported him a kiss then continue on. The channel was too narrow for Maxwell to place both feet side by side. However, he could easily lift one above the other and press it into the side of the channel. He’d then reach up with the opposite arm and press it into its respective side. His opposing leg and then arm would follow in the same manner.

The progress Maxwell made was slow but steady and Annette truly enjoyed the feeling of her little one making his way up her massive body. The tender little kisses was a nice treat and while the massage only touched a small portion of her body it was exceptionally intimate. She also liked that the only magic Maxwell used was the natural benefits one gained as they increased in skill with the elements.

Despite enjoying the situation Annette wasn’t going to simply set there and let Maxwell do everything. As he made it closer to the top of her lower most muscles she flexed her stomach. The channel between her muscles narrowed but grew deeper.

The flexing Muscles only helped Maxwell with his progress though for a moment he worried the channel might close enough to catch his foot. However, as he progressed upward he realized the problem would come when Annette relaxed her muscles. He’d have to be sure to increase the pressure he exerted on the sides of the channel to avoid falling down.

A shiver ran throughout Maxwell when he felt something large press to his back for a moment. Glancing over his shoulder he found that Annette had pressed her pinky to his back and was slowly running it along the full length of his body. As her pinky came within reach of his lips he gave it a quick kiss.

After the kiss Annette’s pinky finger left Maxwell and he once again resumed his climb. He hadn’t made it even another meter though when Annette quickly relaxed her stomach muscles.

The attention from Annette’s finger had caused Maxwell to lower his guard for a moment. With his guard lowered he wasn’t able to stop his decent immediately and ended up sliding down a few centimeters and having to exert a bit of stamina to stop his fall. “Now that was just sneaky.”

A slight giggle escaped Annette. “You should just be happy that I’m taking it easy on you.”

There was a slight impulse to taunt Annette but Maxwell resolved not to. He knew that she could make this far more difficult then what it already was. Even when he had managed to evade the push from her muscles while on her leg that was Annette holding back. She could have easily flexed and relaxed her leg muscles at a far faster rate then she had been making him move much faster to cope.

“What are you doing now?”

Maxwell smiled up at Annette as he glanced up towards her face. Apparently she hadn’t expected him to take a detour. “There is something I really want to get a better look at.”

It had surprised Annette when Maxwell had made it to the top of her lower most and largest stomach muscles only to begin moving to the side. He could have easily stayed to the exterior and made it nearly as far as he would if he moved to the interior. As she felt Maxwell moving across her stomach she wasn’t certain if she wanted to flex and try to send him into her knickers before he could make it across or if she would prefer to see what he wanted to investigate.

While Maxwell hadn’t planned on it this moment of indecision from Annette was of great help to him. Even though it wasn’t as risky as crossing at the bottom of her stomach this was still the most difficult part of the climb and gave Annette the greatest chance to try and bounce him off. “Just think. If you were too large I wouldn’t have to worry about hand holds. I’d have to refer to these as rivers when you lay down and cliffs whenever you set up.”

“That could be fun. I wonder how you’d climb me then though.”

“I guess we’ll find out when that day comes.” Quickly getting his footing and hand holds Maxwell gave Annette’s muscles to either side of him a quick kiss as he made it to the center of her stomach.

“Hey! You distracted me.”

“You distracted me with that little back massage you gave just before you relaxed your muscles.”

“Well you liked the massage.”

Glancing down towards Annette’s knickers Maxwell chuckled slightly. “Well I’m quite certain you’ve liked what I’ve been doing.”

In response to Maxwell’s comment Annette once again flexed her abdominal muscles. She then reached her thumb between her waste band and flesh. “You’re right about that little one.”

As Maxwell looked down he realized he’d have to be careful. Annette no doubt had several other tricks to try and send him into her knickers. A powerful gust of wind hitting me from above made that clear. So far she had only depended on flexing her muscles. Now it seemed she was ready to bring her lips and lunges into the game.

While she didn’t mentioned it Annette had by now realized where Maxwell was trying to go. Now that she realized he was making his way to her belly button she couldn’t help but think the idea was cute. Though she’d rather had him in her knickers at the moment she wasn’t going to just pick him up and put him inside herself. She liked these games so that she tried to keep the contest manageable.

The sudden relaxing of Annette’s muscles didn’t catch Maxwell off guard this time fortunately. As the moment her muscled relaxed a powerful gust of Annette’s breath struck him from above and he had to press his hands and feet into the walls of muscle and flesh to either side of him even more firmly.

Despite the wind Maxwell was still able to progress downward though more slowly. Once he got a feel for the amount of force he had to exert to keep the wind from making him lose his grip he was able to progress steadily. As he neared the lower sections of Annette’s muscles though he began to worry about what would happen when she flexed.

In his current location he felt that she could very well catch his hands and feet between her muscles by flexing. Indeed he felt that if she were to flex at his current location she could even crush his hands and feet between those powerful walls. This was actually fortunate for him though. Annette fully realized where he was and wasn’t about to risk harming him.

As he neared his objective Maxwell lowered one of his legs away from the support of Annette’s stomach. This resulted in Annette increasing the force with which the wind pounded on him and drawing the waste band of her knickers back a little more.

Despite the extra drain his current position created Maxwell wasn’t worried about the loss in stamina. Once he was inside Annette’s belly button he’d be able to take a few moments to regain his energy.

After Maxwell felt his foot come to rest within Annette’s belly button he slowly began to relax the pressure with his other leg. As he slipped down further he slid further in a little more before he finally risked lowering his other foot. At that moment he relaxed his grip entirely and quickly slid within Annette’s belly button.

A delighted yelp escaped Annette the moment she felt Maxwell’s full weight come to rest within her belly button. She had felt his feet within it before but never had he managed to fit his entire body within it. The stimulation was far greater then she had expected both on a psychological level and a physical. While she wasn’t sure if she’d always been this way the attention to her naval sent a tingle throughout her entire body.

Maxwell was quite surprised when he felt Annette’s entire body convulse around him. Thanks to the confined area he was able to get enough of a grip to keep from being thrown out. However when the light was suddenly cut off he realized that hadn’t been necessary. Nearly the moment Annette had felt Maxwell come to rest within her naval she’d reached up and covered her stomach with her hands.

The delighted squeal from Annette and her sudden reaction told Maxwell that he’d found a very sensitive area of her anatomy. Far more sensitive then he’d previously realized. A slight chuckle escaped him as he resolved to test just how sensitive it was.

He’d been right about Annette’s belly button not being quite large enough for him to stand in. At the moment his position was effectively a crouch that forced him to bend at the knees and the back. After taking a moment to steady himself in the darkness Maxwell began to shift his position so that he was basically setting down with his feet pressing into the opposite side of Annette’s belly button.

Reaching one arm above his head Maxwell pressed it into the upper part of Annette’s belly button while pressing his feet into the section opposite him. This served to press his back more firmly into her as well. Slowly he began to shift his feet against the skin of Annette’s naval and gently guide his free arm against its surface. Finally he turned his head to the side and began to kiss the bit of her belly button he could reach.

A shudder ran throughout Annette’s body as she took in a quick gasp of air. When her right hand began to lift away from her naval it done so slowly as if worried that removing her hand might end the sensation she felt. Reaching down she once again pressed her fingers against the outside of her knickers and began to gently rub her lips.

At first Maxwell hadn’t been sure how long he should remain within Annette’s naval. However, as some light returned to his confines he came up with a simple solution to his question. He’d simply wait for Annette to remove both of her hands then he’d resume his climb of her massive body. He wanted to make it to her breasts, arms, hands and her face before he finally ended up within her.

At last Annette lifted her remaining hand away from her naval and placed it against the underside of her breasts. Pressing up on the massive mountain of flesh she gently squeezed her breasts as Maxwell remained in her belly button a few more moments.

Maxwell slowly decreased the rate at which he was massaging and kissing the inside of Annette’s naval. As he did so he pulled himself up back to a standing position and glanced out of her navel and up towards her mountainous breasts. After taking a moment to brace himself he quickly leapt up and began to scurry out of Annette’s naval and up the wall of her stomach.

“That was nice.”

“I love how defined your stomach is. I love being able to fit my feet between the rips caused by your stomach muscles. I love how they’re even more cut then your legs even when flexed. The fact that I can use them to actually climb up your stomach is remarkable.”

Annette didn’t answer right away but let her tongue flick out and drew it along her lips. “It’s amazing how close you feel. Just knowing that you can explore such minute details of my body is a delight.”

“It is amazing feeling those muscles expand when you flex. Knowing that they are stronger then any stone I’ve ever countered is a wonderful thrill. Yet they’re more flexible then any structure. Your stomach is the most wonderfully sculpted cliff that I’ve ever scaled. Even the knowledge that if you flexed your muscle to their fullest extent you could catch my hands between them is a rush.”

“Mm it even comes with a little cavern for you to tuck yourself into to rest it seems.”

A slight chuckle escaped Maxwell. “I adore the smell of your skin and the warmth that I feel engulfing me as I press my body to yours. When we first met I never dreamed that I would find myself able to fit inside your belly button. Now that I can I have to say it’s a delight. Feeling so much of you around me is such a wondrous thrill that it makes my heart sing.”

“When this is over you’re going to feel even more of me around you.” A slight giggle escaped Annette and she began to slowly lean backwards. Once Maxwell reached the top of her abdomen he wouldn’t be able to progress further with her setting up and he had listed three things. Though some of them were similar to what he’d said about her legs she felt the extra he added in was enough to allow him to progress.

Even though she had begun to recline the rate at which Annette lowered herself was based on Maxwell’s progress up her abdomen. So while progress became easier he still had to climb for a while longer before he was finally able to stand up and begin to walk across.

In her laid back position and with Maxwell standing so close to her breasts it was rather hard for Annette to keep an eye on him. Despite that she could easily feel his location. Currently he was standing roughly a meter away from her right breasts and seemed to be considering how he’d actually handle exploration of her massive breasts.

Neither of them had ever stated that Maxwell wasn’t allowed to use magic. It was actually a rule that he had imposed upon himself. Fortunately he had some aid in climbing Annette’s breasts. However, that aid would also hinder his exploration as he had to figure a way to get to the top of Annette’s breasts and remove her bra.

“Is something the matter?”

“No, I was just thinking.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m trying to see how I’m going to remove your bra without using a spell of some type.”

A slight giggle escaped Annette and she set up a bit. She made a point of only using the muscles in her stomach so that they were forced to flex and became even more pronounced. After setting up just enough so that Maxwell had to work to balance to keep standing she reached behind herself and opened the locks that held her bra in place. “I’d have to say letting me know that you want me to remove my bra is the most effective method.”

For a moment Maxwell was made to chuckle. “Yes, that does seem to be the case.” As Annette removed that massive garment Maxwell gave a slight sigh. At least now the task of exploration wasn’t impossible without the use of spells to augment his abilities but now there was the task of actually scaling Annette’s breasts.

While Annette breast did have a great deal of give it wasn’t enough for him to climb. The shape was most assuredly pleasing to the eye as well but it didn’t help with the climb either nor the scale. With her bra removed he couldn’t make use of the straps. Slowly Maxwell began to pace around while examining Annette’s breasts in an attempt to find a decent rout to scale.

It became apparent very soon that there was only one real possible path. He’d have to try to scale Annette’s breasts by going between them. He could use the pressure one breasts exerted against his back to help him climb the other at least for a distance. Once he made it as far as he could with that rout he’d have to either get some help from Annette or hope he could get enough momentum and traction to scale the rest of her breasts.

A slight tingle ran throughout Annette and she was made to giggle slightly as she felt Maxwell working his way between her breasts. While his body was small in comparison to hers her breasts size was quite notable. Even to the point that Maxwell only had a moderate amount of room whenever he managed to work his way between them. “So have you come up with a plan?”

“I have parts of a plan but it’s still in progress.” Um please keep the giggling down.

In response to Maxwell’s request Annette couldn’t help but giggle. As she did so she felt her breasts squeezing in on Maxwell and pushing him about slightly. “Sorry. That was just too cute.”

The feeling of Annette’s massive warm breasts hugging him wasn’t unpleasant. Indeed due to the deep softness and warmth the experience was quite enjoyable. Though Maxwell was grateful that her breasts didn’t move more then they did when Annette giggled or he would have been crushed. The problem came from the disorienting affect of being shaken so quickly. “It’s okay.”

As Annette’s giggles quieted down Maxwell leaned against her massive breasts for a moment. While he waited for his head to quit spinning he turned to the side and gave a bit of her breasts flesh a quick kiss. “I’ve kissed you so many times that I don’t believe I could have even kept count. Yet it’s only been on such a small portion of your body.”

“Mm I guess that means you’d need a few days to kiss all of me.”

Straitening up Maxwell pressed his back into Annette’s breasts as firmly as he could. “I don’t even know if that would be long enough. It may take a few weeks to cover you all. I’d say I’d need a few days just to cover your breasts.” Maxwell couldn’t even extend his legs very far thanks to the confined space he found himself in. However, that was beneficial to his intent as he looked up the ravine created by Annette’s breasts.

“So that is how you’re doing to do it.” Annette felt Maxwell’s back and feet press into the breasts opposite one another. The feeling of Maxwell working his way up between her breasts was a delight to Annette. Though she still couldn’t see him, his tiny form was completely consumed by her breasts flesh. “I think the gap may get too wide at the top for you to make it out though.”

“That’s why it’s a plan in progress. If that is the case I don’t know what I’ll do sense this seems to be the only possible rout.”

“Mm I guess I can give you a little help then.” With that Annette began to squeeze in on the sides of her breasts.

At first Maxwell didn’t mind the aid he was receiving from Annette. That lasted until he realized that his legs were being forced back to an entirely vertical position. “Annette, this is a bit too much.” All Maxwell could do was grin when her heard Annette giggle and she continued to press her breasts together until he was engulfed entirely.

Annette carefully pressed her breasts together until Maxwell was firmly trapped between them. With him trapped between her breasts she knew the confines would be too restricting for him to move but she could only hold it for so long or he’d suffocate. She was a bit surprised when Maxwell didn’t try to struggle free at all and after thirty seconds relaxed the pressure on her breasts.

Maxwell had realized what Annette was doing and had chosen to conserve his energy. Though the all encompassing hug from both of her breasts was a delight he took in a quick breath of air once they parted enough. He had chosen to conserve his energy instead of wasting it trying to squirm his way out of that fleshy prison. Despite that he had to work quickly to regain his position once Annette’s breast had parted enough to let him slide back down.

It was something of a surprise to Annette how quickly Maxwell resumed his climb. She’d thought she would at least cause him to lose a little bit of ground by squeezing her breasts together. “Mm I’m not sure if I should try to hinder your progress or not.”

A slight chuckle escaped Maxwell. “Isn’t contending with your breathing enough? They may not seem to move much to you but even the little breaths you take are quite noticeable to me.”

“Mm I suppose that it is and sense you don’t know if this will work or not I’ll just let you continue. Of course I’m curious to see what you will come up with if this plan of yours doesn’t work.”

“I wish I knew as well though I’m still hopeful that this will work.”

While she was still quite stimulated Annette had calmed down sense Maxwell’s trip into her belly button. Her desire to pick him up and shove him into herself had decreased as well though it was far from fading. In truth if her desire to have him explore her body in such fine detail wasn’t so great he’d already been inside of her.

As the gap between Annette’s breasts widened the closer he made it to the top Maxwell began to have to extend his legs further and further. At last he came to a point where his legs were fully extended. Instead of acting right away he took a few moments to examine his surroundings. Glancing over at Annette he waved at her smiling face. A moment later he wished he hadn’t as the massive mountains behind and front of him began to shake as she giggled.

While Annette giggled Maxwell had to exert more pressure with his hands to remain stationary as her breasts shook. The constant act of having to adjust the pressure needed to keep his position was a work out in itself especially given his location. Of course he knew that Annette could see all of this. The fact that it would probably amuse her was rewarding in a sense but he didn’t like the fact that it also meant she’d laugh even longer.

It was almost impossible for Annette to keep from bursting out into open laughter. Only by bighting down upon one of her fingers was she actually able to maintain control of herself and not give Maxwell an even rougher ride as he struggled to keep his position. It was several minutes before she managed to get herself to quit laughing though when she removed her finger a wide grin adorned her face. Clearly Annette was still exceptionally amused.

A sigh escaped Maxwell as he glanced over at Annette. After giving his head a quick shake he looked up at the slope of her breasts. There was simply no way he’d been able to make it all the way up her breasts using the method he had been. The only choice he had in the matter was to get as good of a start as he possibly could and try to climb his way up. Hopefully the upward momentum would let him make it all the way.

While Maxwell began to lower himself back down between her breasts Annette lifted her finger back to her mouth. She knew that he was getting ready to try something and she didn’t want to burst out laughing and ruin his attempt.

Before Maxwell could begin he positioned himself a bit lower then where he had been so that he could get a better push. Glancing up the slope of Annette’s breasts he took in a few deep breaths and pressed his feet more firmly into Annette’s breasts. He needed to push off as hard as he could so that as little energy as possible would be absorbed by Annette’s breasts flesh or there would be no way he could make it.

Carefully Maxwell began to shift his position. To better his chances at succeeding he needed to position himself so that he was facing downward instead of looking up between those mountains. He was grateful that most of the climb had relied on his legs as this meant his arms were well rested. Given that his arms now had to provide the pressure his back had previously he needed the energy.

Watching Maxwell repositioning himself was exceptionally amusing to Annette. She had to use a great deal of willpower to keep herself form bursting out into laughter. As he prepared himself she was quite worried that her laughter would ruin any chances he had of scaling her breasts. He just looked too cute getting ready to try and scale the slope of her breasts and she had a good idea of what was coming.

At last Maxwell began to bend at his knees and extend his arms fully to get the most energy out of his legs possible. There wasn’t enough give in Annette’s skin to let him really get a grip once he began moving. However, he hoped by starting with a jump he could get enough momentum going to carry him the rest of the way up. After taking in a steady breathing he relaxed his arms and pressed up with his legs.

The amount of height Maxwell was able to get while jumping off Annette’s breasts while not backed by a spell was most assuredly backed by magic. His training with wind magic served to augment his speed while earth augmented strength. The combined affects allowed him to jump a fair distance up that slope however it wasn’t nearly enough to take him to the top.

Before he could land and come to a stop Maxwell pushed off Annette’s breasts with his feet and hands. Whichever limb was able to push off Annette’s breast was employed as he desperately struggled to maintain the forward momentum that he needed to climb that slope. The end result was a frantic though planned scramble leaving no time for thought or consideration.

Nearly as soon as Maxwell began his push for the top Annette bit down on her finger. His hands and feet striking her breasts in such a frantic manner tickled her to no end. Combing that with the sight of her little one frantically struggling to climb her breasts it was almost too much for her to stand.

There was no way for Maxwell to know how far he’d made it. If he looked to see he knew the moments delay would end with him falling back down between Annette’s breasts. However, as he made it further up that wonderful curve he found that he was more running then climbing. As he neared the top he gave one last jump and landed flat on his stomach. His arms were out stretched to either side and he hugged as much of Annette’s massive breasts as he could.

There was no doubt that Maxwell was glad to have made it up Annette’s breast and would have hugged her wonderful breast in just about any situation given the chance. However, he had an extra reason to hold onto Annette’s breasts with as much strength as he could. The moment he landed face first on her breasts Annette had burst into a fit of giggles.

Keeping her finger in her mouth wasn’t going to be enough and now Annette held her hand over her mouth to at least quiet her laughter. This didn’t do anything to stop the shaking of her breast. Her free hand was held above Maxwell incase he should fall off due to her laughter but she made no attempt to cover him. Sense she was laughing so hard she was worried that she might injure him if she did so.

Even while Annette was still laughing Maxwell was as well, the situation was totally absurd. He had to desperately scramble just to climb up Annette’s breasts. However, even as absurd as the situation was it was utterly delightful and he gave the bit of Annette’s breast he rested upon a long kiss while he waited for his world to quit shaking with her thunderous giggles.

As Annette calmed down and Maxwell was finally able to stand he couldn’t help but chuckle. “That was quite a ride.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

A minute passed before Maxwell finally began to move again. All the climbing he’d done had sapped a good deal of his stamina. Fortunately with the glyph and blades working together the room was filling with elemental energy. Thanks to his training he recovered his energy more quickly due to the elemental energies.

Much as with her leg things now took on a slower pace. Maxwell once again began crawling across Annette’s skin. With every movement he’d place a kiss upon the flesh that before him. Unlike with her legs and stomach he had a clear destination in mind for this one.

Annette wasn’t quite certain what was going on whenever she heard Maxwell begin to count. With each kiss he planted atop her breast he’d take a moment to announce the total number of kisses. Oddly even though she didn’t know exactly why he was counting she rather enjoyed it.

While it had occurred to him to do so even while on Annette’s leg Maxwell hadn’t bothered counting the number of kisses he placed on her skin. The reason he chose to now was so that he could find out how many kisses it took him to reach the very edge of Annette’s areola.

Then slight delay caused by stopping to count proved beneficial as it gave Maxwell the time he needed to realize there was something more he could do for Annette’s pleasure. Whenever Maxwell would stop to plant a kiss on Annette’s breasts he also made it a point to rub the flesh that his arms could reach. Upon his lips meeting with her flesh he’d tense his fingers and grip her flesh as best he could and even used one of his feet to rub her skin.

As a sigh escaped Annette Maxwell was lifted particularly high into the air. Even though he could only cover a very tiny portion of her breasts the attention to detail he could give was a delight to her. She was grateful that her body was very human in its reactions to stimulus.

At last Maxwell made it to Annette’s areola. A chuckle escaped him as he glanced over at her and announced the number of kiss. “Now that was me working in a strait line from my starting point. Annette, I would need more then a day to cover just the top of your breast with kisses and that is if I didn’t bother sleeping or eating.”

“Mm it’d be fun though and you could sleep wherever you had finished. I guess before we try we should wait until there is nothing going on.”

“Yes, I suppose of course by then it’ll take me even longer.”

“That is fine with me.”

Maxwell grinned as he returned to the task at hand. Moving across Annette’s areola and over to her nipple. She was already quite excited so he had no trouble grasping the upper portion of Annette’s nipple. Pulling himself into a seated position he then extended his legs and wrapped them around as much of Annette’s nipple as he could. He then began to squeeze Annette’s nipple with both his hands and legs at the same time.

A slight sigh escaped Annette as Maxwell tightened his hold on her nipple. Using her left hand she began to gently tease her left nipple while her right hand returned to her knickers and began to lightly stroke the material over her lips.

While Maxwell worked on Annette’s nipple his left hand left the top and began to search the sides of her flesh. Slowly he began to trace his fingers over the slight bumps that formed in her skin. Leaning forward he placed a kiss atop Annette’s nipple and began to gently kiss as much of her flesh as he could reach in his current position.

A low moan escaped Annette as Maxwell worked her nipple. The feeling of his fingers teasing the little bumps in her flesh was an odd delight. While it was only a very small portion of her body the fact that he gave even these little aspects of her such loving attention was a delight to her. A tingle ran throughout her when Maxwell began to shift his position.

After carefully insuring that he gave each little bump that he could reach at least a few moments of attention Maxwell began to carefully move around Annette’s nipple. While this forced him to relax his legs and his hand hold on her nipple he made certain to continue kissing her flesh as he moved about.

“I love being able to so easily feel the slight bumps that form in your flesh when you become excited. They seem that one day they may not just be bumps but may one day be true mountains perhaps even as grand as your breasts are now. The fact that your nipple alone is larger then any woman’s breasts except the largest of species, is a wondrous delight and thought.

The deep softness of your breasts is a delight and the warmth I feel when you engulf me with them is remarkable. I delight in the way your breasts shifts and shakes every time you giggle. The fact that you can conceal my entire body between these wondrous mountains is remarkable.

It’s even fun when you can’t contain your giggles and I feel my entire world shaking while I’m up here. I even find joy in the thought that eventually I won’t be able to make the climb to this wonderful peek without the aid of spells or a helping hand.”

“Now this just isn’t fair. I haven’t managed to strip any of your clothing off yet and you’ve almost explored all of me.”

“Well you set the rules. I can’t help it if they are so many wonderful things about you to admire.”

“Mm well I get to strip you soon enough. So I can wait.”

Maxwell gave a nod as he stood up. He then began to walk back towards the valley created by Annette’s breasts. His moment of admiration had also been his good bye to her nipple for the time being. Now he intended on making it back down her breasts the way he’d came. There was two more major parts of Annette’s body that he wanted to explore. One of which he didn’t know if he’d ever given any attention. He hated the idea that he hadn’t shown Annette that he loved every bit of her body.

“Would you like a hand getting down?”

For a moment Maxwell was going to decline but he changed his mind. “Yes.”

“Where would you like me to place you?”

“Just hold me and I’ll go from there.”

Nodding her head Annette removed her hand from her knickers and reached up. She made certain to use the two fingers she’d been using to pet the outside of her lips to pick Maxwell up. Laying her left hand flat she then placed Maxwell in her open palm and returned her right hand to her knickers. If she didn’t give her lips a little attention to sedate them she felt she’d lose control and have to give them Maxwell before he was ready.

Turning around Maxwell made his way along Annette’s palm and then stepped out onto her index finger. He then made his way to near the tip of that finger bent down and placed a kiss on the very tip. While his lips still met the tip of her finger he reached down and began to squeeze the outer edges of the massive digit. As he kissed her hand Annette seemed to realize what was going on or at least her body did as she closed her fingers together.

Annette wasn’t quite certain what Maxwell had intended but she had an idea she of what it was. Her belief was confirmed as Maxwell began to make his way across her fingers. On each finger he’d place a kiss at the very tip.

The sound of a slight moan escaping Annette was a wonderful moment for Maxwell as she breathed her approval of his attention. As he finished with her pinky finger he moved down slightly. While he wasn’t going to cover every bit of Annette’s fingers with kisses he was determined to at least leave a kiss on each section.

Once he came to the base of Annette’s fingers Maxwell pressed on the sides of the fingers. In response Annette once again parted her fingers. This allowed Maxwell to slip his head between the massive digits and place a kiss on the bit of skin between them. Once he drifted away from Annette’s fingers he shifted direction once again and began to work his way towards her rest. He could feel the muscles working within Annette’s hand as she wiggled her fingers.

Upon climbing onto Annette’s wrist he gave the area just above the artery a quick kiss and began to make his way across her arm. As he did so he felt the muscles in Annette’s arm tensed and then relaxed. The feeling of Annette lifting him just by flexing her muscles was one that Maxwell truly enjoyed. To be able to feel the effects of her strength in such a manner was quite the experience for him.

The muscles in Annette’s arm caused several massive hills to rise up from her skin. However, as Maxwell travel across her arm he couldn’t help but feel those muscles flowed together wonderfully well. The terrain was far from uniform but despite that it seemed exceptionally smooth as one muscle flowed into the other forming gentle rolling hills throughout her arm.

While it would have been too easy for Annette to hinder Maxwell’s progress while he was climbing her breasts or in her hand as Maxwell made his way over her arm that changed. With his attention so focused on what was ahead of him Annette waited until he drifted along the edge of one of her muscles and flexed her entire arm.

Between the sudden increases in the size of the muscle, the overall slope and the pushing action from the swelling muscle Maxwell lost his balance entirely. Annette had actually flexed her arm more slowly then she had done her legs but Maxwell had also been quite focused on what was ahead of him and he was sent rolling.

The trip was exceptionally brief though as Maxwell quickly impacted with another hill of muscle. Glancing around Maxwell was fairly surprised to find that he was currently resting in small gap between two of Annette’s muscles.

A delighted giggle escaped Annette as she glanced down at Maxwell. “You look so cute lying on my arm like that.”

Shaking his head slightly Maxwell gave the muscle to either side of him a kiss before he began to set up. “The way your arm flows together is so wonderful Annette. Though the surface is not uniform with many hills that rise up from your skin it holds such a wonderful smoothness. Each muscle seems in proportion to the last so that they flow together into your wonderfully powerful arms. I love that even if you weren’t of such a grand scale your arms would hold remarkable strength.

When I look at your muscles it astound me to think that should I stand next to them where they just begin to rise above your skin several of them would be taller then me. It’s amazing that even if you weren’t flexing so many of them would tower over me at your wonderful scale. It’s such a remarkable display of your strengthen.

Above those I love that your strength goes far beyond what your size or build indicate. I am delighted to know that your appearance is a deception. That in fact you are far stronger then your build or scale gives away.” As he spoke Maxwell slowly drew himself up the hills of Annette’s muscles and made his way onto her shoulder. He then began to work his way towards her neck.

Once Maxwell was off her arm Annette relaxed it. She then tilted her head slightly so that it would be easier for him to climb onto her lower jaw. It was only after Maxwell had climbed atop her jaw that she spoke. “I love you Maxwell.”

The movement of Annette’s jaw was quite sudden and ended up shaking Maxwell off balance. However, as he fell forward Annette had shut her mouth so that he landed atop her lips. As soon as his skin made contact with her lips he felt a powerful force holding him down as Annette engulfed the majority of his body in a kiss.

Annette knew that Maxwell wanted to explore her face but she could wait no longer. Even while her lips held him in place she reached up with her right hand and took hold of him. She then released him from the kiss and lifted him away from her mouth.

There was a wide grin on Maxwell face as he realized what two fingers once again held him. As he was placed within Annette’s left hand once again he lay still as she used her fingernail to carefully strip away his clothing.

After stripping away his clothing Annette lifted Maxwell from her left hand. As she smiled at him she reached down with her now free left hand and pulled the waste band of her knickers away. She made sure that Maxwell could see the vast expanse of her body below him as she moved him towards her knickers. As he made it past the mountains of her breasts she even lowered him so that the back of his feet drug against her stomach ever so slightly.

Upon feeling his feet come in contact with the outer edges of Annette’s lips a shiver ran throughout Maxwell. As he glanced down at Annette’s lower lips he began using his feet to try and get a grip on her lips. At the same time Annette was slowly drawing Maxwell in circles around her lips.

It had been clear that Annette had become quite excited while he explored her body. However, as Maxwell looked at her lips and the condition of her knickers he was quite surprised to see how excited she truly was. Her scent engulfed him and she had yet to even part her lips.

As Annette released her waste band she slipped her hand within her knickers. Inserting two fingers between her lips she parted them just enough for Maxwell to slip in easily. A massive wave of heat was released from within Annette as she parted her lips and the air was permeated with her scent.

It was difficult for Maxwell to remember what he had planned to do as he was lowered within Annette. The heat and her scent were overwhelming enough. The touch of her inner flesh almost made it impossible for him to keep focus. Annette hadn’t been the only one that had been being stimulated by his exploration of her body.

Seemingly in response to Annette fingers lowering him to slowly her crotch was thrust upward. Her lips swallowed up even more of him. However, her fingers didn’t release him so that when her waste moved back down her inner walls slid over the vast majority of his body leaving it with a thick coating of her nectar. Then after her body had settled back down she once again began lowering Maxwell within its confines.

The mixture of the softness of Annette’s inner flesh, the slippery surface, the heat and her scent was wondrous. The fact that Annette was taking her time to lower him seemed almost torturous to Maxwell. His desire to be within her was so great that it nearly caused him to struggle to break free of her fingers’ taunting grasp.

A wave of pleasure rushed through Maxwell as he felt his penis rub against Annette’s inner walls. As he was lowered within Annette he began to move his legs about. His entire world trembled as he rubbed his legs against Annette’s inner flesh and for a moment it seemed his rate of decent increased. The feeling of Annette’s flesh slipping down his sides told him that wasn’t the case. Her crotch had simply risen up slightly to meet his touch.

Once Maxwell’s arms slipped within Annette he began to make use of them as well. Reaching out he rubbed as much of Annette’s flesh as he could with his arms and legs. As her lips rose up around him he gave each of the lips as long of a kiss as time would allow. Then slowly his head slipped beyond those gates and within Annette entirely.

At last when Maxwell was completely within her Annette released her hold upon him. A sharp gasp escaped her and she thrust her hips upward as she felt Maxwell slide within her. Leaving Maxwell to her vagina Annette reached up and pressed her right hand against the underside of her breasts. She then gave that massive mountain of flesh a gentle squeeze while her left hand came up to gently tease one of her nipples.

The air within Annette was thick and heavy with her scent. The heat was remarkable and seemed to make the fire within Maxwell grow even hotter. There wasn’t truly enough air within Annette for someone to survive however Maxwell had come to realize how he could breathe within her.

As Annette had grown so had the power of her life force and while within her vagina one was exceptionally close to that life force. The entire area of her vagina was indeed filled with that energy and that was what actually sustained his life when he was within her. Even if there was no air and the only thing he was drawing in was the scent of her nectar he couldn’t have smothered within those confines.

With Annette’s fingers no longer restraining him Maxwell was finally free to move about. Reaching to his side he pressed his hand against Annette’s inner flesh and stood up. Pressing his shoulder into Annette’s inner flesh he began to turn around so that he was traveling deeper within her confines. The whole time he was turning he insured that he pressed as much as body as he could as firmly as possible into her.

The feeling of Annette’s inner muscles quaking around him assured him she appreciated the attention. Once he had turned around he once again moved to his hands and knees as he had while exploring her body. He then gave Annette’s inner walls a kiss. His face was already coated so well with her nectar that he didn’t mind. Leaning forward he pressed his tongue against her inner flesh and slowly began to draw it along licking up her nectar as he did so.

Leaning to his side as he moved Maxwell began to journey more deeply within Annette. As he moved he slide is legs along the slippery surface. His hands searching the darkness before him would take hold of Annette’s inner folds. These he used to pull himself along.

Upon drawing himself level with each of Annette’s inner folds Maxwell would lean forward and give the fold a kiss. His entire body would be lowered to lay against Annette’s skin and he’d hug as much of her inner flesh as he could.

The slippery surface forced him to brace his feet against Annette’s inner folds and grip those before him to move effectively. That was fine as far as Maxwell was concerned though it slowed his progress down it insured he felt and rubbed against even more of Annette’s flesh.

As he traveled deeper within Annette Maxwell felt the heat building and her nectar flowed more freely and seemingly thicker. He knew that he’d have to quicken his pace before she would achieve release but he wanted to draw this moment out. He wanted to insure that his lady was as hot as possible whenever the moment of release came.

While he traveled deeper Maxwell ceased to rise to his hands and knees. Annette’s nectar was making it harder and harder to keep his grip so that he quit that but proceeded forward on his belly. This meant that more of him was pressed against his lady but it also caused a problem for him. As his penis was pressed deeply into Annette’s inner softness he found it increasingly difficult to focus.
Whenever Maxwell would secure a new hand and foot hold he would move slightly to the side. As he kissed Annette he’d quickly rub his shoulders against her inner walls while the whole of the front of his body was made to rub against the living cave that consumed him.

As Maxwell progressed deeper within Annette his world continued to respond. Her walls would squeeze in around him and he felt his world spasm several times. Whenever she’d thrust her hips upward he’d feel the affects and be pushed more firmly into her flesh. As the fires within them burned hotter he found it increasingly difficult to make progress further within her as her movements began to shift him about.

Even though his progress was slowing Maxwell’s rate of movement did not. As he was driven further within Annette the spasms of her inner muscles, the thrusting of her hips and her shifting movements eventually resulted in him losing all idea of how much progress he’d made as he was shifted about. Still, he strove to keep moving.

While Maxwell might not have noticed he had been moving far more aggressively and quickly as he had progressed further into Annette’s confines. Now with his losing any idea of what his situation was he gave up and began to touch and press himself against as much as Annette could. Whenever he would be thrown about by her movements or her fluids could cause him to slip within her he made no attempt to regain his original position as there was no way for him to do so.

Instead he focused entirely on feeling and tasting as much of Annette as he could. As he pressed himself into her flesh he began to thrust his hips against her walls. His lips and tongue met her inner flesh several times as he lapped up her nectar.

Maxwell’s increased pace was noticed almost instantly by Annette. As he began to move about more quickly she lost sight of the world around her. Her moans grew in volume and she began to thrust her hips upward as if trying to force her tiny lover even further within her. The heel of her foot was driven into the ground as her legs were made to thrash about. The affects of her thrashing form could be felt throughout her home and beyond. If Jahnah not made the room for Annette her thrashing form may very well have caused it to collapse.

It was exceptionally easy for Maxwell to tell Annette’s release was near. Trapped within the confines of her vagina it was all to clear to him. As he felt her release building all around him he could feel his own release coming. He had to struggle to contain enough of his desire to bring them both to release to begin the slow rolling chant for the spell and begin gathering the energies needed.

A cry that could be heard even through the thick walls of Annette’s room escaped her as her entire body tensed. The heel of her right foot slammed into the ground with the force of a small meteor and ground forward tearing through the solid stone as if it was clay. Her right hand lashed out and struck the wall opposite of her with such force that a massive crater was left within the ride of the room.

Maxwell was squeezed from all sides as every muscle in Annette’s vagina clenched. The full body hug was over whelming and he began to shudder as he achieved his release. As the walls gripped his entire body in one full bodied hug after another it was all Maxwell could do to finish the spell before he lost himself to the moment.

A sharp gasp escaped Annette as the waves of pleasure rippling throughout her body were joined by another. A delighted scream escaped her as she suddenly felt her eye heating up and energy surging throughout her body. Her sands slammed into the ground and she thrust her chest upward as she reveled in the energy.

The only sound that escaped Annette once the process had began was a low moan as every muscle in her body seemed to flex. She felt the ground being torn apart as her legs suddenly began to stretch further. Her clenched fingers easily dug through the stone as she expanded outward in every direction. At the same time they tear grew longer and wider as it was also made to grow deeper as her fingers were forced further out by her expanding arms and drove deeper and wider due to their own growth.

She heard the tearing of cloth as her growing hips shredded her knickers. As the pleasure of her expanding power moved throughout her body and mixed with the pleasure Maxwell had brought her she could hardly move. Her breathes came in short shallow gasp as she could only moan her enjoyment of the situation.

There was no thought to the moment only pleasure, passion and power as Annette was blinded to the surrounding world. She didn’t even have the presence of mind to wonder why she was suddenly growing. Indeed in her current state of mind Annette didn’t even realize there was anything strange about the situation. The feelings going throughout her were simply blinding her to everything else except the one figure she held trapped within herself and her own bliss.

As the growth slowed Annette’s body trembled. A sigh of utter contentment escaped her lips as she allowed herself to fall backwards. For a moment she gave the tiny figure within herself a squeeze with her inner muscles. Then slowly she turned onto her side.

Annette’s massive legs locked together and she slipped one of her hands under her head. Her other arm came to rest across her breasts as she waited for her breathing to return to normal. She made no attempt to think so that she could just bask in the moment and enjoy the after glow of the whole experience. It didn’t take any thought on her part though to decide that Maxwell would be spending a while inside of her. At least until she’d come down from such a wonderful high and had some time to relax.

Perhaps, she would be ready to let Maxwell out in a few hours. If not she didn’t believe he’d mind spending the day within her. Surely she’d be ready to let him out of her after a day and night. If not she knew that he was safe right where he was. There was no need for him to actually leave after all. She didn’t mind if it meant a little bit of her life energy was used to sustain his health it was quite worth it to her.

************************************************************************

Dehvess had been surprised to learn that Annette had learned to open the gate in her eye before he had finished the temple. The method Maxwell had used was quite unorthodox but very affect. While he had been within Annette during her release he had used a spell that drew upon elemental energies to strengthen the target. In this case it was Annette.

In most cases the spell drew its power from the easiest to access source of elemental energy. This was normally the natural world though it could also be an item or even the caster themselves. Had Maxwell cast the spell while outside of Annette’s body it would have been the world around them as while Annette’s eye did serve as a gate it was very difficult to access thanks to her physical and spiritual nature.

However, that had changed when he cast the spell within her. Maxwell had apparently adjusted the spell so that it would be unable to drain energy from him past the actual shaping of the energies. Sense he was confined within Annette’s body there was no way for it to reach out to the surrounding world. The fact that he was engulfed in her life energy at the time had also helped the spell to function as it made it far easier for it to draw upon the power of the gate.

Maxwell had made it easier for the spell to draw upon the energies of the gate and for the spell to affect Annette by waiting until her moment of release. During that time her conscious mind would be the least aware of what was going on and the least able to resist.

By then focusing the energies of the spell on Annette he had formed a sort of loop within her. The drain on the elemental energy had forced the gate in her eye to open once again and the fact that the spell was directed towards her insured that even the energy Maxwell used for the spell went into her.

Finally by drawing the energy through Annette’s life force first he had forced her body to truly become aware of the gate’s presence. It had caused an awakening or a new awareness to be born within Annette. At last the gate had truly been unlocked instead of just forced open for a precious moment and to add to the situation as it was now connected with her life force as she grew in power so would the size of the gate. The more she grew the more power would flow into her.

The end result was that while one couldn’t see it with natural eyes Annette was growing far more quickly then she ever had before.

Now if Jahnah had been driven to insure the temple was finished before Annette learned to open the gate in her eye and keep it open Dehvess had become fanatical to finish the temple whenever it had occurred.

This had resulted in a rather odd situation. While Jahnah was very eager to have the temple finished she knew what Dehvess was like whenever he felt he was failing. Now she had to take care to insure that Dehvess didn’t over work himself which meant trying to get him to slow down.

Even before the gate in Annette’s eye had been opened Dehvess had been sleeping within a time warp. Thanks to Jahnah’s increased power she was able to set it up so that he could get a full night’s rest within minutes. This had of course increased the speed of his work as it gave him slightly more then seven additional hours to devote to his project.

Now though he had taken it to an entirely higher extreme. He had begun taking his meals within the time warp and even then he refused to eat anything that would prevent him from reading his notes during the time.

In order to improve the efficiency of his work he had also allotted five minutes from each hour during which he would enter the time bubble once again. The warp was strong enough that while it was only minutes to the outside world it was easily thirty to him. These same warps were also used in preparation of his notes provided he didn’t have to use any other magic.

This of course resulted in him needing to sleep several times a day which meant entering back into the warps to sleep.

The end result was that time was moving much faster for Dehvess then it was the outside world and while it did have benefits the reason for not using these tactics also became clear. Such extensive use of altered time carried certain dangers to both the surrounding environment and the user. It also carried certain side affects. Dehvess was aging far more quickly now by making use of the time warps then he would have normally.

To make matters even worse the energy didn’t quit affecting you right when you left the time bubble. There was always a residue left over that would affect the person even after they’d left. The time the affects were in play depended on the power of the time warp and Dehvess was using very powerful ones.

Just in the past few days Dehvess had actually aged several months. The other reason this tactic was used so rarely was the obscene amount of power needed to create such long lasting warps in the fabric of time. If it hadn’t been for Jahnah creating the time spheres there would have been no way for Dehvess to maintain them.

The only time Dehvess had actually quit using the time spheres was when he was working on the flesh golem. The constructs mystic nature made it exceptionally dangerous to use any magic other then what was involved in its construction. Any spell that affected the entire region such as a time warp or teleportation was exceptionally dangerous and could very easily end up destroying the golem while it was still vulnerable to the affects of magic.

Even if the magic should not destroy them golem though there was quite a few other things that could go wrong. From the golem simply being damaged to the caster being seriously injured, killed or something all together different when the energies that were used to create the golem interacted with the magic used to create the time sphere.

If it hadn’t been for Dehvess’s training in order and life magic Jahnah would have been entirely opposed to the idea. Fortunately Dehvess’s training in order magic had helped protect him from the negative aspects of the time spell.

Mages who were trained to use their own spirit as the primary source of energy for their spells were also altered by the training and knowledge. Those trained in order magic became more orderly, they felt compelled to control every variable and make sure a plan was followed. This also extended to their bodies so that they became harder to affect. Their entire being became more uniform so that when such things as time magic attempted to force them to age more quickly they resisted the affects.

Training in life magic had an affect as well. The amount of life energy within the mage began to increase. This at first manifested as better health but as they grew in power it extended their life span as well. A human master of life magic could easily live as long as an elf while an elf that had done the same could easily live as long as a dragon.

If it hadn’t been for the combined affects of his training Jahnah would have been far more reluctant to have allowed Dehvess to use such methods. Then even with his training if she didn’t believe she would be able to restore the life energy he’d lost she still might not have been able to be convinced to allow him to do so.

Now Dehvess set alone in his lab for the first time in weeks. Jahnah had been called away and he was now finished with using the time sphere. Currently he set across from the flesh golem.

He’d done so for over thirty six hours now as he waited for his body and spirit to recover. Even with his resistance to the affects of time magic accelerating his aging and his training in life magic it had taken its toll. Now he had resolved to do no more then help control the energy Jahnah needed to remain a giantess. Beyond that he wouldn’t cast a single spell until his body had recovered enough to perform the ritual spell to strengthen the temple.

This had given him a great deal of time to think and evaluate his work.

The materials Xyra had provided him with had played a huge part in the quality of the golem. Indeed as Dehvess looked upon it he couldn’t help but be impressed. It was hard for him to believe that it was actually his work.

The golem’s hair was a bright red as if it had leaked from an artery and flowed all the way down to just past her ankles. Why had he done that? It was an extensive use of material and time consuming but he’d still made it so long. Her hair was as silken and soft as that of a nymph. The effort he had put into just crafting her hair astounded him and the results the material had allowed him to achieve was astonishing.

Her skin was soft white as if belonging to someone that had been out in the sun often but always sheltered by a sun umbrella. It felt as smooth as a newborn’s skin provided one did not press to hard and just as smooth. The warmth that radiated from the skin was quite strange. As while flesh golems retained heat better then clay, stone or metal her skin actually gave off its own heat.

Her lips were a soft pink while her teeth were as white as any pearl that Dehvess had ever seen. At the moment her eye lids were shut but he knew them to be the same red as her hair. At the moment her lips were formed into a smile as if she was having a peaceful dream.

Turning his attention to her hands her fingers looked as if they had been made for the most delicate and graceful of tasks. He was fairly surprised to see that her fingernails were a deep red. In the past when he’d made flesh golems in feminine form he had left their fingernails their natural color but hers seemed to have been painted as did her toenails.

The thighs of the golem were full and wonderfully toned. Indeed her entire body was well toned. Her abdominal muscles were clearly cut into four different sections while her legs and arms looked strong with delicate rises in the flesh leading to where the muscles peeked. It wasn’t the build of a warrior but seemed natural for a blade dancer. Everything about her build seemed swift and powerful.

What appeared to be a dress adorned her sleeping form. In truth it was more like a second layer of skin that covered her. Dehvess had found a use for the heart’s blood flower in his studies. He had found that the flower could be processed into a sort of living clothing. This clothing served to help life energy flow more easily so that the one that wore it could channel its power more effectively. This not only helped with magic but it also helped with physical operations as well.

His experience in helping with Annette’s armor had aided him with the dress. As while it was a part of the golem it was also as removable as any other article of clothing.

The breasts that adorned her chests were easily a D cup and stood out wonderfully proud and firm. As he looked at those wonderful globes he could hardly believe it at first but he saw the rising and he heard her drawing breathe.

He had given her the ability to draw breath and made her heart to beat. The internal workings of the golem were simpler then that of a humans but far more complex then he’d realized while he worked on her.

As he looked at her she seemed to be alive in everyway. For a moment he was made to think back to when he was working on her and a feeling of wonderment passed over him. Why had he made her able to simulate being alive in every way? Standing up Dehvess walked over to her and placed his hand on her stomach. He’d even given her the ability to eat.

He knew why he had given her some of these features. He’d meant for the golem to grow and improve as time went on. This would have been impossible to do with dead flesh and exceptionally difficult with even healthy. However, the flesh Xyra had given him was of such wonderful quality it would have been an extreme waste for him not to give her the ability to improve.

The shock came from the fact that even with that knowledge he didn’t realize how far he had gone while working on her. Even now as he looked upon her it was nearly impossible for him to imagine how he’d taken her so far.

In most cases Dehvess’s work was consistent, reliable and steady. It was hard for an order mage to truly become inspired due to the hindering affect training had on the chaotic aspects of their nature. A sudden burst of inspiration for an order mage was rare and only became more so as their power grew. Yet what he was looking at was truly inspired work.

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess as he realized this had happened only a few times before. When he was with Jahnah and their energies intermixed he could truly become inspired. Her passion was so great that it could free him from the bonds he had put on himself in his studies of order magic.

Upon learning that Maxwell had helped Annette to open the gate and now she could keep it open he had felt an incredible sense of failure. He had told Jahnah that he would help her gain the power she desired and yet he’d fallen behind. Even though Jahnah hadn’t said anything to him it had almost been crushing. However, her constant attention and the determination to redeem himself from his failure seemed to have brought about his best work.

Now there were only two questions that troubled him as he looked upon the golem girl. What was she and what was her name? These questions had never even occurred to Dehvess before. He had very rarely even seen fit to give the golems he created a true name. The vast majority only received a project number and class indicating what type of golem they were, their power and in what order they had been made.

However he felt compelled to give the sleeping form before him a name. A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess as he lifted his hand from the sleeping forms stomach. He could hardly believe that he was regarding her as sleeping. Slowly he was made to shake his head as he realized that he had even gone so far as to consider the golem a her.

While many of his previous works had taken on female form he’d never regarded them as a she. They were simple objects that happened wear a female appearance. Why did he consider this one so different?

The answers came to him soon enough. For the golem to perform its functions properly Dehvess had been forced to make it far more human then most from the beginning. Then due to the materials Xyra had given him he had been able to take it even further. His drive had been magnified by his sense of failure and with Jahnah’s aura surrounding him his inspiration took on a level he wasn’t sure he had ever achieved before.

Even though the golem wasn’t the most powerful he’d ever created. Indeed she was far from it at the moment. She had far more potential then any golem he had ever seen other then Annette. He wasn’t just looking at another one of his creations when he looked at the young lady. He was looking at his masterwork.

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess as he realized how absurd the thought was. Most mages took decades to finish the one creation they called their masterwork. When compared to the time it took him to create her the thought was entirely laughable. Yet when he looked at the golem he had no doubt that even if he lived for ten thousand years he’d never be able to best or match her.

The materials, the environment, the motivation everything had come together to drive him to a level that he didn’t know that he could achieve. He had to give her a name and he had to know who she was.

In the past several of the golems he had created had been modeled after Jahnah as far as physical shape went. At least modeled after one of her appearance, much as order mages hardly ever seemed to change chaos mages seemed to change quite rapidly. He had once sworn that her hair could go from red to black in a single week and they were days she awoke with a tan she had not had the previous day.

This time things were different. The young lady had been made with several of Jahnah’s features but not nearly enough to say she had been modeled after Jahnah entirely. So who had she been modeled after?

Dehvess gave his head a quick shake first. A name had to come first before he tried to see who she was he had to know what to call her. He couldn’t simply think of her as the lady, girl or much less the golem.

“You must have a name but what should it be? I’m afraid that I’m not very good at such things. Mm Crystal? No, you are precious but far from unchanging. You won’t be worn down and diminished by being cut away. Your potential may be limitless. Okay then I’ll name you Amara in hopes of your eternal potential.”

************************************************************************

Meridea sighed as she looked at the glyphs lining the walls, roof and floor. Placed within the center of the room was the hydra’s heart she’d acquired while bound before her Davlamin finally waited to see what his fait would be. The sound of foot steps caught Meridea’s attention as somewhat odd. She knew Dehvess could be coming but the steps didn’t sound like his.

A wide grin adorned Dehvess’s face as he entered into the room. He had exchanged his robes for the golem armor that he’d been keeping in his workshop for the past several months. The armor would serve to protect him from the more dangerous aspects of the spell while increasing his own power to improve his chances of succeeding with the ritual spell.

Stepping to the side Dehvess pointed to just behind the heart. “Amara I want you to set right there.”

Amara entered the room shortly after Dehvess and proceeded over to the indicated position. Folding her legs under herself she made certain to lift her dress so that it wasn’t caught under her when she sat.

For a moment Meridea could only stair. She’d been quite surprised when Dehvess had entered wearing the full suit of golem armor. While she knew that the spell called for some powerful magic she didn’t expect that to be involved. Of course much like Jahnah her eyes had been partly blinded to his work by the glyphs he set up in his work shop.

Amara’s appearance had also caught her off guard. If she hadn’t been able to see life energies or known that Dehvess had been working on her she would have sworn that she was alive. “Dehvess, why are you wearing golem armor?”

“I need it for an added level of protection and its amplification affects should insure I don’t tire during the casting.” Dehvess had intentionally kept Meridea in the dark as to just what the spell called for as well as Jahnah for what he considered a very good reason. He knew that if Meridea found out she’d inform Jahnah and Jahnah would stop him from casting the spell.

“Well we have everything that we need. What are you going to need protection from? Actually, I don’t even know what he is for.” As she spoke Meridea indicated the mage.

“When I begin casting the spell the first thing that is going to happen is the heart will be destroyed. I’m going to use it to open a tear to the positive plain. At this time I’m going to begin casting a spell to grant life. It’s similar to a resurrection spell.”

Dehvess didn’t get to finish his explanation as Meridea interrupted him. “How similar are you talking about? As I recall resurrection spells involve re-establishing the soul bonds with the body. If something goes wrong enough during the casting the spell can very easily be made to go after the soul bonds of the spell caster.”

There was no attempt on Dehvess’s part to answer Meridea’s question. He had already come up with a way to deal with this resistance. “At this time I’m going to need you to tear away the soul bonds of that arch-mage and release them to me. I can hold the spell for a while even without the bonds so you have a few minutes to do this in. At this time I will join the soul bonds to Amara.”

“A golem, you’re going to join soul bonds to a golem?”

“Yes it happened on accident with Annette and I designed Amara for this task based off information I obtained from working on Annette and other projects. She’s quite capable of it. At this time I’m then going to connect Amara to the temple. She will serve as the anchor that keeps the gate from closing and directs the energy into the temple. Jahnah, Xyra, you and even she will benefit greatly from this union.”

“Dehvess, they are at least three different places during this that you could have your soul bonds ripped away from you!”

“Meridea you know a bit about life magic don’t you?”

“Yes I have some knowledge in the craft of life magic.”

“What dangers exist should such spells be stopped during the casting even if it is right at the beginning?”

“You would..!” Meridea didn’t even get a chance to finish speaking before she felt a powerful rush of energy. A stream of light surged throughout the glyphs on the floor, walls and roof starting from the where the heart set and moving out in all directions like a newly freed river. The entire room was illuminated in light and she glanced down to see the heart rapidly being consumed by the spell.

A wave of anger rushed through Meridea as she realized that Dehvess had planned this. She felt her other beating at the back of her mind and had to take a moment to push it back down. Fortunately she had been preparing for the day as well. At Meridea’s level of mastery of death magic the desire to consume life became a part of her. This made casting life magic around her a very risky act.

She’d at least known that Dehvess would be opening a tear to the positive plain or plain of life. Normally she wouldn’t have been around for such things as this would bring her hunger for the life energy to an extreme high. However, Dehvess had insisted her skills would be needed for the actual casting so she’d taken some time to prepare.

Keeping the children of others was more then a psychological release for Meridea. In order to keep her hunger under control she had to feed it. By feeding it the right type of essence energy she could sate her hunger and not have to consume life. It was a fortunate side affect of consuming spirit beings such as a lich that she had been granted the ability to do so.

Nearly all sentient life was wonderful essence energy generators and by controlling their emotions she could insure it was just the right type. In the case of the children by putting them under the thrall Meridea could insure the essence was that of love and happiness which sated her hunger the most affectively.

It was fortunate that she’d taken in extra essence to insure that she was well feed for the casting. She was worried something might happen to bring her other out with all that life energy in front of her. If she hadn’t consumed more then she believed was necessary she might have lost control of herself. Though it wasn’t due to the reason she believe it would be. At the moment she was quite upset with Dehvess.

Dehvess knew that Jahnah and Meridea would be upset with him for attempting such a dangerous spell. Normally this would have been enough to prevent him from attempting it but he simply didn’t feel the risk was so great. With the first stage of the spell underway though he had no time to truly think on this.

Once she’d calmed herself Meridea recognized the first aspect of the spell. It was actually part of a very powerful healing spell that was very rarely used. Most believed the spell had been developed by a lover, husband, wife, mother or father but in any case the spell was powerful. The reason this believe was held was the spell had a price. It was an exceptionally powerful healing spell even able to close wounds that were backed by a very powerful curse.

However, the price was fairly steep. In order to cast the spell one had to give up life force. The more that was given up the more powerful the spell became. In many cases it had actually been known to kill the caster. Fortunately there was no need for Dehvess to give up his life force as he was using the heart as the sacrifice.

As the heart was consumed more and more of the glyphs throughout the room began to light up. Soon the room was as well lit as the brightest day and still the spell continued.

After two thirds of the heart’s life energy had been consumed Meridea finally turned her attention to the Davlamin. A flash of energy surged throughout her fingers and took on the form of crimson electricity that danced about her hand.

A massive wave of warmth surged throughout the room as the heart was finally consumed and a pillar of light surged forth from where the heart had rested. The entire room was filled with light surpassing that of the brightest day as the gate was torn.

The timing with which Meridea acted was near perfect despite having no time to practice for the casting. In less then a second after the gate had been opened she drove her hand into Davlamin’s back. The moment her hand pressed against his back his entire body was made to convulse and a low moan escaped his lips despite the paralyze spell that held him.

The radiant crimson energy that danced across Meridea’s fingers turned into a dull aura that consumed the mage. As her hand was actually made to sink within his back a light radiated forth from his entire body.

In order to resurrect someone their soul had to be reconnected to the body. For this to work the mage had to use their soul bonds to capture the departed one and restore it to the body. However, if the soul was too far gone the mage could over stretch their soul bonds and the mage could have his torn away as well.

The spell Dehvess currently used ran a similar risk in that he could over exert his own energies and the bond between his soul and body would be broken. His skill with life magic and the strengthening affects of the armor allowed him to hold the gate open longer but the strain would still overwhelm him in time.

Despite being paralyzed Davlamin resisted the affects of the spell to take the energy that bound his soul to his body away. The life energy that filled the room gave him strength. This is why Meridea had been Dehvess’s primary choice as despite Davlamin’s training in magic and the life energy he was hardly able to hold out for five seconds before Meridea had torn the energy from him.

A great amount of pressure was removed from Dehvess the moment the soul energy was released. In its natural state the energy held the soul to the body and was commonly considered ones true life force. However, it could also serve other purposes. While the positive plain was not a soul it was still a spiritual existence. So by connecting it to the plain and then to Amara it was still connecting a spiritual existence to a body as it was meant to do.

Meridea dared not look up as she watched the corpse of Davlamin shrivel up before her. Even though the soul was no longer bound to the body there was still life force contained within. She dared not even withdraw the hand that she had sunk into the mage until she’d drained every last bit of life energy from the corpse. She’d need the strength in just a few moments.

Now with just one last hurtle to clear Dehvess could have died three times during the casting. The first had been during the sacrificing of the heart, the second when he had used his own soul bond to hold the gate open and the third when he had attached the extracted soul bond to the plain of life and Amara.

As Meridea felt the last bit of life energy drain out of the shriveled husk of a corpse she finally with drew her hand. The fingernails of her hand had lengthened by several centimeters into claws and the skin up to her wrist had darkened considerably. The world had become a much clearer place in the last few minutes as well meaning that her eyes had changed. Her hand had changed so much that her glove had been shredded.

Pulling her hand in close to herself Meridea would have been a blur to any untrained human eyes had anyone seen her as she dashed out of the room. She could feel her hunger building to a remarkable level. Given that Dehvess was so vulnerable at the moment she didn’t want to risk doing something she’d regret.

Holding the gate open and connecting it to Amara had been by far the most draining aspects of the spell. By themselves they were also the most dangerous. However, Dehvess was far from safe.

He still had to finish binding Amara to the temple itself. This in itself would not have been dangerous to him if it hadn’t been for the fact that his life force was severally weakened. In his vulnerable state Meridea, Xyra, Amara and even Jahnah could consume his life energy with such ease that it could be done on accident.

In response to the danger Meridea had not only left the room but had quit drawing energy from the temple to make the risk as small as possible. Jahnah and Xyra had begun too at the same time. However, though they could quit actively drawing energy for the time being they were still all connected to the temple so the danger would not vanish entirely. Amara for her part had no choice but to continue as she had been.

Dehvess could feel himself growing dizzy as he struggled to finish the final connections between Amara and the temple. His body was absolutely brimming with life energy however his soul bond had grown exceptionally weak during the entire casting. It wouldn’t matter how healthy his body was if that bond was destroyed.

As the room grew dark for Dehvess Amara slowly stood up. While Dehvess had told her to be seated this part of the spell wouldn’t actually be hindered by her movement as long as she remained within the room. By now a good deal of the spell was being carried by the glyphs and not Dehvess’s words as his energy began to run dry.

As Dehvess felt the final bonds forming he began to relax. While he wouldn’t be able to finish the spell himself he’d expected this to happen however he’d managed to carry the spell far enough that he knew the glyphs would finish it even without his help. He was more tired then he’d thought he would be but felt no distress at the time. One thing did puzzle him though. He could have sworn that he felt his feet leaving the ground.

While Amara wasn’t the strongest golem to be created at the moment of her creation her strength was still far beyond that of human. Dehvess’s weight was less then that of an infant’s to her as she reached one arm behind his back to steady him then used the other to scoop him up once his legs began to give out.

With the bond to the plain of life and temple established Amara could now serve as the focus and anchor. The energy from the plain of life could be drawn through her now however as she wasn’t in a state of life but rather un-life she couldn’t retain it. This however didn’t mean she wouldn’t benefit from it. As she would then focus the energy into the temple and strengthen it thanks to the death magic involved in it.

Due to her connection to the temple Amara would then be made to grow in power along with it. As she grew in power the gate would grow wider allowing yet more power to surge through.

************************************************************************

He was on something very warm and soft that was very clear. A familiar scent filled the air and comforted him. Once a few moments had passed he also realized that he was slowly being lifted higher and lowered back down while still remaining on the same warm surface. There was plenty of light in the room he could tell that but there was a major problem.

While he felt fine he found that he wasn’t actually able to move. There was no pressure holding him down though. After a moment he realized that wasn’t his only problem. He couldn’t even open his eyes.

“You weakened the connection between your soul and body so badly that you still can’t move.” A sigh escaped Jahnah causing Dehvess to be lifted higher into the air. “So I suppose I shouldn’t be expecting a response. If you can’t open your eyes yet that must mean you can’t talk. Well that isn’t such a bad thing really as I have quite a bit to say to you.”

Even though he could easily hear Jahnah’s words there was nothing Dehvess could really do about it. He couldn’t even speak to defend his actions. Of course he doubted the wisdom of defending what he’d done at the moment. He’d upset Jahnah and Meridea with his actions and thus they had the authority to reprimand him. Perhaps, it was even better for him that he couldn’t really move at the moment.

“In total you risked your life four separate times during that casting. Now I realize that you and I are soul bound and that probably had some weight in regards to your decision but you could have lost your body.” As Jahnah spoke she brought her hand up and held it above Dehvess so that the very top of her index finger lightly brushed against his body. She knew that he couldn’t see, move or speak but he could hear and feel. “Do you have any idea how scared I was whenever you started casting that spell?”

Even though Dehvess couldn’t speak he couldn’t help but at least think his response. “I apologize for making you worry Jahnah and I wish that I could say I didn’t mean to. I can’t though as well other then not being able to speak I knew that it would worry you. However, I believed and still believe that the risk I took for the prize was acceptable.”

While Jahnah couldn’t hear Dehvess she did note a slight change about him. “You just responded. At least you have a response then whenever you can speak I’ll have to let you tell me what it is. You already know that what you did is going to have consequences. Meridea and I both agree that you’re going to have to be disciplined for taking such a risk without in forming your fellow guild members first.

No, not being able to move or speak isn’t going to be enough. I’m going to take care of you until you’ve recovered enough to at least move about a little. I’ll then return you to the temple where you are to be kept away from your work due to your condition. Even after you recovered from your weakened state your freedoms will be severely limited as it is clear that you can’t be trusted to take appropriate care of yourself.

We had planned for eight weeks but given the current situation it will only continue for eight days. Even after the eight days you will have supervision. After the war is over you will then serve out the remainder of the eight weeks.”

It was far from thrilling for Dehvess to hear this news. While he understood them keeping him from his work in his weakened state he didn’t believe it was logical to do so once he’d recovered enough. “Well I suppose I can use whomever you leave me with as an assistant.”

As Jahnah looked down at Dehvess she could have sworn she saw his lips forming into a grin. “I swear that grin had better be because of where you are resting or my finger petting you. Dehvess please don’t ever do anything that dangerous again. I know I soul bound us together long ago but I don’t want to see you lose your body. You’re my guiding light the one that shows me my way when my I can’t even see strait. My little rule maker.”

“You’re my life Jahnah the fire that gives me a reason to exist in this world. If it wasn’t for you my free will would have been destroyed by my own hands long ago and I would be no more them a golem myself. That is why I had to do it. I had to stoke the flames that give me my life. I wish to turn that inferno into a star.”

A slight giggle escaped Jahnah. “I guess you have a response for that one to. I’ll be glad when I can hear it but don’t believe you’re going to get out of your punishment. There is something that I have to confess though. On several levels I’m actually very pleased with what you’ve done. I wish that you could open your eyes and see just what that was.

Dehvess, you went against your nature whenever you cast that spell. I hope you realize that. The guild has clear rules for attempting such dangerous spells without approval from other guild members. Given your over all value there is no way they’d risk losing you and you know it. So when you cast that spell you were not going around or bending the rules you broke them.”

For a few moments Dehvess was entirely silent even on the mental level. If he had been able to he would have laughed as he realized the truth of what Jahnah had said. He had broken the rules of conduct. Then if he considered what the decision would have been if he had followed those rules he also realized he had broken one of the guild rulings.

“At least you have plenty of time to think about what you’ve done.”

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Even turning his head was still a slow and tricky process for Dehvess. So much so that he had begun to wonder if he should just keep his head facing the door. The bond between his body and soul had been restored enough for him to see but he still had difficulties. At the moment there was roughly a two second delay between thought and action.

Such delays might have seemed minor to some but they were quite a hindrance and very frustrating. While having to wait two seconds for his head to respond wasn’t a problem the two seconds he had to wait for it to stop was. Often Dehvess had found himself looking at the wall instead of the door. At least he was getting the timing down so that when Amara entered the room he could actually see her do so.

In his weakened condition Meridea still didn’t feel comfortable around Dehvess so she hadn’t been by to see him. While the energy from the temple had been feeding her she hadn’t recovered fully. Indeed she was still on edge and required only slight provocation to drain the life force from someone. The only people that had been able to actually talk to her were Jahnah, the guardian shadows and the children. All others she wouldn’t risk being around.

Jahnah for her part would manifest one of her smaller physical bodies quite often to speak with him. The primary reason she didn’t remain with him is that she liked to focus all her energy into competing with Annette. With the power Jahnah now drew from the temple the playing field between her and Annette had been evened quite a bit so their competition was back into full affect.

Of course given that the temple was bound to Jahnah, Meridea, Xyra and now Amara he was never without them as long as he was within it. Meridea just didn’t dare come there with her physical body.

Though ultimately it was thanks to Amara that Jahnah didn’t keep a physical body with Dehvess at all times. Given that she was incapable of leaving the temple for the time being she was helping to take care of Dehvess.

Amara smiled as she made her way over to Dehvess. While she hardly would have felt alone in the temple due to the three ladies bound to it she was glad to have her creator there with her as well. Moving next to the bed she pulled the small table at the head around so that it was near the side. She then set the trey atop the table.

While Amara began to get situated Dehvess started to set up. His hand began to reach for the spoon whenever Amara grasped his wrist. A sight escaped him two seconds later as she pressed his hand away from the bowl and back down onto his stomach. For the time being he wasn’t even allowed to try and feed himself.

It was hard for Dehvess to say if Amara’s actions were an act of treachery or not. While she most assuredly respected him as her creator that didn’t mean she did everything he said. Not letting him try to feed himself was one example but the most notable case was when he had asked her to bring him down one of his spell books so that he could study. He was too weak to be casting spells but not so weak he couldn’t try to learn.

Dehvess had been quite surprised when Amara had simply set down upon him asking her to retrieve his book. He made the request two more times and finally made it into an order before giving up. She had continued to set there even after telling her to bring him a book to read.

He knew that Jahnah had told Amara not to bring him any books of magic as he was being punished. Still, Amara was his creation which meant she should have obeyed him yet while she didn’t speak she was openly refusing to do as he told her. At least until he had told her to bring him one of the books and read it to him. She had them promptly stood up, made her way to his room, came back with a book and proceeded to read to him until he asked her to stop.

After setting the trey down Amara reached one arm around Dehvess. Lifting him into a setting position she then set down upon his bed and allowed him to lie back down. By setting on the pillows and placing his head in her lap she could elevate Dehvess’s head so that it was easy for him to swallow but not be choked.

While the delay between action and thought would have made feeding himself a slow process Dehvess believed that he was capable of doing so. Yet Amara wouldn’t let him. Much as she insisted on reading to him she insisted on feeding him regardless of his orders.

There was no way that Dehvess could call what she was doing an act of betrayal. She brought him what he wanted to eat and would read the books that he wanted. Though, she wouldn’t allow him to try to cast any spells. While he didn’t enjoy her refusal to follow his orders he didn’t feel as if she had betrayed him in the least.

However she continually chose to disobey him whenever she wouldn’t allow him to feed himself or whenever she wouldn’t let him read his books. In most cases such insubordination would have been exceptionally upsetting to him but he couldn’t bring himself to be angry with Amara over such matters. For some reason even when she disobeyed him her demeanor was exceptionally respectful which brought him to wonder why she did it.

After settling Dehvess down Amara used her foot to pull the table the rest of the way over. Reaching across she lifted the lid from the soup bowl and placed it next to it. Then while using one hand to support Dehvess’s head she retrieved the spoon and brought it to his lips.

Dehvess had seen the spoon being retrieved and had already began the process of opening his mouth. After feeling the spoon resting lightly against his tongue he began the process of closing his mouth and Amara emptied the contents into his mouth and withdrew the spoon just as it shut. As he chewed he had to admit to himself that having Amara feed him was much easier then feeding himself would have been.

The coordination with which Amara operated with was simply remarkable. The primary reason Dehvess didn’t like Amara feeding him though was the fact that he was a master of two major mystic arts. He was considered to be powerful even by arch-mage standards and here he was being feed. It was more of a humbling experience then he would have liked it to be.

“What is wrong?”

As Dehvess heard Amara’s voice his mind nearly went blank. It was a soft sweet song. He had designed the vocal cords with her voice in mind but he had no idea how gentle it would sound. When he spoke his words were drawn out and most would have considered hard to understand. “I suppose I’m being humbled.”

A slight giggle escaped Amara. “How could you be humbled?”

“I’m an arch-mage yet I have to rely on others to take care of me. Even if I was allowed to do so with the bond between my soul and body weakened I couldn’t cast any real spells.”

“If you are feeling overly humbled then you’re not considering what you’ve done and only focusing on your current condition.” As she spoke Amara retrieved another spoon full of soup and slipped it into Dehvess’s mouth before he could speak. In his current condition he needed to take a few moments to consider what she had said.

It was hard for Dehvess to think at the moment but as he looked up at Amara he could see her logic. The feeling of something soft and silky brushing the side of his face got his attention and he reached up. What he found was a strand of Amara’s hair had fallen against the side of his face. By the time he had finished chewing and swallowed he was feeling better about himself but an old question had returned. He had given Amara a name but who was she?

As Amara gathered the trey and left the room Dehvess was left as alone as it was possible for him to be in the temple. He took this time to look around Amara’s room. The glyphs he had carved into the walls still shown though the spell had been cast some two weeks ago. The enormous amount of energy running throughout the temple probably meant they’d never grow dark.

This was not a danger though. Either the glyphs would be damaged eventually and would then quit functioning. They’d continue to glow but they could not harm the spell now that it was finished or they would actually strengthen the spell. Dehvess couldn’t be sure of which as it depended on so much on the temple and Amara.

While he had strengthened it Dehvess still didn’t know everything about the temple and even though he had built Amara he was learning he didn’t know everything about her either. So it was impossible for him to say which of the three it would actually be.

Slowly Dehvess followed the lines of the glyphs trying to remember what each one of them did and how they flowed into one another. This was a difficult task thanks to his condition and the groves between the stones didn’t help. The only place these groves didn’t bother him was where Amara had set where they didn’t appear.

Dehvess felt his eyes widen and he began to scan the room. He had realized the groves didn’t appear where Amara had set for a while now but he hadn’t stopped to give it any thought. Now he found himself frantically scanning the room to confirm if what he thought he saw was correct.

What he found that he was indeed correct. The stones where Amara had set no longer had any groves between them though the glyph remained. As he looked at the stone he couldn’t help but think there was something even stranger about it. Carefully he took hold of the sides of them bed and began to set up.

Before Dehvess could even get his back off the bed he felt an arm slip around behind him. He was a bit surprised whenever the arm then began to help him to stand up. Glancing to his side he was a bit surprised to find Amara. A few seconds later he couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m so far behind that those few moments I spent looking around were actually long enough for you to come back. Wasn’t it?”

There was no need for Amara to answer as she helped Dehvess to his feet. Once he was standing she continued to support the vast majority of his weight as she served as his crutch. She soon realized where they were going as they made their way to the center of the room.

Once they neared the spot Amara bent down along with Dehvess until he could reach the spot with his free hand. Upon touching his fingers to the spot he was surprised at the kind of warmth that he found. The gate he had opened within the room insured that it would always have a sort of warmth to it but this was different. The material also lacked the texture of stone. It felt strong to be certain but there was slightly more give then pure stone.

“Amara what is going on here?”

“I am improving my body.”

At first Dehvess said nothing as he stood up with Amara’s aid. “What do you mean improving your body?”

“The temple is apart of me now. I have begun the process of consuming the temple now and truly making it into a part of me.”

“You mean those stones are alive?”

“No, they’re in a state of un-life like me. Whenever you bound me to the temple it became my body as well as the one you see before you. Now I have begun consuming the stone of this place to truly make it into a part of me on the physical level as well.”

While Dehvess was having difficulty thinking and remembering certain details he didn’t need to think much to realize what Amara had told him was profound. “You mean this entire temple is becoming flesh. It’s becoming a part of you.”

“This temple is already a part of me I just have to gain enough power to claim it on the physical plain as well. You are right to say that it is becoming flesh though. As I grow in power along with the temple I will consume more and more of its physical existence until the entire temple is flesh. This room is simply the easiest for me to digest sense it was where I was first bound.”

“You can convert cold stone into flesh?”

“Yes.”

“Is that only the stone of this temple?”

“No.”

“As your body grows does your power?”

“The increasing scale of my body is the result of my increasing power. If my power should somehow be diminished then parts of my body would begin to die.”

“How are you doing this Amara?”

“You gave me the ability to improve my body as my power increased. Growth is a natural part of improvement a long with my size my level of sophistication will also increase.”

After a moment Dehvess gave his head a slight nod. He would have liked to think on the subject more but resolved it would be best to wait until he was more aware. What Amara had told him was far too important for him to try to comprehend at the moment.

************************************************************************

“I normally wouldn’t be thrilled to hear that my light is in another woman. However, sense it is Amara I guess I can let it slide.”

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess as he looked up at the underside of Jahnah’s breasts. Currently his was resting atop Jahnah’s legs while his head was pressed lightly against her crotch. She was large enough that her legs when placed together could accommodate him. “I’m glad you don’t mind.”

“Well I’ve had time to adjust to the idea really. Meridea, Xyra and I have been bound to the temple for a while now. I didn’t say anything about it but one of the reasons I hesitated with Meridea was the idea of her aura filling the temple whenever you were in it.”

“What made you decide it wasn’t so bad?”

“It was you mostly. Whenever you’re within the temple you’re technically with me though I may not have a physical body there. It also means that you are within Meridea, Xyra and now Amara whenever one enters into this place. Then I realized that it meant anyone that was within the temple was amongst us.”

“You’re the one I desire to be with above all others Jahnah.”

“I know but I guess sense I get to have other people inside of me you get to be inside other women.”

“Just as long as they aren’t within your core body I don’t mind. Well I don’t mind if they are within your core body either so long as it is in your stomach.”

As Jahnah spoke she used her right hand to pull Dehvess’s shirt up slightly. She then slipped a few of her fingers underneath the garment. “Don’t worry you’re the only one that will get to explore me intimately. I have to ask though. Where are we in terms of Amara?” As Jahnah rubbed Dehvess chest she used her left hand to feel along the wall. Amara had already grown powerful enough that she had completely consumed the room she had been bound in. Now the walls, floor and roof were all flesh. “Would this be an arm to her?”

“Actually, it’s more like her heart. You could say she has two one is in her smaller body where the shard rest and the others is the room we are in now where the gate rest.”

“That makes sense. I guess that makes the wrest of the temple her body.”

“Yes.” Turning his head to the side a bit Dehvess gave Jahnah’s massive thigh a kiss.

“How long will it take her to consume the entire temple?”

“I really don’t know. Her growth rate is variable though it does seem to be speeding up. However, I have noticed that the more of the temple she consumes the faster she does so but she also has mentioned that this room is the easiest for her to take in.”

“Is her growth limited to the temple?”

“No. At least according to Amara it isn’t. I haven’t been able to think on it much of course I’m waiting to see what happens when she has consumed more of the temple. At the moment she’s limited to this room I’m curious what will occur when she begins to consume more complex structures.”

“So can she consume people as well?”

“You know it isn’t very polite to speak about me like I am not all around you. Yes, I’m perfectly capable of consuming organic matter. It’s actually easier for me to process then inorganic materials.”

A slight giggle escaped Jahnah and she gave the floor a gentle pat. “I’m sorry. Now you’re not going to destroy the carvings whenever you begin to consume the main hall are you?”

“No and yes depending on the situation. Let me show you what I mean.” As Amara spoke the wall began to bulge outward. For a moment the glyphs remained but when a hand began to become clearly visible they slowed faded away yet the others did not quite working. The hand then extended slightly further and touched Jahnah on the shoulder.

“Oh you weren’t kidding when you said this room had become your flesh. I didn’t know that you could shape it at will.”

“The flesh of the walls is most similar to my hair actually. I can shape it into various forms at will.” While she spoke Amara’s hand began to withdraw back into the wall and the glyphs slowly returned as if nothing had ever happened.

************************************************************************

Meridea smiled happily as she looked around the town. She could see her giant skeletons just peeking over some of the smaller houses as they roamed the streets. The docks were complete and several ships were being supplied. Even the damage to the town had mostly been repaired.

Of course that was physical damage the people in the town had yet to recover from everything they had been through. She hadn’t believed that they would ever recover but oddly something very strange had been happening as of late. The temple had been getting more visitors coming of their own free will then she ever believed possible.

To her surprise several of the town’s people had been coming to speak with Amara. At first they had only approached the temple and tried to catch a glance through the doors while the alchemists worked on the skeletons. However, as time had gone on they had actually begun coming into the temple. Then apparently they had started speaking with her.

At first Meridea wasn’t sure what to think of this however after having some time to think on it she had come to a few realizations. One of the reasons was that despite her dark clothing Amara was exceptionally beautiful. The fact that no one really knew what Amara was actually seemed to help things.

The second reason was they seemed drawn to her voice. Meridea would have sworn that those vocal cords had been taken from a siren if she didn’t know better. While Amara didn’t speak a great deal unless she was spoken to and her answered required it she had began singing. This might have seemed odd to most but those who knew of Dehvess’s condition realized why she was doing it. She had taken up the practice in order to help Dehvess relax while he recovered.

The final major reason that came to mind was the life energy that was flowing through Amara. The presence of a chaos mage of reasonable power tended to make people behave in a more unpredictable manner regardless of intent while an order mage seemed to influence them to follow the rules. Death mages of reasonable power would often provoke the fear of death in people even if the mage concealed what they were.

Life mages were of course the opposite of a death mage. The large amount of life energy flowing throughout such mages tended to comfort those around them. This was as with the others regardless of the mage’s intent which often brought people to the mistaken assumption all life mages were benevolent.

Amara wasn’t a life mage however with her connection to the plain of life she had an obscene amount of life energy flowing through her at all times. People were drawn to this source of comfort even if they didn’t realize why they felt it.

For the moment Meridea’s mind was taken from such considerations as she noted a ship in the distance. It was still far enough off that even with her eye sight she couldn’t make out too much detail but she could tell it belonged to the Luvarians. As she hopped down from her perch and once again resumed her walk to the temple she sent Alex a message about its impending arrival.

Upon entering the temple Meridea found Amara in the main hall speaking with one of the town’s woman. She had came to visit with Dehvess but believed that if Amara wasn’t with him then he must be asleep.

While Amara had never been told to do so she had taken to answering the town’s questions to the best of her ability though her answers weren’t always the ones the people wanted. “No you didn’t lose your child because of something you did to make the gods abandon you. The gods had done so before Xyra had even arrived. You lost your children for three reasons. You placed your faith in a god who was aloof to say the least. You sided with the wrong side in a war. The final reason is that you simply lacked the power to keep hold of your children. If have had the needed power you could have kept them for yourself.”

“Is there a way for me to get my children back?”

“The surest way to reclaim your children is to surpass Meridea in power however that is so far beyond you now that I would even call it impossible. However, if you wish to regain your children in some small way the best method would be to convince Meridea to take you on as a servant of some kind. Of course even that will require you to gain enough power or skills that she would consider you to be a useful tool.”

There was a moment in which Meridea didn’t know what to think. While she strove to make the most effective use of all the resources available to her at all times she had never considered developing a following amongst the children’s parents. She didn’t believe such a thing was possible given their feelings towards her. Yet at the moment Amara almost seemed to be a recruiter.

“How could I ever serve such a monster?”

“Why is she a monster? Your children are happy and well cared for under her care. She’ll open doors for them that you would have found all but impossible to open if not out right impossible. She takes them from this place and insures their safety. They are loved dearly where they are now. What could you have offered your children that they do not receive in abundance now? You couldn’t even protect your children.”

Despite Amara’s words her voice remained exceptionally tender and warm. Even when her words seemed to be chastising they also seemed to offer a sort of hope. While the woman may never see her children again at least she knew they were safe and well cared for. It wasn’t much but it would console her to an extent.

As the mother looked at Amara she tried to think of an argument. Something to show why she should be given her children back but in the end only one thing came. “I need my babies back.”

“You’re still recovering from your loss but that loss is not your children’s. You want them back purely for your own benefit.”

“I don’t know what I should do.”

“You could ask for a new life if you wish. I can’t guarantee the life you receive will be what you desire but it may bring you closer to what you’ve lost. Of course if life becomes too hard on you then I could let you rest.”

“By rest you mean kill me.”

“You will die eventually but I don’t mean to kill you. Indeed if you wish to rest I can guarantee you a long life though perhaps it would be best if you allowed me to show you what I mean.”

“What do you mean allow?”

“Just what I said if you will allow me I will show you what I mean. It won’t last long and you will return to normal in only a few moments.”

Despite all her previous experience the woman couldn’t help but wonder what Amara was speaking of. “I won’t be harmed?”

“You won’t be harmed and in a way it would help bring you closer to your children.”

“Show me please if it’ll bring me closer to my babies.”

As she nodded her head Amara’s hair began to slowly lift into the air as if they had a will of their own. Then they reached out and began to move around the woman as if guided by a steady but perfectly controlled wind. A few of the silken strands touched her skin as they flowed about. Seeing that the woman was becoming concerned the strands quickly wrapped around her head completely blocking off her sight, hearing and smell.

A sharp cry started to escape the woman but it was cut off before it even reached her vocal cords. She felt a surge of warmth run throughout her body and her mind began to fog. As the fog seemed to grow thicker she began to have trouble remembering what was going on and the warmth seemed to grow stronger.

“What are you doing to her?”

Amara’s hair was of such length that she could actually turn her head in Meridea’s direction as she spoke. “It’s similar to the life magic spell comfort. You could say it’s the opposite of a death mage’s pain or terror spells.”

“What is different?”

“I also fog the memory so they can’t remember what is going on for a moment. Right now she feels like she is in a blissful dream. She’s struggling a little bit. Part of her still wants to continue with her life instead of fall into a peaceful dream.”

“Can she break free?”

“I don’t know but it isn’t likely she could break my hold. I won’t keep her like this though I said it was only temporary.” As she spoke to Meridea Amara’s hair began to unravel from the woman’s head. As it did so the life energies slowly quit flowing into her and her mind began to return.

For a moment the woman said nothing as she looked at Amara. The feeling of leaving the dream state was like moving from a warm cabin amongst friends to being thrown into the freezing cold sea. “I. It was so warm.”

“You need time. Why don’t you return home for now and come to speak to me after you’ve had time to think?”

Meridea watched as the woman stood up. She seemed blind to everything except she was able to walk around them as she made her way out of the temple. Clearly she had just been left very confused. “So you’re just going to let her go?”

“I never had hold of her. If she decides to give herself to me I will take her into my embrace.”

“Okay why haven’t I seen any of this?”

“You haven’t been watching the temple closely enough. I take it was because you were recovering from your hunger.”

“Yes. I came to check in on Dehvess. How is he doing?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself? He’s down stairs inside my heart right now.”

A slight giggle escaped Meridea. “So you’ve taking to calling the room your heart?”

Dehvess gave a sigh as he looked around him. Just across the room Amara had formed a small shelf in which a few very select books from his collection currently resided. However, he couldn’t get to them due to the lens she had formed across them. It had taken him a while to realize why she did this but it had finally occurred to him.

The only time Amara didn’t do as he asked was whenever she was protecting him. She had known that he was in trouble with Jahnah and Meridea and still was. He wasn’t permitted to read his books himself especially while he recovered. If they had caught him they might have taken extreme measures. However, by reading to him she found a way for him to go around the rules they had set.

Now he had recovered enough of his core life energy to handle casting spells fairly freely however that only meant he was within his eight days of punishment. Of course the lens Amara had formed across the shelf was entirely unnecessary now. He hadn’t been thinking very clearly when he had asked for his books previously and now he was. He knew that it would be a bad idea for him to read them.

“Well Hello I haven’t got to speak to you in a while.”

“Hello Meridea, so have you come to tell me that my sentence has been cut short due to uncontrollable circumstances?”

A slight giggle escaped Meridea as she shook her head. “I suppose that I should have expected that kind of greeting.”

“You know not letting me study is only hurting you and Jahnah as well in the long run. As my efforts help you it is only logical that by hindering my efforts you are hindering yourselves.”

“It’s a good thing that I spent so much time away from you. It gave me time to think about how you might try to get out of your disciplinary actions. Pain wouldn’t be a suitable punishment for one of your discipline as you’d get over it soon enough. You order mages are too focused to get upset over a long tedious task especially sense it just gives you time to think.”

“You’ve given me plenty of time to think.”

“Solitary isn’t much of a punishment to one of your kind as that means they are fewer chaotic elements. You can be quite comfortable in such situations. The only effective way to punish you then is to take away control of your own actions which is exactly what we’re doing.”

A groan escaped Dehvess. He wasn’t about to admit it but what Meridea had said was true. “That still doesn’t change the fact that you’re hurting yourself in the long run.”

“Oh but that isn’t true. If you weren’t properly punished for what you did you may try something similar one day. By punishing you we decrease the odds of that happening again. So in the long run this is actually better. After all you may decide to take a larger gamble next time. Plus, you have to be made to see that such actions won’t be tolerated.”

“You’ve had plenty of time to think about your response haven’t you?”

“Yes and thanks to your down time I take it you haven’t had time to work out an appropriate defense.”

“I suppose I haven’t. Of course I don’t know if such a defense exists to be honest. I knew that you and Jahnah would be upset with me and I expected that the two of you would think of up a punishment. This was Jahnah’s idea wasn’t it?”

“Yes it was. After all who is better suited to think of a way to punish an order mage then a chaos mage?”

“That is true. So why don’t you tell me what has happened while I was down?”

************************************************************************

“Meridea you are needed.”

Standing up Meridea glanced over her shoulder and towards the door as she heard Amara’s voice. She was somewhat amused when she realized that the voice had come from the walls. “What is it?”

“Your hand says that he has something to report to you.”

“It’s so important that he would risk interrupting a meeting between me and a close friend?”

“I explained the situation to him before I contacted you. He believes that you would be more upset with him if he didn’t tell you what had occurred.”

“Well he doesn’t seem to desire his destruction or being made to suffer. So I assume he must at least believe whatever he has to say is important. I’ll be up in a few moments.” Before she left Meridea glanced back to Dehvess. “Depending on what Alex has to tell me I may be back down soon.”

Alex had meant to go down stairs to tell Meridea what had happened but Amara had stopped him. Currently he was pacing about the main hall nervously. While he believed Meridea would be more upset if he didn’t tell her the news he didn’t know that she would be.

“You wanted to tell me something Alex?”

Quickly spinning around Alex spoke even as he made his way over to Meridea. “Yes Mistress, the ship that arrived. All the golems are missing.”

For a moment Meridea said nothing as she looked at Alex. While she had expected him to have something important to tell her that was a little more then she had been prepared for. “I see. What about the crew?”

“They’re all fine though they look like they had a rather rough journey.”

“If they lost an entire shipment of golems they have better. Go and have them brought here.”

“Yes mistress.”

“Alex, you’ve been doing better as of late. I believe that this evening I will refine your body further so that your frame work is more symmetrical.”

“Thank you, mistress!” While Alex did not think on it often the fact that his body parts had not been refined a great deal bothered him. It meant that one arm was longer the other and certain parts simply didn’t look right.

“Still, you’re a long way off from me allowing you to send your thoughts directly to me except when I choose to see them. I find what goes on in that head of yours to be quite unpleasant.”

“I understand mistress. I will strive to be what you wish me to be.”

As Alex left Meridea turned back to the door way. It was easy to tell how far Amara had grown. If you could see the divisions between the stonework Amara had yet to reach that area. Those areas she had consumed flowered together so that no such divisions could be seen as they became flesh. “Amara would you tell Dehvess what you just heard?”

Whenever Amara spoke to someone and her core body wasn’t in the room she tended to chose to send the sound from the direction they were facing. Causing it to sound as if she was speaking to them from just around a corner or inside a door way. “I will let him know.”

“If you don’t mind let him listen in on our conversation as well if you are able.”

“I am and I will.”

“Hello Mother.”

While Meridea had been less then pleased to here about the loss of the golem shipment a huge grin lit up her face when the figure stepped into the room. In nearly the same moment she sprung from her seat and rushed over to him. Opening her arms up Meridea wrapped them around the somewhat shorter figure and lifted him into the air as she hugged him. “Seakas it’s wonderful to see you.”

A sharp gasp escaped the mage as Meridea hugged him. Seakas had been one of the children Meridea had taken in during a previous job. He had actually been raised by Meridea though he hadn’t become a death mage. Rather he was currently an expert with shadow magic and proficient with space. I’m glad to see you to mother.”

For a moment Meridea was made to giggle as she lowered her son back to the ground. They might have not been related by blood but as far as she was concerned he was her baby. This also told her that the golems wouldn’t have been dumped without a very good reason. “So I hear something went missing from your ship.”

“Yes, we were forced to use the golems in battle and we lost them.”

“Come set down and tell me what happened.” Meridea didn’t really give him a choice as she grabbed his hand and quickly pulled him over to one of the seats.

After being forced into the seat Seakas gave a slight chuckle. None of Meridea’s children ever truly escaped being a baby in her eyes. Of course it was hard to appear grown up to someone that was thousands of years old. “Well it seems to have started whenever we left port. Lately we’ve had to send several mages with the ships to help combat the storms that have been blanketing the rout. It should have been a warning that the ocean was very calm for us.

We left port and were making good time with calm seas. The wind was rather dead at times but a few of us were able to generate enough force to push the ship along.”

“Oh then you’ve been developing your wind magic more?”

“I hadn’t intended on it but well I had plenty of practice on the way over here. Still, it wasn’t that bad until we noticed some ships. They were having similar problems as us it seems but apparently had far more people skilled with either controlling the waves or the wind.

After a while they started getting a little too close for comfort and we sent warnings that they should come no closer. They ignored us so a few of us fired of some spells to deter them. Instead of backing away though they suddenly speed up far quicker then we were prepared to deal with.

Before we even had a chance to push them back two ships had come up along side us and began boarding. It was then we realized that the reason they ships could move so well in dead wind was that several of the people onboard were priest of the sea god.”

“So when you realized how badly out numbered you were you activated the golems so they could join in on the fight. However, very few golems are suited to water combat and I doubt you were carrying any. How many mages did you lose?”

“We lost a quarter of what we brought with us.”

“Do you have any of the bodies?”

A slight chuckle escaped Seakas. He had almost forgotten how Meridea could be at times. “We have a few of them.”

“Well it won’t make up for the lost golems but I’ll see what I can do with them. I’ll also need to inform the ships that they won’t be leaving port so they can make themselves comfortable. I doubt we’ll be getting any more golems now.”

“I’m sorry mother.”

“Oh hush it isn’t your fault. These things will happen when the gods get involved. I should send a message to the main guild halls to let them know not to try to send anymore golems. Amara do we have room for some guests?”

Seakas was somewhat surprised when he heard the voice. “Yes, the priest had living quarters for trainees and travelers.”

“Okay Seakas. You’ll be coming with me while the others can stay inside of Amara. We’ll find something for you to do later.”

“What do you mean inside?”

“I mean just what I said. Just ask Amara to explain it to you. How long would you say it’ll be before the naval force that pursued you should arrive?”

“I don’t know. We were able to move far faster without the golems so out running them was no longer a problem.”

“Yes they do tend to add a lot of mass to any shipment.”

************************************************************************

Maxwell gave a sigh as he and Dehvess looked over the map. The message’s Annette had been retrieving as of late wasn’t to his liking and he couldn’t hide it. “They seem to be sticking as close water as they can. I suspect it’s because they have several priests and priestesses amongst their ranks.”

Dehvess gave a quick nod of agreement. At the moment he felt somewhat strange due to his body. He wasn’t truly at Annette’s home rather Jahnah had created him a very temporary secondary body to better allow him to communicate. However, being in two bodies at the same time might have felt perfectly natural to a chaos mage it wasn’t the same for an order mage. “Yes they’re most likely doing so to keep the influence of their god as strong as possible. As they draw closer to the temple their clerical abilities will weaken more and more. By keeping close to water though they can retain more of that power.”

A sigh escaped Maxwell. “Unfortunately nearly every major settlement and fortification is built along water. So even if the paths they take aren’t the swiftest they will be lead to almost everywhere they wish to go.”

“That is true but it can’t be helped. The best thing to do would be to draw them in as close to the temple as we possibly can to diminish the threat the followers of the sea god will pose.”

“I could have a few of the fortifications along their main path torched. It should be possible to have a few towns emptied as well.”

“I’m surprised you’re the one suggesting such sacrifices.”

“It can’t be helped. The weaker we can make them the better.”

“How far are you willing to let them progress?”

It took Maxwell a few minutes to reply as he studied the map. There were a lot of large cities along those waterways and only so many could be emptied. “Here. However, I believe that it would be best if they were engaged here.” The spot Maxwell first indicated was where a river turned into a lake. The second was several kilometers up where it was still a river so that the followers of the sea god wouldn’t be as powerful.

“Are you sure that is as far as you can tolerate them progressing?”

“Yes, it will be difficult to deal with empting even that many towns and cities.”

“Alright, I believe it would be best to stop them before they reached the lake. Of course we don’t know how far in they will chose to progress. They could very well stop sooner.”

“I know. After all ultimately once they make it so far in we must come to them. We’ll have to keep a close eye out and attack the moment they seem to be setting up any kind of fortification.”

“Of course they could use that as a ruse and force us to fight where they are strongest.”

Maxwell gave his head a slight nod. “We still have the navel force to worry about. How many golems and soldiers do you believe you need to protect the port?”

“We don’t need any. All we need is to recall Xyra from her search. The undead Meridea has created should provide the extra power that we need along with Amara. The priest won’t be able to use their rituals on the undead that close to the temple. You can take the full force of the golem army and human army to confront the land force.”

“Won’t the sea make up for the proximity to the temple?”

“Not if they come close enough to attack. If they move within five kilometers of the temple only the strongest priests or priestesses will be able to perform rituals. Even those will be so utterly lacking in power they won’t be able to harm a skeleton warrior let alone a giant skeleton.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“You clearly don’t know how powerful Meridea is or how profound of an affect the temple will have. Not only does its presence weaken the followers of the sea god it also strengthens the undead. Honestly I don’t feel right having Jahnah and Meridea at the port. It seems like a huge waste of power. I believe that you should take Jahnah with you.”

“I would suggest she remain behind and reinforce whatever front needs it however I doubt she’d like that idea.”

“She’d want Annette to hang back and be the reserve troops. Of course if you suggest that to Annette she’ll insist Jahnah act as the reserves.”

A slight chuckle escaped Maxwell and he gave a quick nod. “We have two very stubborn ladies. Dehvess, you’re in the best position to gather information with links to Jahnah, Meridea and Xyra. So I’m going to leave Jahnah with you and trust in your ability to make sure she is put the best use.”

“In that case why don’t I have Xyra join up with you? That would mean we are all connected through a method far more reliable then even communication crystals. I’m also certain the enemy will disrupt any communication methods such as communication crystals so it makes sense to have an alternate method set up.”

“Didn’t you just mention having Xyra return to the port?”

“Yes, it isn’t a requirement that she be here. In truth it makes sense that she goes with you given your reliance on the golems. I am sure you’ll encounter the golem breaker. I hope Xyra can capture him or her alive. Instead I’ll simply have her send all the undead she’s been producing here. It makes the most sense for them to be stationed here given that the priests and priestesses will have no rituals to destroy them. Those inland will though nothing that would be a threat to an undead of Xyra’s level.”

“Why would you want the golem breaker captured alive?”

“The only death I can think of that is appropriate for the trouble that they’ve caused us it to be dissolved in Jahnah’s stomach or consumed by Xyra if female.”

************************************************************************
As Jahnah walked through the country side she gave a slight sigh. Today she felt simply wonderful. The air seemed filled with energy. Of course she knew this had Dehvess concerned. He had been concerned ever sense the shipment of golems had arrived empty.

It had been a few days sense Annette and Maxwell had gathered up a large portion of the golem and human army then went to confront the invaders. This was moderately annoying to Jahnah as she worried that Annette would enjoy a far grander meal then she. After all if she was sent to attack the navel force she’d have to share with Meridea while Annette would have most of the army to herself.

Still with the air a buzz with energy she felt wonderful though she knew Dehvess was happy to be locked away in the temple. These days were always a mixed blessing to order mages. They caused the mage a great deal of pain but that pain motivated anger which in turned inspired passion and strengthened their spirits. This meant that while they were made to suffer and in some ways weakened their more destructive spells were strengthened. So it was a horrid day to be making something but a great day to be destroying something.

Jahnah’s mind was taken from her musing as she caught the sound of a voice singing. She didn’t recognize the words but she knew it was enchanted. The words were heavily laced with magic. It only took Jahnah a moment of feeling out the magic to realize that it was a charm spell that attempted to draw the listener to it. The spell was exceptionally similar to the song of a siren.

An amused giggle escaped Jahnah. “A chorus of siren’s perhaps? Well that explains where all the scouts in this area have been going. No, that isn’t it.” Jahnah was made to bite down on her lower lip for a moment. Even if it had been a chorus of sirens the magic shouldn’t have been able to affect her. With the amount of power that she had reached their voices shouldn’t have been able to compel her to come in the least.

Yet now Jahnah found herself being pulled to the song. One part of it was curiosity but she recognized another part as the song itself. There was no chance that it could over whelm her but she could still feel the pull. As if a gentle breeze was trying to blow her in the direction.

Dehvess set quietly within the main hall of the temple. The alchemist had gone home for the time being leaving the main hall empty except for him, Amara and the auras of the three ladies that filled the entire structure. “So Jahnah do you have any idea of what is going on?”

“There seems to be a siren song but I don’t recognize the words and it’s far more powerful then any I’ve ever heard of. Still I’m quite certain that it is the reason none of the scouts have been coming back.”

“Should I ask Meridea to back you up?”

“She doesn’t need to come out here with me. If I get in trouble you’ll know. I won’t travel too far.”

“Jahnah, I hope you’re not taking a needless risk in hopes of a big meal.”

A slight giggle escaped Jahnah. “Come on Dehvess. Am I the type to take unnecessary risk?”

“Yes and that is a far from comforting question. Well I’m going to at least send you some extra energy.”

“Huh, how are you going to do that?”

“The golem armor bolsters my order magic. Sense I don’t need to use it to power the glyphs in my room any longer I can increase the power flow to you by wearing it.”

“Oh and you just now thought of this?”

“Well I have had plenty of time to think and ever sense we missed a shipment of golems I have been quite concerned. So I have been thinking of ways that I could quickly boost your power further.”

“I’m glad you have been. Well go ahead and get suited up while I go and investigate the song.”

Maxwell gave a sigh as he looked across the camp. It looked as if this would be the last time that he, Annette and the army were able to rest before their encounter with the invaders. Early on he had expected the invaders to begin withdrawing once they drew close enough together so that the battle would take place further away from the temple. He’d been surprised when they hadn’t done so.

Instead they had continued further inland with no sign of slowing down. Now while neither army was within eye sight of the other they could smell one another’s cooking fires depending on the orientation of the wind.

He knew that he should be happy about this development. After all the closer to the temple they came the better it was for Annette, his soldiers and himself. Yet he didn’t feel eased by it at all. No one knew the exact rate of loss the temple would cause the followers of the sea god and if they were still advancing it must mean they are confident in their ability.

“Miss Meridea may I speak with you?”

Turning towards the door a sigh escaped Meridea as she continued to look into the tiny crystal mirror held within her music box. The essence she had been getting from the children had allowed her to better stabilize her mind and allow her to depend less on the box to help stabilize her mind so she didn’t need to carry it in hand as often. A few hours of gazing into the mirror and listening to the song was enough to keep her stable. “Is it important Maria?”

“I can’t see Mistress.”

Cautiously Meridea began to close the music box though she kept it half open. “Come in please and tell me by what you mean you can’t see.”

Cautiously Maria opened the door and stepped in. She knew this time was important to her Mistress and wouldn’t have interrupted her if she didn’t believe it was important. “One of the children asked if they could have some fish tomorrow. So I tried to see into the future just a few hours to see if there would be a nice catch so I could make some fresh fish. I couldn’t though. I couldn’t see the future even twelve hours ahead of time.”

A mournful sigh escaped Meridea. She had hoped Maria’s problem could be resolved quickly but now it seemed it was far bigger then she had realized. “Maria, please retrieve the knights and have them stationed around the estate.”

“Yes Mistress. I didn’t want to interrupt you I hope you’re not upset.” A slight yelp escaped Maria whenever Meridea looked directly at her. Meridea’s eyes had shifted part of the way into her other’s.

“What is Maria?”

“Your eyes have changed Mistress.”

In order to see her eyes Meridea hand to glance over at the wall. The tiny mirror her music box did not reveal the present. “Oh my, it seems that something is making me very hungry.” Even as she spoke Meridea felt a presence trying to make contact with her mind. She quickly recognized it as one of her giant skeletons.

As Meridea looked through the skeletons eyes she saw the source of her hunger. The navel fleet had begun moving in towards the port. A lot of life energy was soon to be released and her other could taste it. “Maria, before you go tell your sisters that we will soon be under attack and they should join me near the port. They’ll have to spread the message. I need time to prepare.”

“Yes Mistress.”

After giving her head a quick nod Meridea began to gather her energy. The shadows within the room began to stretch forward in defiance of the light. As they surrounded Meridea and began to rise up around her body she uttered a few simple words. “Stretching from near to far may the gate through the shadows open.”

Dehvess was moderately surprised to feel a surge of energy within the temple. Turning towards the doors he watched as the shadows were made to reach outward forming into a semi sphere. Then slowly the shadows were made to sink back into the walls revealing Meridea. “I take it something is happening for you to use a teleportation spell.”

Upon turning to Dehvess Meridea couldn’t help but flash him a smile revealing her teeth. What had once been a perfect set of human teeth was now quite different. They were now the teeth of a predator that didn’t like releasing its prey. “You could say that.” A delighted giggle escaped Meridea as she turned and made her way out of the temple. It had been so long sense she had feed her hunger she was almost euphoric.

For a moment Dehvess was entirely silent. Then he gave his head a quick shake. Meridea might have not told him what was happening with words but she had told him plenty with that look. “Jahnah, you need to return.”

“Why do I need to return? I’m getting closer to the song’s source.”

“Meridea has seen fit to allow her other out which means they’re going to be plenty of food. The only source of life force strong enough to sedate her within the region other then the general populace while she is in her other state would be the naval force. So I believe it is safe to assume we will soon be under attack.”

“Oh, alright I’ll be back as quick as I can. How long do you believe I have?”

“I’m not certain.”

“Okay.” As Jahnah spoke she quickly spun around. While Meridea was normally a considerate friend in her other state she was an insufferable glutton. If she didn’t make it back in time Meridea wouldn’t leave anything for her and while Jahnah didn’t admit it. There was a chance that the navel fleet would be more then Meridea could handle.

“Now don’t tell me that you’re going to go back just like that. You traveled all this way.”

Jahnah’s first instinct was to turn in the direction of the voice. However, as she did so she felt a powerful presence moving behind her. As the massive forms shadow fell over her she quickly dodged to the side. A mighty impact was heard second later as whatever had lunged at her landed upon the ground. She was instantly made to be grateful that chaos mages tended to be capable of exceptional burst of speed as she turned to confront her attacker.

The figure standing before Jahnah was not what she had been expecting even after the attack. The towering figure was easily as tall as she was and perhaps taller. Her body was covered in sleek muscle as if it had been built for swimming and rapid acceleration. The skin was a light blue as was the hair. The eyes almost seemed to be massive black pearls while her teeth appeared as sharp as any sharks.

The figure wore a toothy grin as she ran her hand through her hair. Massive claws could be seen along her fingers and what appeared to be relaxed fins ran along her legs and arms. “Well you dodged. You’re faster then I expected.”

It was hard for Jahnah to believe what stood before her. The figure resembled sirens in many ways but she had never seen a siren this large. Indeed she had only heard of one siren of such massive scale. Her eyes widened as she realized the reason the song had been able to affect her. Standing before her wasn’t a siren or even an unnamed Titan. This Titan was known well. “You’re the mother of the sirens.”

“Oh you’ve heard of me. I’m flattered my name is Aquatrix incase none of your mortal scholars decided to write it down. I’m not sure sense I’ve been out of the loop for a while with the whole being imprisoned thing.”

“Well I guess the sea god is quite concerned. Weren’t you locked under the ocean eons ago?”

“Yes I was. I swear you devour a few of a god’s followers and they lock you away for the span of all the mortal lives you’ve eaten put together. They can be so unreasonable.”

A slight chuckle escaped Jahnah. If the records were correct Aquatrix had devoured far more then a few of the sea god’s followers. Not only was she recognized as the mother of the sirens. She was also believed to be the one that gave the sirens their habit of luring ships and sailors to their doom. It was even rumored that even after thousands of years her daughters had yet to lead as many to their death as she had. “Well I know what happened to our scouts now.”

“Hey after being locked away for a few eons you’d be quite hungry yourself.”

“Given that you’re out now you must have been given a reprieve.” While Jahnah didn’t know if Aquatrix was only speaking to her out of ego or if she was preparing something Jahnah had been making use of the time. She’d already informed Dehvess of what was going on and her concern.

As soon as Jahnah had informed him of her situation Dehvess had taken a seat atop the main altar of the temple. In most situations he did not bother actively concentrating on focusing energy into Jahnah. However, given what she was up against he wanted to insure she had as much power as possible. Meridea wouldn’t be able to help her for some time and if things went poorly Meridea may end up being the one needing Jahnah’s help.

A delighted giggle escaped Aqutrix. “Yes I was. I was told that mortals had begun seeking power on par with Titans such as me. I was then offered my freedom if I would show one of these mortals what a true titan is capable of. Though I have to admit you’re larger then I thought you’d be.”

“Mm are you sure you’re up to it? You’ve been locked away for a few eons you you’re bound to have get rusty.”

“Oh I wouldn’t worry about that. You may be large but clearly you weren’t built to fight my kind.” As she spoke Aquatrix presented her right hand to Jahnah revealing the massive claws that extended from her fingers.

A slight giggle escaped Jahnah as she readied herself. She had yet to tap into the extra energy Dehvess was providing her with. Now she felt was the time. “Gone are my hands that.”

While Aquatrix hadn’t heard any spells for several eons she recognized Jahnah was casting one before she could finish. The force with which her feet pushed off the ground was so great that a massive cloud of rock and debris was kicked up. Two massive craters were left were her feet had been as what seemed to be an explosion resounded throughout the area.

Jahnah had faced opponents that surpassed her physical power many times while her stature was still human. So Aquatrix’s charge was far from unexpected and she was far from inexperienced at evading. Nearly the moment the titan had pushed off the ground Jahnah had done likewise. Twisting to the side as she did so the move was both meant to move her further back and allow her to side step her attacker. “Can mend”

While Jahnah was a skilled combatant with both her previous experience at evasion and the enhancement to quick burst of speed she received from being a chaos mage. She was not entirely prepared for Aquatrix. The titan’s speed was absolutely astounding even to one of equal stature. Even before the attack had connected Jahnah realized that she had moved too slowly to evade.

Though she was able to evade to a limited extent Jahnah felt the titan’s claws cut into her flesh. A sharp burning pain flared up where the claws cut into flesh nearly the moment the claws touched her skin as the toxin’s shot into Jahnah. “Become that which can only rend.”

Aquatrix gave an amused giggle as she felt her claws cut into Jahnah’s flesh. The powerful toxins released from her claws could paralyze lesser titans and she had no doubt that it would stop this mortal fake soon. So that when Jahnah’s hands were made to shift into talons she had no qualms about falling back. “You’re just too slow.”

It was hard for Jahnah not to grin as the titan fell back. She could have easily shifted her hands into talons without using a spell had she not wanted something more powerful then normal. The talons that currently served as her hands though weren’t just a reshaping and hardening of her flesh they also carried powerful energies that could rend even spirits. “The endless sea shall quicken for me.”

A delighted giggled escaped Aquatrix. The second spell Jahnah had cast seemed to be a very poor choice indeed. She had heard similar spells and realized that it was meant to speed up time around the caster by altering the flow of time around them. While this meant Jahnah would now be far swifter it meant the toxins would also take her down soon.

The moment Jahnah had felt Aquatrix’s claws slash into her flesh she knew about the toxins. It was the only way to explain the burning. However, she had no fear of such things. Toxins meant nothing to the undead and while Jahnah was indeed living her mastery of death magic allowed her to enjoy many of the beneficial traits of the undead. This included immunity to toxins.

Maxwell could hardly believe what had happened. A few scouts had arrived only minutes before to tell him that the invaders were quickly approaching. Now he was frantically working to organize the camp into full fighting form before they arrived. As he did so he couldn’t help but wonder. “What are they thinking? Their soldiers can’t be any better wrested then mine.”

Marine had a wide grin upon her face as she followed shortly behind the front line of the army. She had intentionally waited until Maxwell had begun setting up camp for the night to move her army. It was true that in the beginning her soldiers had been no better rested then his however she had the clerics restore the stamina of her soldiers. This meant that the clerics would be of little use when the actual battle began but she was betting it was worth having the first good strike.

As Maxwell busied himself amongst the troops Annette stood at the front line. Should the enemy draw too close too quickly she would move to delay them though Maxwell had ordered her not to confront the entire army herself. This was somewhat frustrating to her as she longed to test out the limits of her new body however she followed his orders.

At least Maxwell’s primary concerns had already been taken care of. He was confident in Annette’s ability to handle regular soldiers. Indeed without the aid of an enchanted weapon or the ability to channel spiritual energy into their weapons they were no threat to her. This left his primary concern as the mages they’d no doubt cluster together having seen that powerful enough spells could harm her.

To counter act this he, Ravastina and Xyra would be leading a mixed group of soldiers and copper golems whose primary task was to move behind enemy lines quickly and neutralize these pocket of mages. Ravastina had already formed her unit and was ready to attack while his was nearly prepared. However, Maxwell had lost track of Xyra.

Xyra could hardly believe what was happening. While they had been marching she had managed to capture an enemy scout. After absorbing the woman she searched through the memories and found out about a few areas where the enemy could gather some supplies. In response to this she’d been sent out to capture as many of the supplies as she could and destroy the rest.

There was a problem with her mission though. Upon her arrival she had found that there were no such enemy reserves. She had quickly realized that the scout had been given false information in hopes that the information would fall into their hands.

It had only taken her a few moments to realize that she had fallen into a trap especially as at nearly the same moment her Mistress had come under attack. Her first course of action had been to try and return to Annette and Maxwell. So that she could inform them of what had happened and hopefully be given the order to attack. If she could get some people to feed on she could channel the surplus energy to her Mistress.

That hadn’t worked out as she planned. She was more then a little displeased that her prey had found her instead of her finding them and now sought to turn the tables on her. When she had attempted to leave she had found her path blocked by a mixture of dwarf, elf and human combatants. It had only taken her a moment to realize what they were by looking at the weapons they each carried.

“Well she is a big one.”

“Like height matters.” The dwarf golem breaker gave a slight chuckle. While he was one of the shortest of his comrades he was also one of the strongest and most skilled. Though he had to admit there was a lot of mass to Xyra.

After a moment of looking at the little group Xyra gave a shrug. She had wanted to return to Maxwell but she really needed to help her mistress at the moment. So she was a little upset that her food had the nerve to think it could challenge her. She’d teach them otherwise and help her mistress then return to Maxwell and give her report.

Meridea couldn’t help but smile as she looked at the approaching ships. The various undead under her control hurried about the city either taking their positions or gathering the populace near the far gate of the city. With her other so close to awakening she needed to insure they were as far away from her as possible. If she didn’t she could very easily end up snacking on them.

As she took in a breath of air she slipped one of her fingernails into the collar of her dress. Slowly drawing the talon down through the material she lifted her music box to her chests and pressed it into her chests. “I need to put you someplace safe for the time being. So you’re going to return to the bone from which I formed you.”

When Meridea relaxed her control over herself she felt herself slowly growing larger. Her sleeves where the first to tear under the influence of her expanding body as the muscles throughout her growing form increased slightly faster then her height. Her fingernails were made to lengthen further becoming claws while her hair flowed down her back.

While her body expanded outward Meridea’s music box slowly began to slip inward. The flesh to which it was pressed seemed to gel and slowly pull in the precious object. It was returning to the bone which it had come from.

On the day that Meridea had crafted the music box she had not simply left the skeleton of the titan to others. She had instead absorbed the skeleton into her very being. While this only granted her a fragment of the ancient titan’s power it had given her a great new potential. Over the centuries while the skeleton had remained with her in the spiritual plain her flesh had formed around it, claimed it and reawakened it.

The skeleton had become the frame work of her other’s body and had been reawakened. Now not only did she have power on par with what the fallen titan had before its death her power far surpassed it. As upon being claimed by her flesh it had began to grow once again and Meridea had been around long enough to insure that it had plenty of time to grow.

Upon the music box sinking half way into her flesh Meridea heard the sound of wood cracking. As she glanced down she found that her clothing lie shredded at her feet and the peer and been made to splinter around her. Realizing that if she stood on the dock any longer she would destroy it Meridea slowly stepped out into the water though her mind was no longer of such a state that she could remember why she cared.

As Meridea grew larger she also grew faster due to the restraints on her other self falling away. She had only just begun to swim towards the enemy fleet whenever she felt her foot come to rest upon the sea bed below.

“Maxwell, we can’t wait for Xyra any longer.”

After a moment Maxwell gave a quick nod. “Okay Ravastina, then it is up to your unit and mine to deal with any spell casters they have. We’ll have to worry about Xyra later. Annette, you can lead the charge now.”

A delighted giggle escaped Annette. “Well it is about time. I’ll see you on the battle field.” As soon as she finished speaking Annette quickly bound away. It would only take Maxwell a short while to arrive at the battle field and she wanted soften the enemy up before he and the army actually joined in on the fighting.

The sound and even the vibrations of Annette’s massive foot falls seemed to reach Marina’s force even before Annette had come within view. A smile was made to cross her lips as she leapt from the chariot she had been riding atop and quickly bound ahead of the army. The woman’s inhumanly strong legs carried her far more quickly then any horse could hope to move.

The summoning of the monolith had left the kingdom with a shortage of mages especially those that were willing to go into combat for the kingdom. Hiring outside of their boundaries was nearly impossible as well as news got around about how many mages had been lost. For that reason Marina was the one that had actually been charged with dealing with Annette.

The moment Marina was seen bounding ahead of the army the priests and priestesses amongst the ranks let out a cheer. For them this promised to be a most wondrous day. As while the enemy had their man made titan they had the very symbol of their god’s power amongst them. Marina was after all their god’s avatar.

Between the two opposing powers’ speeds and Annette massive scale it was only moments before they came within view of one another. The ground behind Marina seemed to shift and flow as she ran across the ground as if it was the ocean and a massive wave was building just beneath the surface. As she drew close to Annette she leaped into the air.

If Annette had been surprised by the speed with which the tiny figure moved towards her she was absolutely astounded by how quickly she accelerated when she attacked. The tiny figure seemed to become a blur and then had nearly vanished. In practically the same instant Annette felt a stinging pain from her right thigh, left arm and her cheek. When she felt of her face she was surprised to find a tiny scratch had appeared.

A smug grin graced Marina’s face as she watched Annette feeling of her face. While the giantess might have more strength, endurance and even matching speed. She had no where near the same acceleration or reaction time. She also made a much larger target. There were no illusions of being stronger then Annette on Marina’s part she knew that if she faced Annette in a battle of raw power she would lose. However, she was quite confident that she could make all that power mean nothing by never letting Annette get a hand on her.

A horrific impact that sounded as if it could mean the fall of a great tower resounded throughout the area only to be surpassed by a cry of anger and frustration moments later. A horrific roar followed shortly after as massive stones and solid earth was forced aside as easily as if it was sand.

The elf gave a slight chuckle as she evaded Xyra’s grasp. Instead of catching hold of her Xyra had ended up driving her hand deeply into the earth. The roar had come from Xyra actually yanking her arm through the earth as she swiped at the golem breaker. However, even this hadn’t allowed her to take hold of the agile elf. It didn’t help that her weapon was rather unique.

The elfin golem breaker actually carried two enchantments in her primary weapon. The double headed war hammer had a different type of enchantment on both faces. The first was earth giving her attacks a great deal of power and strengthening her. The second enchantment was wind magic which combined with her natural abilities allowed her to move at astounding speeds.

While the group fought as one they were each careful to stay well away from one another so that if one was attacked the others had a free opening. Sense the beginning of the fight Xyra had been primarily focused on the elf no doubt thinking to neutralize the swiftest of their party. This however had proven far more difficult then she expected. To make matters worse the more the elf dodged the angrier Xyra was becoming which gave the others time to move in close.

A young life of working in some of the more unstable mines had left the dwarf far more nimble then most thought his species could be. As the shadow of Xyra’s foot fell over him he quickly shifted to the side and fell into a slight roll. Less then a second later though seemingly plenty of time to him he felt a massive shockwave run throughout the ground then heard the actual impact. Using the energy from the shockwave the dwarf quickly bounced back to his feet.

The group had dealt with composite golems before and learned that the first, second and even third layers of armor were mostly protection from the golem that lies beneath. Given Xyra’s appearance and behavior it was quite clear to the group then that she was a flesh golem and that the armor covering her was truly protection. First they needed to remove that armor. Drawing back his war hammer the dwarf delivered an exceptionally solid blow to Xyra’s ankle.

As the hammer met the metal the dwarf leaned into the strike to keep the weapon pressed against Xyra’s armor. When a massive wave of energy erupted from the hammer though he allowed it to push him backwards and moved with the energy. He was quite pleased when he noted the armor turned a bright red do to the massive amount of heat energy that had been transferred into it.

The power of the impact was no where near enough to cause Xyra to lose her footing or become unstable. It was however far more then enough to get her attention. Her immediate response wasn’t to look down at her foot but to quickly shift it to the side. As her massive heel ground into the earth massive chunks of rock and a huge cloud of dust was sent into the air due to the friction. Leaving a massive grove from where her foot had rested before hand to where it wrested after the shift.

An annoyed grunt escaped the dwarf as he lifted his shield to protect his face. Nearly in the same moment he felt several sharp impacts on the exterior of his armor. He knew the impacts had left some noticeable dents in his armor not just because of the sound but because of the stinging pain that emanated from several points on his body. Xyra’s response hadn’t been what he expected as most golems tended to look at what had hit them before trying to step on it. Xyra jumped strait to the trying to turn him into a bloody smear stage.

After shifting her foot Xyra chanced a look down at her ankle. What she found was several sheets of metal were either melting away or falling away from her armor. In one moment the dwarf had managed to expose not only her ankle but a good portion of the flesh around it.

The human golem breaker smiled as he readied his blade. Now that he had a clear shot he needed to move in and remove some of Xyra’s lower leg. Given Xyra’s size and power they all knew it would be suicide for them to go strait for a destroying blow. The first thing they needed to do was hinder her movement.

Dehvess could hardly believe what was happening. Jahnah, Meridea and Xyra were all three occupied with rather dangerous opponents. With Xyra occupied he had no way of contacting Annette or Maxwell to inform them of the situation and even if he could he didn’t know if they would be able to help. Given the current situation he felt it was a safe bet that they were occupied as well.

He needed to figure out a way he could help Xyra or Jahnah to end their fights quickly. Given what they were facing he believed the safest bet was to try to offer Xyra some strategy but so far he had yet to find a weak point in the golem breakers’ armor.

A slight creaking and a bit of a wind took Dehvess’s attention away from these thoughts. As he turned to face the door way he was more then a little displeased to find that it was slightly open. Slowly he stepped to the side and peered through the opening. What he found was the giant skeleton he could at least see part of was currently down and was most likely destroyed meaning so where the other two. As he looked at the doors he truly wished Amara had already absorbed them.

As Meridea made her way out towards the ships and they moved towards the port soon she was growing more quickly then the water was rising. Her body by how had fully changed into her other nature. The nature that had been born from the death magic that ran throughout her.

All throughout Meridea’s body her muscles had been made to grow and swell with power. The muscles of her stomach had changed from being divided into four major sections that just covered her belly to being a massive wall of muscle that stretched up the majority of her abdomen. The cuts in the muscle had grown deeper proportionally several times and could be easily divided into eight major sections.

The muscles of her arms had always been toned with biceps that when flexed rivaled or perhaps surpassed the size of both fist put together. Now those massive muscles had grown to such massive size that should she flex her arm it seemed as if it would surpass her head. The muscles within Meridea’s arm seemed to flow for the massive peek of her biceps becoming gradually smaller as they reached her hands so that despite their massive size the muscle flowed sleekly together.

Eclipsing Meridea’s massive biceps by at least a quarter her thighs had grown to bulge with power. As she waded throughout the water her massive muscles would flex and relax. Even before her leg would begin to lift free from the water the flexing of the muscles alone would send out waves as she the water only reached up to her massive thighs.

What had once been carefully manicured fingernails had not only grown in length but also had changed in shape. It was no longer possible to consider them fingernails but talons. There length having become easily a third of her fingers’ total length and hooked downward as if they were meant to grab hold of something but never let go until it was torn apart.

Her teeth had changed into that of a predator with not a dull one amongst them to be seen. The muscle of her tongue had narrowed and lengthened and from time to time would reach out of her mouth as if in an attempt to catch its prey.

Even before Meridea’s hair had reached down to her waste but now it sunk deeply into the ocean despite her height. Its length however was impossible to tell though she felt it brushing against her calf muscles. The massive strands were made to rise up above the water’s surface. As her hair was made to move about it seemed that this was more of an act of its own will rather then the currents of the ocean. Indeed Meridea felt some of her hair extending out in all directions moving about as if searching through the water.

Yet while her body took on a more powerful state her breasts had been made to swell. What had once been a pleasant D cup had easily grown into an E cup as if meant to beckon others closer to her.

All the muscles within her body were made to flow together though so that no one part of her seemed bulky in comparison to the next. The end result was an exceptionally powerful yet swift build.

However, despite her body’s scale the wrapping was perhaps the most foreboding aspect of her appearance. As Meridea’s other form awakened her skin would grow darker though not uniformly. Certain areas darkened far more quickly then others. This resulted in a pattern in which some of her skin seemed as bright as night on a full moon while certain strips or stripes appeared as dark as a void which light couldn’t reach.

As Meridea made her way out towards the fleet she began to pick up speed. Slowly her thought process was fading away and impulse was taking over. She could see, smell and even taste the life force that radiated from those ships and her desire was to consume it all. It was nearly impossible for Meridea to regain her conscious mind from this state as she lost herself in the feeling. Letting her feed until her hunger had been sated was often the only way for her to regain herself.

The loss of her conscious mind meant that Meridea could not fight amongst any living being she didn’t instinctively know. In her other form they would become just another food item to her eyes. Even the undead weren’t entirely safe from her for as she had feed on the lichs she was quite capable of feeding on the undead. The only protection undead that she was not fond of had was that she instinctively went after life force first and their taste and energies weren’t nearly as pleasing to her.

As the ships drew closer to the port several of the crewmen noted something moving the water. Given that they were accompanied by several priests and priestesses of the sea god many were made to think it might be one of the god’s creatures. However, as the form drew closer and they saw it lifting further out of the water despite the deepening depth those thoughts quickly began to change.

Several of the crews were made to feel a cold chill as Meridea drew near. It was similar to the chill that would at times be generated when she removed her gloves as her body automatically pulled in whatever life energy it could from her surroundings. In her other state though this effect was magnified many times over so that those that were of weaker constitutions and spiritual strength would begin becoming very sickly very soon.

It was hard for Maxwell to accept what he was seeing. He had expected to find Annette trudging through the rank of the invaders upon his arrival. Instead he found something far different.

Annette couldn’t help becoming frustrated as the stinging blows of her opponent continued to rain down upon her. A pain in the back of her neck didn’t help anything as she spun around and attempted to strike the pest only to find that she’d already vanished. Quickly she began to scan her right side though she had no real reason for choosing that location other then hoping she’d find her target there.

Due to Marina’s smaller scale, exceptional acceleration and speed she had not only managed to avoid Annette’s attacks. She’d also managed to lose her entirely. The attacks she delivered were hardly the bite of a gnat to Annette but even such tiny bites could take one down if enough were delivered.

Very few amongst Maxwell’s forces could actually see what was going on as Annette tried to strike down her miniscule foe. It had even required Maxwell a few moments to realize what was going on. He had expected the enemy to employee great numbers of mages but that didn’t seem to be the situation. Still he couldn’t afford inaction at this moment.

Turning to one of his commanders he quickly altered his orders. “Tell the main army to attack the invaders but to stay well away from Annette. Also inform Ravastina that she should focus on the priests and mages however she will be operating by herself now.”

“Yes sir.” Quickly turning his horse the messenger wasted no time in bounding down towards the main force shouting the orders as he went.

It had been Maxwell’s hope that he could join in on the main conflict but he had chose to hold his unit back. He wasn’t entirely certain what was fighting Annette but he knew it was something very powerful to delay her long enough for them to arrive. He needed to take a few moments to evaluate the situation before he committed entirely to the attack. There would be little time to plan after joining the conflict.

When Annette caught sight of Marina she instantly drove her hands down towards her attempting to snatch her much smaller opponent up. The impact generated whenever her hand met earth seemed to shake the entire battle field as a massive cloud of rock and dust was kicked up as solid earth was pushed aside as if it was water. A sharp grunt escaped Annette as she felt several sharp bites on her arm. Gripping the ground she tore free a huge chunk of earth as she swung her arm around in an attempt to swat the pest.

As Annette’s arm swung she released her hold on the torn away rocks and soil in hopes of striking her opponent. While she wasn’t a mage she had caught onto certain concepts while dealing with them. When dealing with an opponent that was far faster then you but far weaker devastating everything in the area was at times a way to deal with them. How she wished she could cast a fireball spell.

Dehvess was far from pleased with the current situation. While he had no idea how many were in the room with him he did know that someone powerful enough to take the giant skeletons outside quickly had snuck into the room. Until he dealt with the threat he would be unable to focus all of his attention on Jahnah.

Having no desire to use any energy for spells he slowly began to fall back towards the sections of the temple Amara had managed to absorbed. If he could lure them back within those zones she’d be able to give him their exact locations.

As Amara watched her creator edging backwards she kept a close eye out and hoped the transformation of the stones would not reveal her existence to the intruders.

A bright flash of light immediately drew Dehvess’s attention. Quickly he pressed off the ground. While he wasn’t capable of quick burst of speed as Jahnah was the great strength of the golem armor still allowed him too move quite rapidly. As he leaped to the side he readied his spear incase he had just jumped into an opponents attack.

“Damn it.” Was all Dehvess thought to say upon landing. What he saw to his side was a solid wall of energy that he recognized quite quickly. The spell that had been released was technically a shielding spell. It functioned by creating a sort of space time anomaly and was often considered to be impenetrable. This was however from both sides nothing got in and nothing got out. He was cut off from Amara.

The spells main draw backs were three fold though two of them could be circumvented. The first was the casting time was quite lengthy. Warping time and space was not an easy task. The second was the shield was normally quite small due to the complexity and massive energy drain. The size and casting time though could be circumvented by having the spell placed in an item that would release the magic instantly though these were way too costly to be used for nearly all situations. Someone really wanted to insure he died.

One problem that couldn’t be circumvented was the spell had a very short life span. It would only last a few minutes. Fifteen had been the maximum in most situations. The universe didn’t appreciate such anomalies it seemed so the spell couldn’t exist for very long before the weight of the world destroyed it.

Still, it had cut him off from Amara though he wasn’t ready to call upon any spells yet. Dehvess had a decent level of training with his primary weapon. Most considered him to be proficient with his spear. He also had the added benefit of wearing some very high level golem armor. If his opponents hadn’t brought at least moderately powerful enchanted weapons they wouldn’t be able to harm him.

Turning to his side as a shadow seemed to lunge for him Dehvess moved to parry the attack As soon as the enchanted weapons met a massive wave of energy was released. The force of the impact was so great that had it not been for the strengthening affect of the golem armor Dehvess would have had his weapon ripped out of his hands.

It took no thought on Dehvess’s part to recognize the weapons as he deflected the attack and thrust forward. Flares were a sort of enchanted weapon that as one who liked quality and longevity he despised with a passion. While most enchanted weapons were meant to carry the magic forever or at least until they were destroyed flares were different. The enchantment was temporary and the weapon only had a few uses five being the norm if it was at full power.

In exchanged for the short life span the weapons were exceptionally powerful and easy to produce. They could with moderate difficulty be made to produce the affects of high level enchanted weapons if only for a very short while.

Amara could hardly believe what had happened. She had moved even more quickly then Dehvess to take hold of him when the spell had been released. However, it had still been too slow and she had only ended up striking the exterior of the shield. She couldn’t even see inside to tell what condition Dehvess in though she at least knew that he was alive.

The connection of the temple to Jahnah allowed her to detect the energy from the tiara. Given that she still felt that energy flowing smoothly she knew that her creator was still regulating the energy flow. So that even if she didn’t know what condition she was in she knew that he was alive.

The first response to the barrier upon Amara’s part had been to alter a massive amount of her body. Massive tendrils extended from the walls and wrapped around the barrier in hopes of breaking through to her creator. However, a few moments of squeezing upon it with all the force that she could manage had also given her time to think. Her time reading Dehvess’s books to him had been good for her as it allowed her to realize the futility of the situation.

In order to break that barrier she would need to know how to affect space and time. She had the power needed but she didn’t have the know how and the only three people she knew of that did were currently occupied. She had to find another way of helping her creator.

It was astounding to Dehvess how quickly he was losing his options. He had managed to deflect the first attack however his attacker had evaded him. Now he could feel movement all around him. As he realized what he was going to have to do he felt sick at his stomach. He’d been devoting his entire spell casting ability to sustaining Jahnah but if he didn’t use some of the power for himself he could very quickly end up dead and then she’d have no one to regulate the energy.

Dehvess was normally quite hard to anger. Such extreme emotions were repressed by his training in order magic and the magic itself. Irritation was normally the closest thing to anger he could be made to feel. However, as he started the spell he was most assuredly angry and that had quite an affect of the spell he chose to use. He was going to make his attackers pay for distracting him from Jahnah’s situation. “As you were there when man was born your”

Xyra had recognized what the golem breakers were attempting to do long ago and had no intention of letting it happen. The second time one of her attackers had managed to strip away some of the armor around her ankle it had become exceedingly clear they were trying to take out her leg.

There was no intention on Xyra’s part to allow them to do this. Of course she also had no intention of letting them force her into a defensive position. Instead she had responded by becoming increasingly aggressive. The surrounding landscape showed the affects of that decision.

The dwarf golem breaker had taken the most damage of the group by far however that was far from unusual. Given that his race was basically born to work in extremely harsh conditions he could easily take far more then the others. Still, it was making striking her a very risky task. She sure wasn’t focusing on any one of them any longer.

It had been focusing on the elf that had caused Xyra to lose some of her armor in the first place. While she still focused her efforts on one of them it was in a very limited extent. Whichever happened to get closest to her would be the one that received the majority of her attention. This meant changing targets quite often but it was doing a great job of keeping them back and she only needed to get lucky once to cut their fighting strength by a third or more.

The human golem breaker cursed mentally as he worked to keep track of Xyra’s limbs. He had slipped up once and had been struck by one of the rocks her hand had stirred up. Thanks to that his vision had been greatly reduced as the rock had caught him in the face and ended up causing one of his eyes to swell shut. Still, even with his vision impaired he was determined to get to the opening in Xyra’s armor. He was grateful that the dwarf was on his good side still as he caught site of him.

Realizing that there was no way for them to get close to Xyra working separately any longer the dwarf signaled for his friend to follow his lead. He’d already placed his war hammer on his back and taken up the twin axes he carried. While the others only had one primary weapon he actually carried a war hammer and axes for dealing with either standard or flesh golems.

Seeing her two friends charge the elf wasted no time. Swinging her hammer above her head she struck the ground with a solid blow with the earth enchanted side. As a massive slab of stone popped up before her she gave it another strike with the earth side which reduced the stone to a fine powder. In the same action she spun around and flipped her hammer so that she swung the wind side into the cloud of pulverized stone.

Xyra had seen the dwarf charge however she hadn’t been expecting the sudden assault of the dust cloud. While even the largest stones amongst the cloud weren’t enough to hurt her eyes in the least it did cloud her vision like a thick fog. Instead of staying steel though and trying to fan the dust away she quickly lifted her foot into the air and began to repeatedly slam it into the ground.

The motions of Xyra’s foot were erratic with no exact target and exceptional power backing them. This was far from what they had wanted as the rapid stomping of the foot forced the dwarf to quickly retreat. His human partner didn’t follow suit though.

The shockwaves generated by Xyra’s foot were astounding and threatened to send him flying backwards with each stomp. Had she been much larger or stronger he wouldn’t have been able to progress towards her. Even now he was made grateful that several items of his equipment were enchanted. As he drew close enough that the shockwaves would be too powerful he waited for one more stomp and leapt into the air so the energy would help carry him.

A sharp pain in Xyra’s ankle told her that something had went wrong. As she glanced down she saw the tiny figure and his claymore. Shifting to drive her foot into him she was more then a little displeased when she lost her balance and was sent tumbling.

The human golem breaker could have sworn that his arms would be ripped from their pockets when he had struck Xyra’s leg. Despite the blades powerful enchantments and the equipment he felt certain the only reason he made it through her flesh was the energy from the jump. As he went to move his sword a dagger of pain ran throughout his shoulders causing him to grimace and nearly fall himself. Quickly he began to retreat from Xyra’s fallen form.

Xyra’s first reaction under most situations would have been to quickly regenerate her foot. However, she was drawing so much power from her mistress already and given her mistress’s situation she dared not to. However, with her movement now severely hindered she was more then a little concerned.

Moving to his comrade’s side the dwarf helped his fellow golem breaker retreat from Xyra’s form before she could strike him with her good leg. “Are you okay?”

“No, I can barely move my arms. I think I tore something when I cut her.”

For a moment the dwarf felt his comrade must be joking. He had handled many flesh golems with that claymore and never had trouble cutting through them however the look of pain on his face told him he wasn’t. “Well don’t worry. You just fall back and leave the rest to us she won’t be moving with an injury like that.”

“Damn it! It was like I hacked through a stone golem.”

As Xyra rushed to change her position so she could still fight she was surprised when she felt an unfamiliar but commanding voice. “Heal yourself.”

“What?”

“Hurry up and heal yourself while they’re still thinking you’ll be an easy mark.”

“Who are you?”

“You’re drawing on my energy so heal yourself now. It won’t hinder your mistress.”

Despite her situation Xyra wasn’t going to obey the voice but continue to question it as she feared hindering her mistress. However, a sharp javelin of pain told her that was a very bad idea.

The massive slash on her side burned every time Aquatrix had to strain the muscles. She had received the injury shortly after Jahnah had finished the time spell and attacked her. Now she was no longer on the offensive but due to Jahnah now having weapons and speed on par with her own plus the element of surprise she had been forced into the defensive.

Jahnah wore a delighted smile as she slashed at Aquatrix. While her claws didn’t reach the titan she was quite pleased whenever she felt her foot connect with the titan’s stomach. However, while she smiled she was far happy with the current situation. Dehvess wasn’t regulating as much energy which meant she didn’t have enough to draw from. So that at the moment Jahnah found she was incapable of casting any additional spells fortunately both the time warp and claws would last quite some time without a recasting.

Even as Jahnah’s leg struck her in the stomach Aquatrix slashed at the limbs with her claws. While it didn’t take away her pain she was still quite pleased to feel her claws just nick the flesh of Jahnah’s leg. The time spell Jahnah had used on herself had left their speeds so close that she wasn’t sure which of them was truly the swifter.

A slight pain went through Jahnah’s legs as she placed it back down on the ground. The sudden flexing of the muscle irritated the fresh injury and the toxins required a moment to be neutralized.

There was hardly a moment for Jahnah to regain her footing. The kick to Aquatrix’s stomach had carried a lot of energy but she required a lot of energy to hurt as well and had been moving backwards. Thanks to her already been moving backwards to dodge Jahnah’s claws and her own biology Aquatrix was able to resume the attack when others even of her species might have been stunned for at least a few moments.

Due to the stinging in her leg Jahnah was slow to move the limb so that instead of backing away she brought her claws up to meet the titans. The two powers felt their right hands interlock and their claws sink into the others wrists.

A delighted grin formed on Jahnah’s face as she felt the searing pain from Aquatrix’s toxins as well as her own claws sink into Aquatrix’s hands. While they both had talons the simple fact of the matter was that Jahnah’s was longer though they didn’t carry any toxins. All that meant was that for a moment she felt more pain the Aquatrix however she could deal with pain.

“Want to try something fun?”

As Aquatrix looked into Jahnah’s eyes she felt a lump form in her stomach. Something told her she’d done something very foolish. A delighted giggle escaped Jahnah as she quickly jerked her hand backwards without making any attempt to free her hand from Aquatrix’s claws or release her. The end result was that the action caused both of their claws to cut through the other’s flesh. Fortunately for Jahnah her claws were longer.

As a chaos mage grew in power there emotions and feelings began to fluctuate with no reason other then it was one of the dangerous of chaos. This could vary from blissful joy to blinding pain in seconds and it only became worse as the chaos mage grew in power. Dehvess had freed Jahnah from that price by keeping her in certain emotional states however there had been times when she had to endure it such as when she and Dehvess was separate.

Of course what a chaos mage understood to be enjoyable could also change. Pain even when blinding could at times become a form of pleasure to those of her art.

Aquatrix had been far from prepared for Jahnah’s little stunt. As the pain shot throughout her body she began to focus on healing the injury as a titan aligned with the constantly renewing sea she was capable of healing herself quite quickly. What she didn’t see what not only was Jahnah preparing to attack again but her hand was healing as well.

While Jahnah was incapable of casting any spells that required a net loss of energy she did have some others. At the moment she was draining the life energy from the blood and flesh contained in her right hand and using it to heal even while reading to her left hand to tear into Aquatrix’s stomach. As she drained the life energy from the blood she couldn’t help but admire how much it contained it was truly delicious.

Natasha gave a delighted giggle as she sliced her talons neatly through the mast of the ship. The cries from the crew were a delight to her as she quickly lifted into the air and made her way towards the next ship. Several of her sisters were busy with similar tasks though none were working quite as quickly as she thanks to her ability to fly.

Shortly after they had arrived Maria had suggested that they immobilize the ships or at least slow them down. Apparently the objective had been to lure the port’s defenders away from the temple with a slow retreat. Once they were far enough away they could then make use of their god’s rituals. While Meridea wasn’t of a mind set to realize this at the moment her guardian shadows were and currently worked to ruin it.

Of course while it had been her suggestion Maria was the most displeased with the plan. Jumping from ship to ship and cutting away the mast was far from her idea of fun. She wanted to take her time and gobble down at least some life force for herself. As she shot through the water towards the next ship Maria couldn’t help but looking back at her mistress’s massive form and the destruction she’d already caused.

Meridea had ceased to grow before she had reached the actual ships however so great was her scale that the water had only come halfway up her abdomen so far inland. As the massive titan of death took hold of one of the ships some of those on deck chose to take their chances by jumping into the sea while others were too scared, didn’t have time or had been seeing what was happening to others that leaped into the ocean.

Lifting the ship to her face Meridea extended her massive tongue out towards the ship. The tongue had taken on a far more serpentine build sense her transformation. As the massive muscled reached out from her mouth it was made to weave and bob as if it was a great snake tasting the air. Seconds later it struck out towards the crew.

The dexterity with which the massive muscle moved was astounding as it swiped up those on the deck. In less then five seconds it had covered the entire deck and scooped up everyone upon it. At the moment the saliva that coated Meridea’s tongue was far more cohesive then what one would find in a human’s mouth. Though it seemed to flow as easily as that of a human’s this was only due to her great scale.

The saliva that coated Meridea’s tongue when her hunger took over and she was in her other state proved so cohesive that there was no need for the massive muscle to wrap around the sailors. As the muscle had moved about the deck it had barely even touched several of the sailors yet when the tongue lifted away they found themselves brought along for the ride.

As they were lifted into the air the chill that had been caused by Meridea’s appearance had been forgotten. Instead searing heat seemed to radiate from the tongue though it was not actually capable of burning them. Rather the sensation was like stepping outside of a cold ice house into a burning hot summer’s day. The thick humidity caused by being so close to Meridea’s mouth only made the affect feel more extreme.

While the heat might have only seemed as if it would be a minor concern when staring down into the void of Meridea’s throat this was a false assumption. The feeling of being trapped helpless by Meridea’s massive tongue and the sudden change temperature only combined to make the sight of her gaping mouth far worse.

The struggles of the little sailors were of such enjoyment that Meridea took her time pulling them into her mouth. Their attempts to pull free of her tongue were wonderfully ticklish so much so that even in her current state she enjoyed it. Though she didn’t waste her time by just standing there instead while she continued to enjoy the sailors little struggles she dug her fingers into the upper deck of the ship and easily tore it away. She could sense even more life energy inside.

Thoroar couldn’t help but gag as he spit up a mouthful of sea water. Above and all about he could hear the screams of his comrades. Only seconds ago he had been onboard the ship that the monster held aloft. He hadn’t paid attention to where he was going when he had jumped off the ship. He had simply reasoned that it had to be safer then where he was. He had been quite mistaken.

Catching sight of another that had chosen to jump ship even sooner then he had Thoroar began to swim out to him. As he did so though he noticed movement beneath the water and stopped for just a moment. The sea seemed to be moving in the distance as if it had come alive. As he looked it occurred to him how dark it had suddenly become.

A horrific scream took Thoroar’s thoughts from such matters. When he looked up he was shocked to see the one that had swam ahead of him trying to escape from what appeared to be a exceptionally thick rope. Thinking that he might have gotten tangled Thoroar began to swim towards him only to stop dead whenever he saw the man suddenly be lifted out of the water.

Upon being lifted into the air several tendrils swarmed the man engulfing him entirely and forming a ball. At first the ball was large enough to hold a man however it quickly began to shrink in size. Whenever they separated Thoroar expected to see the crushed body fall free but instead he saw nothing. His comrade had been consumed entirely. As he looked further up as to where those strands had come from he realized what it was.

In her other state even Meridea’s hair could be quite a threat to those unlucky enough to encounter it. The strands currently searched throughout the water sensing vibrations and body heat from those that had thought the ocean a safer place. Even if they escaped Meridea’s hands, tongue and mouth a vast net stretched out all around her searching for prey.

As Thoroar looked into the darkness he felt like his heart was being crushed. What he thought were dark waves were vast walls of Meridea’s hair searching the ocean. As he realized those massive strands seemed to be coming towards him he began to try to swim away. Yet no progress was made indeed he seemed to be moving closer to those massive serpents though the titan hadn’t moved sense she began to feast on the ships crew.

At first Thoroar thought even the sea might have turned against them. However, as he redoubled his efforts to swim away he realized something. The current was trying to carry him away from those massive tendrils. Something else was pulling him towards them and it had far more strength then the current.

In her human state blood was drawn to Maria and absorbed into her once it had been spilt from its original vessel. In her other state this affect was magnified even more so. Not only would the crimson liquid be drawn to her but those that did not have the spiritual strength to resist or bodies strong enough to push away would be absorbed as well. So that even those that had abandoned ship and new to swim away found there was an invisible threat they had not been prepared to escape from.

Marina gave an amused giggle as she felt several rocks and clumps of dirt peppering her body. In an attempt to harm her Annette had finally turned to attack the general area and causing as much destruction as possible. However, even the hardest stones she could fling about didn’t have nearly the strength needed to harm Marina. Much like Annette the only thing that could truly harm her had to be an enchanted weapon or have energies in them that let them serve as an enchanted weapon.

It was nearly impossible for Maxwell to set still as he watched his lady love engaging her opponent while his army faced the invaders. If he didn’t truly believe that rushing ahead would not only be a futile but foolish effort he wouldn’t have been able to remain still.

At first he had no idea what Annette’s enemy was however as he watched the battle and felt the massive amounts of energy he had finally caught on. Though it had taken him some time to fully accept what she was facing. It was rather hard to believe that a god would be willing to involve itself not only to the point of sending its followers to attack them but also send its avatar.

The powerful surges in both water and earth magic that were released whenever the avatar would strike Annette had force him to accept it though. Now he only had to think of a way in which Annette could actually win. He knew that the golem armor he wore gave him a significant power increase however he didn’t believe he could help Annette directly even with it.

The little nicks and cuts that the avatar had been raining down on her had began to add up and while Annette was far from going down she was most assuredly getting angry. The massive number of nicks she had received had slowly begun to burn and it was only getting worse. Hearing the little bitch of the sea giggle wasn’t helping her either.

Annette had hoped by tearing up the local landscape she would get lucky and a few bits of debris would strike her opponent and slow her down. Given the amount of destruction she had caused she was certain that some of it had hit her but it most assuredly hadn’t slowed her down. After a while it had become very apparent that the only way she was going to be able to harm her was if she got her hands on her.

If he was correct about what Annette’s opponent was there was no way tearing up the surrounding area would help Annette. This was after all the avatar of the god of the sea. She could most likely dance on the most turbulent ocean waves with no problem at all it would be impossible for some unstable earth to cause her to lose her footing in the least.

At least he felt confident that Annette was far stronger then her opponent given that she was still standing. If the avatar had even close to Annette’s strength the fight would have been over long ago. This meant that all Annette really needed was one solid blow or to get her hands on her opponent.

Maxwell gave his head a quick shake. Even if only one lucky hit was needed there was no way he would just stand around and wait for such a lucky shot. He needed to find a way for Annette to get hold of her opponent which meant either slowing the avatar down or speeding Annette up.

If magic spells had been able to affect Annette it would have been a simple matter to give her the speed she needed. However, as the monolith had proven only spells of exceptionally high levels could affect her and he didn’t have that kind of power. Only moments after remembering the monolith Maxwell’s hand became aglow with elemental energy.

There was one source of elemental energy that had the needed power to affect Annette and he had been looking at it the whole time he’d been watching the fight. He would have to apologize to Annette later for not thinking of it sooner. At least it only took him a few seconds of focus to cast a wind messenger spell to carry his voice to Annette’s ears and only hers. “Annette, you’re going to have to use your eye. I know we haven’t had much time to practice but you have to cast this spell. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time. Keep trying to channel the energy like we practiced and repeat after me.”

Annette felt a huge wave of relief the moment she heard Maxwell’s voice even before he told her he had a plan. As soon as Maxwell told her that she would need to cast a spell Annette began gathering the energy for the casting then followed carefully word for word. “Speed of the waves, speed of the storms grant yourself to one that holds solid form.”

Marina’s eyes were made to widen as she heard and saw the energy gathering around Annette. While it was clear to her that the spell’s first casting was a failure it was of immense concern to her. She had been told that Annette couldn’t be aided by magical means however from what she saw of the energies that wasn’t true.

A grin formed on Maxwell’s face as he finally drew his weapons. “Keep it up Annette.” The spell he had given her was exceptionally basic and would only boost her speed a limited extent. However, it should be enough to allow her to catch hold of the avatar. It had been almost certain that Annette’s first attempt at casting the spell would be a failure and indeed would require a few more tries. Fortunately she appeared to have the time and if she was lucky the avatar would slip up even before she got it right.

Despite his confidence that the spell would give Annette the upper hand or at least even the field he had another way of help his lady. He had included the priests and priestesses in his new orders to Ravastina for a reason. The god and her avatar drew their power from the faith of their followers the more of them they killed the better.

A sigh escaped Amara as she felt some of her energy draining. Though she didn’t enjoy the loss of one of the sources of energy she considered to be truly hers the sigh was one of relief. She had worried that Xyra would require more convincing to accept the energy.

The additional power that Amara now channeled to Xyra wasn’t from the gate Dehvess had opened, the taint of the undead in the temple or the people’s fear. The energy came from those that had given themselves to Amara.

The young mother wasn’t the only person that had felt Amara’s touch sense she had been formed. She was only the most recent in a long list of people that Amara had begun the process of seducing into becoming part of her body. Of course she had to make sure those that became part of her were completely willing so the seduction required time.

Every sentient life form produced a certain amount of mystic energy. However, few of them had the spiritual strength and knowledge needed to sustain their own life functions without eating. These problems could be overcome though if the proper steps were taken.

By having the people join with her Amara could easily overcome the problem of the lack of knowledge. As part of her the individual didn’t need to have the knowledge required to manipulate the energies properly she could handle it herself. That only left the problem of the energy drain which was solved by linking them together within her.

A loan person absorbed into her would have actually been an energy drain upon Amara. Unlike Xyra she sustained the bodies of those that joined with her while Xyra simply converted their flesh into her own. However, while one person didn’t generate enough energy to sustain even themselves two sentient life forms could easily produce enough even to sustain three and even four people if they were properly connected with one another.

This allowed Amara to actually increase her power by absorbing others into herself. As long as their spiritual energies were of the proper orientation so they could be made to link together and magnify one another. This was what forced Amara to insure they were willing. An unwilling person would generate a great deal of resistance even if they were unconscious so that they would end up costing her far more energy then she was gaining.

So far Amara only had eleven that had entered such a willing state that she was willing to take them into herself. Fortunately though the number was small the energy increase was far swifter then simple linear growth. They might have been few in number but they still provided her with enough power to aid Xyra and allow her access to some of her more draining abilities.

Xyra was still uncertain of whom she had been speaking to or whose energy she was drawing upon. Even as she let the energy flow into herself she was still fairly concerned about where the power was coming from. Despite those concerns though she recognized she needed help in her current situation and she really didn’t want to endure the pain again. The fact that whomever she was speaking to was in a position to send her such energy directly and cause her such pain at least lessoned her concerns a bit. Though once this was over she hoped to correct whatever had allowed the speaker to cause her pain. She felt confident that whoever had spoken to her must at least have some connection with her Mistress.

As Xyra felt the energy surge into herself she quickly worked to regenerate her foot. She was grateful for her previous change in position as it put the formerly damaged limb out of her enemies’ site. The moment she felt her toes reform she pressed into the ground and quickly moved into a pure sprint as she lunged for her opponents.

The shockwave generated by Xyra’s sudden acceleration and the force required shook the entire area. Her movements were so quick that the sound wave only moved slightly faster then she did as she rushed her primary target.

A sharp cry of pain escaped the human golem breaker as the shockwave caught him off guard. The sudden surge of the ground beneath him had been enough to cause him to lose his footing and his attempt to catch himself with his arms had been quite unpleasant. His cry of pain however was eclipsed by the shriek of another.

The elfin golem breaker had turned her attention to the plight of her comrade as she tried to assess how badly he had been injured. She’d been surprised when she realized he had hurt his arms and hadn’t been expecting Xyra’s sudden recovery. Due to her lack of awareness and Xyra’s speed she had actually been caught before she even had time to respond. Now she was held aloft in Xyra’s hand.

It was impossible for Xyra not to giggle as she held the golem breaker. With one of her opponents in hand and another badly injured so he wasn’t a true threat Xyra would have loved to take her time. However, she was all too aware of her Mistress’s condition at the moment so she worked quickly to strip the elf’s enchanted items. There was no need for Xyra to worry about breaking the woman’s bones she just had to insure she didn’t kill her before she consumed her.

For a moment the dwarf was too stunned to respond as he looked at Xyra. He knew that his comrade had cut cleanly through just above her ankle. It was even more of a shock when he gave a quick glance to where Xyra’s foot had been and found that it was still there along with the armor that had once covered it.

He had been so confident that they had won and it was only a matter of time that he had been stunned whenever he felt the shockwave and heard the cry of his comrade. Only after his comrade had been half stripped did he realize that he needed to act though he was unsure of the situation now. Quickly placing his axes away as he remembered what had happened when his comrade cut through Xyra’s leg he quickly charged with his hammer. He was unsure of the situation now but it still seemed the best course of action.

An amused giggle escaped Xyra as she felt the woman’s right thigh bone snap as she stripped away her chausses and the dwarf rushed her. Unlike her prey she wasn’t so distracted that she had lost sight of the battle field. Even while she stripped her food of any potential choking hazards she made certain to keep track of the dwarf and the human.

Instead of just relying on his leg power as he charged the dwarf gave the ground a quick strike with his hammer and leapt into the air. As he moved forward the dwarf felt the heat from the explosion generated by his hammer on his back. Several of his hairs began to spark and ignite. If it hadn’t been for his enchantment equipment he would have been caught ablaze by it though with it he would only have a very minor burn.

Quickly Xyra spun so that her foot was no longer in the path of the dwarf. Despite his efforts to gain the needed speed to land a blow upon her he had failed. She’d seen what the elf was capable of doing with her hammer in regards to boosting her speed and she knew the human had used the energy from her stomping to get a needed boost. These three were quite skilled at using the energy of their opponent’s and their own attacks to give them additional boost.

Of course golem breakers were expected to be skilled using the strength of others against them. It was a requirement if your job was going to require you to be going up against golems on a regular basis. You could get away with only exploiting the weak points of the lower grade golems but not the rarer ones. For those one had to learn how to use their power against them. This also explained why the group was using such different elements in their weapons.

Nearly as soon as he realized that he had missed his mark the dwarf wasted no time striking the ground once again though this time only to help him lose his momentum. Despite his efforts to slow down and regain control of his movements the dwarf was quite surprised when Xyra didn’t kick him or even try to.

If he had known the reason Xyra didn’t try to crush him he would have been far less pleased. She was going to eat his little elfin friend so that he could watch. Then she would turn both him and his human comrade into wigths after draining all the life force from their bodies.

The elf for her part had quit struggling after the first few moments. It wasn’t that she no longer had the spirit to struggle against her captor her body wouldn’t do it. Xyra had nearly forced all the air out of her when she’s scooped up her and if it hadn’t been for the enchanted armor she wore she’d been crushed. The rough stripping Xyra had just put her through had been so sever and left so many bones broken she didn’t have the breath or the focus to fight back or even scream.

Upon letting the last of the elf’s armor and weapons fall to the ground Xyra took hold of her ankles and released her hold on the rest of her body. Holding the little golem breaker upside down she glanced down at the dwarf who was already back on the attack. This was of very little concern to Xyra as long as she continued moving. If the dwarf had a partner of roughly equivalent skill as he had before things would have been different. Now that he didn’t know Xyra couldn’t help but taunt him just a bit.

“Well this is a sight. A dwarf fighting so hard to protect an elf she must be quite rare. I bet she’ll taste wonderful.” Glancing at the elf one last time Xyra opened her massive mouth and quickly tossed the tiny life form in. As she swallowed the elf the one regret she felt is that she didn’t have time to savor her meal.

Dehvess was grateful Meridea had placed the reformation chambers she had built within the main hall as he felt the heat from the assassins attack. He had no way of knowing how many assassins had entered into the temple and didn’t wish to risk trying to use the pillars that had been behind him at the time of their entrance for cover. “Daughter’s gaze came to make them return to what they had been formed.”

As Dehvess rounded the side of the chamber he quickly thrust his weapon backwards as he caught a shadow out of the corner of his eye. The feeling of a brief moment of resistance and a grunt told him he had hit his target and the inhuman strength of the armor far more then made up for the awkward position. Apparently his casting of a spell was making his opponents careless.

“Now shall my eyes be as one of your own.” The moment Dehvess finished a spell the entire room blurred for just a moment as his eyes reformed. His pleasure at having cast the spell was tempered though as he heard a slight metallic ring.

The assassin grinned as he leaped down from the chamber. While her comrade had gone around the other side she’d quickly climb the steps. Now she leaped down on her foe. Using both the strength of her arms and the momentum from the jump she drove the blade into Dehvess’s head.

Having his head suddenly jerked downward was far from pleasant to Dehvess. It did little to slow him down though as he quickly jerked his head back upwards forcing his assailant’s arms into the air. There was no attempt to use his spear though instead he looked directly at the woman.

Despite the energy the attack had carried due to the jump, thrust and the flares own intense power it had not been able to make it through the helmet. Drawing her dagger back the woman prepared to go strait for Dehvess’s neck when he looked up at her and she caught a brief glimpse of his eyes.

There was hardly time for Dehvess to see what the woman truly looked like. By the time he had brought himself to look completely into her face the magic had taken hold. She was nothing more then a statue. Dehvess took no time to gloat over his momentary victory as he quickly leaped away from the form.

The darkness of the room and even the stone would no longer hide his attackers. While Gorgon’s eyes were best known for their ability to turn those that looked into them into stone they had several other beneficial attributes as well. Of course Dehvess was far from pleased that he had to use the energy needed to cast the spell instead of focusing it to Jahnah. Still, he hoped to make it up to her later when he turned his attackers back to flesh and feed them to her. He’d have to ask her to digest the woman slowly though the hit she had delivered to his head had hurt quite a lot.

Marina couldn’t help but clutch her arm as she moved to evade Annette’s massive fist. Currently she was sporting a rather deep bruise on her arm where she hadn’t been quite fast enough to evade Annette’s attack entirely. The spell hadn’t closed the speed gap between them entirely but it had made it far narrower. She couldn’t rain attacks down on Annette at will any longer and had no choice but to evade until she saw an opening.

While the desire was there Annette made no move to taunt her opponent. The periodic burst of elemental energy she would see on the battle field told her that Maxwell was alright but she wasn’t going to delay. She needed to crush the avatar and then get to the main battle.

Quickly Marina leaped off the ground. While she had no idea what Annette was looking at she wasn’t going to miss a chance for an easy hit. Of course her action still carried a great risk as she opted not to go for just any body part but focused on Annette’s eye.

Annette’s mind was quickly taken back to the fight as she saw a tiny figure move directly in front of her eye. Instinctively she moved her hands to protect her face however it was far too late for them. Marina’s attack met flesh. “You little bitch!”

As Annette brought her hands slamming together in an attempt to crush her opponent Marina received a significant amount of aid with her return trip down to the earth due to the massive gust created by Annette’s hands slamming together. Even as she realized she had avoided those massive hands she could feel her heart raising as she realized how close she’d been to being crushed. Unfortunately for her she had not met her mark. Instead of catching Annette’s eye she had gotten her eye lid.

Even had the avatar’s attack gotten to her eye Annette didn’t believe it would have blinded her. Despite that Annette also remembered what had happened whenever Jahnah had cast a spell on her eye. She had no desire to find out what would happen if someone struck it with as powerful of a magic weapon as an avatar claws.

Aquatrix could feel her massive heart racing as she looked upon her opponent. While at the beginning of the fight Jahnah had seemed to be a calm cool collective fighter she had truly changed. While her attacks were still well executed and her guard was quite solid calm was no longer the way to define her. Now she appeared to be entirely insane as she giggled at the pain her injuries caused her.

It had taken Jahnah a while to realize it but she had begun making use of one of her passive abilities as a chaos mage that she hadn’t used in a long time. The first time sentient life saw fire it was often drawn to the flames warmth, light and chaotic dance. Soon enough though they would also be burned or worse yet encounter the flames when they had grown totally beyond their control. Chaos mages could capitalize on this aspect of chaos. The more they injured their opponent the more out of control and fearsome they would seem. Of course it didn’t hurt that most chaos mages of any appreciable power level were somewhat insane by normal standards.

It was infinitely amusing to Jahnah to see that she had grown powerful enough that such a passive ability of hers could affect a titan. Though she was still quite surprised to find she’d started using it. Her surprise had shifted to concern and then amusement whenever she realized the reason why.

She finally found they were two reasons for the ability’s awakening. The amount of energy Dehvess was channeling to her had gone up. Thanks to her link with the temple she knew that Dehvess was still engaged in combat so she had worried he was holding back to help her but risking himself. She soon realized that wasn’t the case as it became clear Dehvess wasn’t putting more effort into converting the energy rather it had become easier for him to do it.

Then she had found the reason whenever she’d felt Dehvess emotions through the bond. He was becoming exceptionally angry. While it was only temporary power anger did serve to amplify one’s mystic abilities in certain ways depending on the form used. Normally the order magic within him would prevent Dehvess from enjoying these benefits but that also kept him calm.

However, even the amount of order in Dehvess’s system and his training could only repress so much chaos. Whoever he was fighting had so enraged him that there was simply too much energy being feed into his chaotic nature for it to repress.

For most situations such overwhelming anger would have been a great hindrance to an order mage. It would diminish their ability to control most of their energies. Fighting and channeling was one of the few exceptions so long as they didn’t have control the energy past converting it and the magnitude. The anger would not only increase the amount of energy they had but it would also intensify their destructive abilities. The increased chaos also made it easier for them to channel energy which explained the increase flow to Jahnah.

Aquatrix could hardly believe what was happening. She had never felt fear of anyone even the gods. Even when they had locked her away she hadn’t felt any fear only anger due to being restrained. Now as she faced Jahnah though she couldn’t help but be scared.

“Incase you’d like to know. Once I’ve exhausted you enough I’m going to eat you little fish.” A delighted giggle escaped Jahnah as she flashed her opponent a quick smile. Her teeth had converted from those of a human into razor sharp fangs much like Aquatrix’s.

A look of shock appeared on Aquatrix’s face only to be quickly replaced by utter rage. A mortal had actually threatened to consume her. There were no words the titan could find to express her anger. As she looked at Jahnah she felt every muscle in her body tighten up and her raged boiled over. The only thing that came out of her mouth was a scream of rage as she charged Jahnah.

As Aquaxtrix charged Jahnah quickly side stepped. Drawing back her hand she took a quick swipe at her opponent. A giggle escaped her as she left four rather deep cuts on her opponent’s face. “OH and incase you’re wondering I’ll not only eat you alive but I’m going to eat you whole.”

Despite not being able to think of a way for Jahnah to carry through with her threat Aquatrix couldn’t help the anger inside of her. For a mortal to not only stand up to her and suggest they could win but to threaten to eat her whole was a insult the likes of which she’d never endured. However, even though her anger had caused her to make a few sloppy attacks it was beneficial. If she had realized how serious Jahnah was she would have been quite afraid.

As Dehvess felt his spear cut nothing but air he felt his anger building further. He had managed to convert five of the assassins into stone thus far but they had finally caught onto what was happening. Though the most recent two statues had realized what was going on. They had made a mistake.

The majority of order mages of any appreciable power level would learn one Gorgon’s eye spell or the other. While all of them varied in some ways one big difference between Dehvess’s and most others were the number of eyes they’d change. Most Gorgon’s eye spells were just that a single eye. The assassins had attempted to exploit this weak point and attacked him from both sides only to learn that both of Dehvess’s eyes changed.

The statues of the two that had tried to attack him from both sides made Dehvess thankful to Jahnah. It had actually been at her encouragement that he had developed the original Gorgon’s eye spell he’d learned into one that would convert both of his eyes. Though, the modified spell did drain more then twice the energy of the unmodified spells.

Now Dehvess was having trouble catching his opponents. At least until he saw himself.

Seaeak quickly opened the small pouch on his side reached in. Within the satchel wrested a single black scroll which the elf carefully retrieved. While the magic within most scrolls was dormant the energies that went into this one’s creations prompted him to be careful with it. He had even gone so far as to choose to sacrifice a few of his team to insure he wasn’t interrupted while retrieving it despite it only requiring a few brief moments.

In response to seeing his reflection Dehvess had quickly spun his spear around and driven the blunt end into the mirror. Once again he was grateful to Jahnah and hoped the meal he was preparing for her would show it. Had he only changed one of his eyes he would have been in grave trouble.

It was well believed that if a gorgon was to see its own reflection or even the face of another one of its species they’d be turned to stone. This was far from a tribute to adventurers but rather a wondrous tribute to the gorgon’s ability to spread miss leading information. So long as a gorgon was seen through the eyes of a gorgon it would not be turned to stone.

The only ones that were in danger of their own reflection were those mages that only changed one eye into that of a gorgon’s. If the natural eye was to catch sight of the gorgon’s eye then the owner of the eyes would be turned to stone. Thankfully as Dehvess’s eyes were both that of a gorgon’s he didn’t have to concern himself with this risk.

Despite this moment of triumph Dehvess felt a wave of anticipation as the statues landed upon the ground. The echo resounded throughout the room. The grinding sound generated by the statues as they slid across the floor did little to comfort him. So that it was with a sigh of relief when Dehvess looked at the statues and found they were still intact. A fine tribute to the quality of the mystic stone created from living forms by the gorgon’s eyes. It was astounding at times that no one had ever made a fortification from the materials or a golem.

As Seaeak heard the sound of stone falling he moved out from his hiding spot. Holding the scroll directly in front of him he wasted no time in releasing the magic contained within.

A cold pulse ran throughout Dehvess’s entire body as he felt a tremendous wave of energy. Instinctively his legs were told to jump out of the way yet there was no time for him to even bend at the knees. A massive wave of dark energy slammed into him and engulfed his body entirely. Opening his mouth Dehvess tried to speak to cast a spell but no words came out. He felt his bond with his body weaken and all he could do was try to hold on and resist the energies.

Seaeak had been provided with the scroll as an emergency weapon. The spell contained within was an exceptionally powerful spell from the school of death magic. Unlike most death spells that attempted to drain the life energy from the body this one went for the very bonds that held the soul to the body. It even went through the spiritual plain so that it evaded nearly all types of armor. So rare was the spell that it was considered to be not only of legendary status but one of the greatest corruptions of resurrection spells that had ever been seen.

Jahnah gave a choking gasp as she felt a javelin of pain shoot throughout her entire body. A searing pain arose in her chest as if her heart had been lit aflame and began to spread throughout her body. Weakness ran throughout her body as the temple became the only stable energy source that she had to feed on. Then she felt the tiara that had long sense fused into her skull warming up. She was so lost that she didn’t even feel Aquatrix’s fangs dig into her.

As Dehvess struggled with the spell he was horrified to feel the pain fading away. While it allowed his mind to focus it also meant that he was losing the bond to his body. Even as he pressed more energy into maintaining the connection to his body he felt it unraveling. Then he felt something new but very familiar. He felt Jahnah’s warmth engulfing his entire being and he realized the truth of the situation.

The whole time he had been trying to resist the spell he had been playing the roll of the fool. Jahnah’s skill with death magic while not on par with Meridea’s was still so great that she could feed on some of its energies and negate nearly all others. He had been foolishly fighting as if she wasn’t there when in fact she was. He was connected to Jahnah through the tiara and their soul bindings. Further still he was within the very temple she was bound to he was within her body and surrounded by her aura.

A sharp gasp escaped Aquatrix as she felt as if her throat was being crushed. Upon having her head forced upward by Jahnah she was stunned to find the flesh she had torn from her opponent was reforming. Then a delighted giggle reached her ears.

“That kind of stung.” While Jahnah had wanted to comment right away she had to wait until enough of her throat had reformed for her to speak. Instead of just absorbing or negating the death energies Dehvess had sent to her she had actually amplified them and redirected them. The reason Aquatrix had felt as if her throat was being crushed wasn’t due to Jahnah’s strength rather it was due to Jahnah using the amplified spell to still a good chunk of Aquatrix’s life energies in order to heal herself.

As he found down the void the sailor truly wished that he had been crushed between those massive teeth. At least then he wouldn’t have to suffer through the horrific nightmare any longer. He was sure that many of his comrades that had been swallowed felt the same way. Kevin was one of those that had found themselves scooped up by Meridea’s massive tongue and then forced down her throat. So great was that massive void that it seemed as if they would fall without touching the walls and he had hoped for a quick death due to the force of the landing.

Then he had heard her body working around him and the muscles had been made to constrict. A torrent of air had erupted from within her throat and though it was not enough to stop their decline it had slowed them. The he had felt the walls of muscle that surrounded them constrict around him and the small group that made their way down Meridea’s throat.

For a few moments those muscles had slowed their fall until they had nearly come to a stop then once again they relaxed. This time though they hadn’t built up enough speed for them to hope for a quick death and indeed that seemed to be the purpose. They had been allowed to fall a short distance more then those walls had squeezed in on them again and once again slowed their decent. It had brought on a sickening realization for Kevin and nearly anyone else who wasn’t blinded by fear.

So monstrous was the scale of the beast that she did not need to truly swallow to ingest them. It would have been a simple matter for them to just fall down into that void. Her throat muscles weren’t working to force them downward rather the living tunnel had been designed and worked to insure that they would not fall quickly enough to be killed by the fall. Her body was actively working to insure they survived the trip to her stomach to die far more slowly.

Kevin’s realization in regards to Meridea’s body was exactly right. Though it wasn’t just a purely sadistic behavioral pattern but rather a method of insuring it got the most out of its food. If her body allowed those it consumed to be killed by the fall the life energy and nutrients within their bodies wouldn’t diminish. However, the bonds between their soul and bodies would have been broken and she would have lost that energy. Her body wanted to insure they survived the fall so she could consume that energy as well.

A slight giggle escaped Meridea as she felt the little creatures tickling her throat. For a moment she closed her eyes and a smile appeared on her lips. When she opened her eyes again she seemed far more aware of the situation. After taking a moment to look around herself Meridea noted that the ship closest to her had its mast removed. Giving a slight shrug she walked past the ship and made her way to one of the ships that could still sail.

Maria couldn’t help the delighted squeal that escaped her as she looked up at her massive mistress. At last she had sated enough of her hunger that it was no longer so blinding. “Mistress, may we eat now?”

While she lifted the ship from the water Meridea looked in Maria’s direction. She didn’t bother speaking through their link but spoke openly through her mouth. “I’m very proud of all your table manners and yes. You may eat now Maria and everyone else.” It was impossible for Meridea not to chuckle as she felt a surge of emotions from her shadows. They had stood by and watched as she consumed so much life energy without even taking a nibble. She couldn’t be upset with them for being enthusiastic about finally getting their chance to dine.

A slight hunger pain brought Meridea’s attention back to the task at hand. She had feed enough to allow her some level of focus but she was still exceptionally hungry. Letting her tongue flick out she ran it along her lips as she turned her attention back to the ship in her hand. “I wonder how much longer it will be before I can swallow these things whole.”

“Mm what a refined delicate flavor” as Xyra spoke she made certain to draw out the slight moan far longer then needed. The look of utter rage on the dwarf’s face was an absolute delight to her.

“I’ll split you open and get her out!”

It was impossible for Xyra not to giggle as the dwarf charged her. Already the elf’s memories were becoming hers and in those memories were several details of the dwarf’s fighting style. So as the dwarf charged her she quickly reached down and took a swipe at him.

As the giantess’s hand reached down for him the dwarf quickly struck the ground with his hammer. The force of the impact boosted him several meters into the air and well above her hand. Swinging his hammer above his head he thought to drive it down into her hand upon his return trip. However, as he reached the top of his jump a roar reached his ears and he was assaulted by a torrent of rock and debris.

After the dwarf had jumped Xyra had quickly kicked a mass of earth into him. She could have still used her free hand had she wanted to and been willing to risk having one of her fingers mashed. She chose to kick up the rocks sense by kicking the rocks into him she didn’t have to worry about wasting anymore energy healing. The moment the chunks of earth knocked the dwarfs hammer from his grasp Xyra snatched him out of the air. “Such comradeship she knew everyone of your moves it seems and how best to support them.”

Despite the situations the dwarf’s stubborn nature wouldn’t allow him to just give up. So he continued to struggle against the giantess’s hand even as a black aura slowly engulfed him and he felt his strength draining away.

Now Xyra turned her attention to the human fighter. While one hand was still busy with the dwarf she didn’t need both of them to capture him in his injured state. The elf had been considerate enough to evaluate her comrade’s injuries before Xyra had absorbed her and now Xyra had that knowledge. She knew that he was incapable of lifting his sword even into an attack stance let alone getting any power behind it should he try to defend himself.

While the assassins looked upon Dehvess’s trapped form none dared move to attack him. The spell might have been focused on him but given its nature should they get too close it could very easily end up taking their life energies as well. Of course none of them expected him to survive. Those few that believed he might survive felt certain he wouldn’t be able to fight after words. So it wasn’t surprising that several had begun preparing for when the shield would collapse and they’d make their escape from the temple.

Thoughts of escape were put aside as a great roar resounded throughout the temple. It wasn’t the roar of a monster though but rather the roar of a great fire when set ablaze in an instant. Several of the assassins’ minds turned to thoughts of contingency spells. Mages were not known for taking being killed lightly and several developed the habit of carrying magic items that would explode, catch flame or a whole host of other horrific things upon their death. Now they were all quite concerned that Dehvess had been one of these mages.

When they turned to Dehvess though what they found wasn’t a corpse. The energy that had once engulfed him was quickly being pulled inside of him as if caught in a vortex. As more of his body was uncovered what appeared to be heat waves were seen radiating from his body and it soon became clear where the roar had come from.

Dehvess could hardly believe how he felt at the moment. The amount of and strength of the energy running throughout his body was far beyond anything he’d ever known. Even more amazing to him was for the first time sense he began his studies in order magic his order and chaos were completely balanced with one another. A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess as he realized one of the reasons people could be seduced by chaos so easily. Its energies could feel really good.

A mage that had mastered both order and chaos magic was beyond rare. This was due in part to the difficulty of mastering either art but mostly to another factor. The more one learned about and grew in power with order magic the harder it became to develop abilities in the art of chaos magic. The same applied to order magic whenever one learned chaos. The final result was that it was nearly impossible for one to reach master status in both arts.

None were truly sure how powerful such a mage would be upon reaching such exalted status. However, now Dehvess had a good idea of how powerful. As while he was far from such status in that he lacked the knowledge such a mage would have. He did have the energies they would at the moment.

In all the time Dehvess and Jahnah had been combining their energies he’d never gotten to this point. As in truth it was impossible for Jahnah to take him to this level. She could put as much chaos as she wanted into him and not reach this goal. As while it helped Dehvess it was still her energy. In order for such an awakening to occur even if temporary his chaos had to be strengthened.

For the first time in Dehvess’s life his emotions had been strengthened to the point that this could happen. Sense as much as he loved Jahnah he now found he hated the assassins. Due to their actions he had not only failed to send her the energies she needed but she had been severally injured. If he hadn’t thought to redirect the death magic to her she might have died.

He was in both the perfect location and in the perfect mind set for the awakening to occur as short as it would be. His only regret at the time was he didn’t believe he could think of a painful enough way to kill the assassins for what had happened to Jahnah. He wanted to have Jahnah slowly digest the female assassin alive just for hitting him and he didn’t take his pain a tenth as seriously as he took Jahnah’s.

At least they’d have time to think about it as he extended his hand above his head. “Flames of chaos reveal yourself” the moment Dehvess spoke a brilliant combination of lights erupted from his hand as a sphere formed around it. As the light filled the area the song of the fire could be heard.

The flames of chaos were a moderate level spell. Jahnah had chosen to teach it to Dehvess in hopes one day he’d be able to cast it. As while the spell wasn’t exceptionally powerful in a strait forward fashion it was exceptionally useful. Those that saw the flames or heard the song were compelled to seek them out. It was a wonderful way of forcing everyone’s focus in a single area though it did carry a slight risk. If a person looked at the flames it could cause them to suffer from a temporary though dangerous level of pyromania.

As the assassins were forced to look upon the flames they were also forced to look upon Dehvess. In short order the room had several new statues decorating it and Dehvess was made to chuckle. He had expended so much energy trying to slay the assassins yet all he needed to end it in a moment was access to one chaos spell combined with his gorgon’s eyes to end it with exceptional ease.

Now all he needed to do was deal with the barrier. It had been in place for a little while now and probably only had a couple of minutes of life left. Still, he didn’t want to wait perhaps due to the chaotic energies inside of him temporarily decreasing his patience. Using his connection with Jahnah and her connection to the temple he reached out to Amara. “Amara, these barriers are not meant to withstand attacks from three separate directions. I want you to squeeze in on the barrier while I attack it from the inside.”

A huge grin spread across Amara’s face as she heard her creator’s will. However, as she listened to him she had to wonder. “What do you mean by three directions?”

“I mean you, me and the universe itself. At this moment the anomaly is at odds with the universe which rejects its existence. If we both attack it as well it can be made to break quite easily while if it’s only attacked from two or one direction it’s all but impossible. Space and time don’t like being tampered with especially in unison it seems.”

Amara gave a quick nod before reaching out with her body. Once again she engulfed the majority of the barrier and began to apply pressure. “Okay I’m ready.”

“Be careful how hard you squeeze a few tons of force is plenty.” Turning to the barrier Dehvess released a single kinetic energy blast from his hand. Though the attack only contained one hundred eighty kilojoules of energy and was focused into the area of a human palm it was far more then enough to shatter the barrier.

The moment the barrier began to collapse Amara quickly relaxed the grip she held with the majority of her body while rushing ahead with her core body. What had once been an impenetrable wall slowly faded away into transparent slivers that shattered and vanished on the ground if they even reached it.

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess as Amara took hold of him. He was a little surprised by how much force she used when she pulled him to herself. “It’s alright Amara I’m fine.”

“Are you certain?” As Amara looked at Dehvess she was relieved to see that while his life energy was damaged it was still largely intact and quite healable. She was also a bit surprised by the magnitude of energy that she saw within him though it was in rapid decline as his anger faded away.

“Yeah I’m sure. Though if you don’t mind. Would you please quit making your body spin?” As he spoke Dehvess felt himself growing weak in the knees, the sudden loss of anger meant the loss of the exceptionally high levels of energy he had moments before. The end result was while he was still far from weak he felt that way causing him to lean on Amara. As he did so an exhausted but honest chuckle escaped him.

For a moment Amara wasn’t entirely certain how she should feel about this. Then a soft giggle escaped her and she looked up into Dehvess’s eyes. “You might want to let those return to the eyes of a human before someone vulnerable to their affects sees them.”

“Yeah” as Dehvess cut off the energy that had sustained the transformation of his eyes he once again lost sight of the world for a few moments as the eyes were made to change. At the same time he felt Amara slip an arm around him and he was lifted from the ground.

While Amara was confident that Dehvess had dealt with all the assassins she wasn’t in the mood to take any chances. Clearly until she had consumed the main hall it just wouldn’t be safe enough for her creator so she would have to take him further into her body, into the parts of her body that were fully alive and under her control.

As Jahnah looked at Aquatrix she was surprised by what she saw and amazed that she hadn’t noticed it before. A chain of energy wrapped around the titan and stretched into the sea. Of course the sea god wouldn’t just free such a powerful titan. She was still bound to her prison no doubt until she fulfilled her end of the deal. A delighted giggle escaped Jahnah as she realized there was a very quick way to end this fight.

While she gasped for air Aquatrix was still far from down. So she was quite upset whenever she noted the little smirk on Jahnah’s face. “This fight isn’t over mortal.”

For a moment a slight giggle escaped Jahnah and then she quickly broke into a sprint. Instead of going for Aquatrix though she went strait for the chain. Reaching down her hand began to glow with energy just before she took hold. Upon taking hold of the links she gave the energy a quick pull.

A sharp gasp escaped Aquatrix as she was pulled forcefully to the ground. As she looked up she was horrified to see Jahnah holding the chain that bound her to the sea god’s prison. With that Jahnah could simply banish her back into her prison until the god freed her again. Something she doubted would happen as by then it would be too late and just as the sea was unforgiving of most mistakes so was its god.

Aquatrix didn’t have to worry about that though. As Jahnah held the chain before her she drove the fingers of her free hand into the links. “Bonds of the servant” the moment Jahnah felt the link began crack and reshape a giggle escaped her. She’d thank Dehvess later.

Dehvess hadn’t been the only one to actually benefit albeit temporarily from his experience. Even before Annette had become self-aware Jahnah had soul bound the two of them together and Dehvess had refined the bond. Normally such spells were used to enslave another sentient being but by having it go both ways and thanks Dehvess’s refinements they had formed a safety net. Of course it had taken great trust on both parts for it to happen. As Dehvess had to trust Jahnah while the bonds were first made and her faith was placed with him while he refined the links.

Should one of them lose their body their soul would immediately be drawn into the body of the one that still lived. The warmth that Dehvess had felt before hand had reminded him of Jahnah for a very good reason. In response to the death spell his soul and spirit had already began their retreat into Jahnah’s body.

Though Dehvess’s soul had not actually been forced entirely out of his body for a few moments it had been partly within Jahnah’s. Thanks to this temporary visitation and the fact that over the years their soul bond had grown into more of a soul fusion. Both of them had been left with some of the others energies.

Unlike Dehvess, Jahnah had been left with more then just energy. Thanks to the fusion and the fact that it had been his soul within her body. She was also left with a temporary memory giving her access to far higher level order spells then the chaos spells he had. Though, Dehvess had left with far more energy.

By making use of these memories Jahnah was able to easily cast bonds of the servant. Despite the spell being a far higher level then her knowledge would have normally allowed for.

Jahnah had seen Dehvess use bonds of the servant a few times in the past. The spell was used whenever a creature was bound to a location or a person by mystic means. It would not only break the link between whatever was bound and the binder but would reform it so that it was now bound to the mage that cast the spell. Not only did the spell allow order mages to take away one of their enemies weapons but they could turn it against their opponent.

To add insult to injury bonds of the servant required even less power then binding spells. As while it had to break the original bonds to reform them it had the aid of the creature that had been bound in doing so in most cases. Then it had no need to create an entirely new chain as it used all but the one broken link from the previous chain. The only draw back was that it required far more knowledge.

“My little Dehvess may have a tiny body but I believe his intelligence could rival my cleavage.” Jahnah took a moment to admire the affects of the spell as she held Aquatrix bound. Fully intending to carry through with her threat she had to take a few moments to check the situation before she could do so.

Amara smiled as she settled Dehvess into his chair. Several of the doors leading into her heart had been made to seal as if they were arteries to insure they could not be followed. “You can wrest here.”

“Amara, how is Dehvess doing?”

As she communicated with Jahnah Amara began the task of removing Dehvess’s golem armor. “He has a bump on his head and his soul bonds were damaged a little but he’s fine. I won’t be letting him fight any though. Why do you ask? I know you can see him while he is within our body.”

“I wanted to get a second opinion. Though I’m not sure how much the temple is my body any longer. You seem to be taking it over.”

“In some ways the temple will always be your, Xyra’s and Meridea’s body. However, you’re right in that a greater portion of its physical existence is mine. The best way I can explain it is that it is all of your and my body but it is actually part of me.”

“Mm I’ll think on that later. I understand it now but I’ll have to wait until Dehvess’s memories fade to make sure I get it. How is Meridea doing?”

“I’m not sensing any pain from her just hunger. It was quite blinding at first but now I apologize. I can’t think of something between blinding hunger and despairingly hungry so I can’t explain it better.”

“Okay that means she’s doing well.” Turning to Aquatrix Jahnah gave the chain a quick pull. “Don’t worry I just have to check on more thing and then I can get around to you.”

A delighted giggle escaped Annette as she heard Marina’s scream as she squeezed the avatar’s tiny form in her hand. She had to be careful as she fractured the little creature’s bones and bruised the muscles. “Just a little more tenderizing and you’ll be ready to eat little fish.” Once again Annette was made to giggle before her tongue poked out of her mouth and ran along her lips.

There was no way Annette could risk swallowing the avatar whenever she’d first caught hold of her. She had no doubt that Marina could cut her way out of her stomach if she swallowed her right away. Given that Annette wasn’t fond of the idea of being ripped apart from the inside out the first order of business was to injure her as severally as possible without actually killing her.

A sudden decrease in resistance as Annette felt the avatar’s ribs beginning to give way entirely caused her to quickly relax her grip. “Mm it doesn’t seem I can tenderize you much more without killing you. What to do? What to do? Oh I know.” Taking a moment to adjust her hold of the avatar Annette maintained her grip on the lower portion of her body while releasing the upper half. She then quickly used her free hand to adjust the avatars arms so that when Annette closed her hand again she could still get to them.

Marina couldn’t help but groan in pain as she struggled to heal herself. The whole time Annette had been squeezing on her she had actually been trying to restore her body. Her ribs giving way had been a result of her energy running low. For a moment now it seemed like she might be able to recover when a sudden burst of hot moist air drew her attention. Upon turning to her side she was horrified to seem Annette’s slightly parted lips. She had been in too much pain to think about what Annette meant by she knew what to do. Now the avatar knew exactly what Annette’s intentions were and she wished she didn’t.

Carefully Annette slipped the avatar’s arm within her mouth. The limb wasn’t quite long enough for Annette to fit it entirely within her mouth due to her scale. However, she was able to fit enough of the limb into her mouth to be content. After giving the avatar a moment to contemplate what was about to happen Annette bit down on her arms and crushed it from her body. She then wasted no time swallowing the limb and turning her hand to the side to remove the other.

Upon removing the avatar’s arms Annette took one last seconds to appraise her. “Well okay I believe that takes care of any chance of you causing me indigestion.” Bringing the avatar close to her face Annette leaned forward and gave the screaming figure a quick kiss on the head.

It was all but impossible for Marina to believe what was happening to her. As she saw Annette’s massive Jaw’s open and she was tossed inside she grew silent. She was the sea god’s avatar the very symbol of a god’s power and now she was being treated as nothing more then food. As she felt herself land on Annette’s massive tongue and be drug down towards her throat she grew silent. She had gone into shock.

As Annette felt the tiny woman making her way down her throat and into her stomach it was hard for her to resist the urge to savor the moment. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get a chance to enjoy such a moment again. However, she also knew that Maxwell was involved in the fighting and she didn’t want to risk losing him in her moment of victory. Hopefully the avatar would still be struggling some once the battle was over and she could enjoy her moving about in her stomach. For a moment Annette was made to giggle as she wondered how long it might take her to digest an avatar.

As the battle field came into view Xyra felt a wave of relief. She was fairly surprised to see Annette looking a bit worse off then she’d expected but it was clear she was still ready to join the fight. Now she only needed to find Maxwell. She didn’t have to look very hard to find him as she saw a crimson vortex.

Maxwell was developing a rather strong fondness for fighting along side of golems as he released the blades of the artic. The elemental spell was a combination of water and wind magic that created a vortex. Those that were sucked up by the swirling winds or just happened to get too close were cut to ribbons by the ice shards that moved within the winds.

In most situations Maxwell had to restrict the use of such spells to when he found himself alone. Otherwise he would end up killing several of his own people when he used the spell. The golems’ near complete immunity to magic made them an exception to this rule. He was able to enjoy the benefit of very capable combatants supporting him and whatever area affect spells he chose so long as he didn’t hit himself.

A slight chuckle escaped Xyra as she looked at the crimson whirlwind. “Mistress, Maxwell is doing alright and Annette will be joining him soon.”

“Thank you Xyra. Please join them.”

“Yes mistress.”

“Well then that takes care of all the lose ends I can think of.” Turning to Aquatrix Jahnah walked over to her so she could look down into her face. “I had planned on altering your form so that you’d be the proper size to swallow but to be honest that would be a huge waste of energy. It would make much more sense if instead of altering you I altered my form so that I could swallow you. That way I won’t have to overcome your resistance plus well it’s easier to make things grow instead of shrink.”

As Jahnah walked away from Aquatrix she made sure the titan was watching her. Once she had moved a body’s length away she turned around and allowed the magic that had transformed her hands to disperse. She then reached down and began to adjust the remains of her robe so that the fronts of her legs were entirely exposed.

“Of course while I can transform my body I can only increase my mass to around six times what it currently is. So clearly I can’t swallow you while I’m in purely human form. That does pose something of a problem I suppose. Sense after well let’s just call it the incident I did promise Dehvess I’d never turn myself into a pure animal again.” A delighted giggle escaped Jahnah as she remembered a fond memory.

“Luckily I know of one species that while not as well suited to the task as a pure snake they are still quite well suited to it.” Parting her lips Jahnah extended her tongue towards Aquatrix. While at first the muscle seemed to be of human design as it began to extend to lengths well beyond what a human’s could it also began to narrow and take on a more serpentine appearance.

A delighted giggle escaped Jahnah as she glanced down at her legs which had already began to darken. While the skin of Jahnah’s legs darkened it also began to swell. Her knees began to fade away and the swelling flesh even reached down to engulf her feet. However, despite the increase in volume her legs were not forced apart. Instead as the flesh pressed together it began to meld together.

Slowly the slight space between the two masses that had once been her legs began to press outward into a single uniform shape. As Jahnah’s legs joined movement could be seen behind her. Upon Jahnah’s feet merging together her body began to lengthen though she did not rise higher into the air. Instead the additional growth stretched out behind her. As the object lengthened so that more of it could be seen it was revealed to be a tail.

Even after her legs fused together into a tail and ceased to expand it did not cease to grow. As her new tail expanded it developed a bright sheen upon its surface as skin shifted to scale even more fine then what one would find on any serpents body. While the back and sides of her tail remained at this point those that would touch the ground continued to change.

The lower most scales began to lose their sheen and take on a swirling smoky grey hue. Even as their color changed the armor was made to grow much thicker and more rigid then the scales that covered the wrest of her tail. While the wrest of her scales flowed so smoothly together they seemed to be the surface of a lake slight rises and falls could be seen sectioning off the scales that covered the bottom of her tail.

Along her back and sides the scales reached up to where her hips would have been while she was in human form while the lower most scales reached up to just below her lips. For a moment it seemed this area would be unprotected when the muscles suddenly flexed. As the muscles flexed a solid plate of the lower scales was seen to slide forward and conceal Jahnah’s more sensitive and delicate flesh.

A delighted giggle escaped Jahnah as she was made to grip her sides. While she giggled she lowered herself to the ground. She could feel her skeletal structures changing within her. Not just the bones that made up the framework of her legs or feet but all throughout her body it was changing.

The feeling of her internal organs shifting about and changing form was delightful to Jahnah. The chaotic energies that ran throughout her body were what made such shifts so enjoyable to Jahnah. They made her body so wonderfully adaptable that she had no need to actually speak to the spell so long as she could focus her will into the task.

Upon feeling her stomach and several other organs shifting lower into her new tail and expanding Jahnah couldn’t help but wonder. Why did Dehvess find such changes to be so deplorable? After a moment she couldn’t help but search the temporary memories of his she held to find out why. Upon doing so a delighted giggle escaped her. “So that is why Dehvess got so upset when I gave him a wolf-man form. It wasn’t the collar and leash at all. He just hated his skeletal structure being altered. I guess I would to if it actually hurt me.”

At last Jahnah turned to her captive audience once again and made her way over to her. As she came to Aquatrix’s head Jahnah looked down into her eyes. “Do you know what the most amusing things about this? If you had been more trust worthy you wouldn’t be in the situation you’re in. After all the only reason I can eat you as you are now is because of these bonds. If you could move there is no way I could do this after all you’d just rip me right open.

If only you’d done a better job of keeping your promises all those centuries ago. Then perhaps the god of the sea would have just trusted you and not seen fit to leave you with these chains.” Shrugging slightly Jahnah continued to move around Aquatrix until she was level with her feet. “All well that is in the past and in the present you’re here.”

Slowly Jahnah lowered herself to the ground. She’d thought about ingesting Aquatrix head first but had resolved it would be more fun to swallow her feet first. “Soon you’ll be swallowed up and inside of my belly. As you’re digested your power will be added unto my own of course I could just siphon about your life energies with some spells but honestly I prefer this method. I doubt that it’ll be quick you’re so tough that it may take several days for me to process enough of you for you to actually die. That should give you plenty of time to contemplate the error of your ways and how you came to be held helpless within my belly.”

Letting out one last giggle Jahnah took a moment to work the bones that allowed her to dislocate her jaw. It had been a while sense she had shape shifted and it normally took her a little bit to figure out how to work her body’s more interesting attributes.

************************************************************************

A lazy yawn escaped Jahnah as she lie for the most part where Aquatrix had once been and technically still was. Except now there were several layers of flesh between the titan and the ground. She would have returned to the temple after consuming the titan but she didn’t have the energy to teleport herself and Aquatrix and there was no way she was going anywhere without her.

Of course physically traveling back to the temple wasn’t a practical option either. While a naga that actually had some experience traveling with a full belly might have been able to do so Jahnah hadn’t developed such skills. So at the moment she found herself rooted to the location where her prey had been.

This had been a moderately annoying discovery for her but that had quickly passed. She’d informed Dehvess of her situation and settled down to let some of her food digest so that she could travel back whenever she heard someone approach from behind. At first she had figured they were Annette’s so she hadn’t bothered to turn around but then she had realized something was off.

The foot steps were exceptionally powerful. Whatever was moving towards her was massive and while that alone wasn’t enough to concern her she noticed something about them. The time needed for each foot step to reach her ears was exceptionally lengthy so much so that whatever was making them was either walking very slowly. So slowly that it would have to be intentional if it was Annette or they were still very far away and it was taking a while for the sound waves to reach her.

As the power of the footsteps became more apparent Jahnah became rather concerned who it was. When she had consumed Aquatrix she had believed she had plenty of time to digest the titan after checking to insure they were no remaining threats. She hoped she hadn’t made a mistake as she worked to turn slightly so she could see what was coming.

What she saw coming truly astounded her. The massive figure was several times her height and so many times her mass Jahnah didn’t recognize her at first. However, upon hearing the figure giggle and taking a moment to examine the over all figure she had a good guess. “Meridea is that you?”

It had been Meridea’s best effort not to giggle whenever she saw Jahnah. However, seeing her friend over stuffed in her current shape was just too funny not to get a giggle out of Meridea. “Well someone doesn’t have any restraint. You even changed your shape so you could fit all of her down.”

“Meridea, you’re um really big.”

Once again Meridea was made to giggle as she looked down at her friend. “I know but didn’t you already know that?”

“I knew you had another form but I didn’t know you were this large!”

“Oh so you thought what I showed you before was my full release.”

“Yes! Oh this is just depressing. I believed Annette and I had caught up to you or maybe surpassed you.”

For a moment Meridea was made to giggle again. Her friend’s situation and reaction were simply too amusing for her not to. “Well I did grow some from eating the entire naval force.”

“You ate all of it?”

“Well no not all of it. I let my shadows enjoy some life energy as well. Anyway, Dehvess asked me to come out here and pick you up. Bending down Meridea reached her hands down and started to scoot them under Jahnah when Jahnah spoke up.

“Wait. What about your gloves? I don’t like the idea of you draining my life energy.”

“Oh you don’t have to worry about that. In this form any part of me can absorb life energy but I also have far more control over it. I won’t take a droplet of life energy from you.”

“Does that mean you’re going to take an ocean?” A delighted giggle escaped Jahnah and she extended her arms up towards Meridea. “Okay carry me.”

“Jahnah you know I wouldn’t harm you just for the sake of sating my hunger.” At first Meridea slipped both her hands underneath Jahnah. Then as she stood back to her full height she shifted her friend’s position around so that she was holding her cradled in one arm against her body.

As Jahnah was held against Meridea’s body she looked up at her friend’s face. She was a bit surprised when she noted the expression Meridea’s face wore and how deeply she seemed to be looking at something. Whenever Meridea didn’t move and nothing was said for a minute Jahnah had to ask. “What is it Meridea?”

In response to Jahnah voice Meridea gave her head a quick shake as she was snapped back to reality. “Oh? Whoops I guess I zoned out for a moment.”

Jahnah grinned as she looked up at her friend though Meridea’s zoning out worried her a bit. “Care to put my mind at ease?”

“Don’t worry Jahnah I wasn’t looking at or thinking about eating you.”

“I figured as much. You looked too content to be thinking about hunger. So what were you seeing?”

“I saw a spirit and soul that I’ve been watching for a very long time.”

“They must be important to you.”

“Yes they are. Would you like to here a little bit more about my past?” As she talked Meridea turned around and began to walk.

“Sure I could use an after dinner story.”

For a moment Meridea flexed the muscles in her arm forcing Jahnah more firmly against her body though not painfully so. “Well I can’t say that it’s going to be much of a story. You know that I once had a beloved as well right?”

“Yes though you never told me much about him.”

“I never told you how he died. It was shortly after I had consumed the bones of the titan and received the massive power increase that came with it. At the time I couldn’t really control the energies but I didn’t think much about it. I won’t go into much detail but I hugged him. I didn’t have enough control to drain out the death energies at the time and he wasn’t strong enough to resist. So he died. I was the one that killed him.

It didn’t happen instantly though. He was strong enough to resist the initial life drain and the poisoning of his body that came with my touch. He realized that I wouldn’t be able to drain out the death energies before I did. Still, he held on as long as he could. We talked while he was still conscious. I continued to try to find help even after he lost consciousness but I wasn’t able to find any.”

“Did you try to raise him?”

“Yes twice actually. Both of the times they were unforeseen complications. Once again I won’t go into detail but after the second time I realized I couldn’t restore his soul to me at least not right away. So I created the song. You see the song is indeed a spell it helps me keep track of him and it helps draw his soul back to this world. When your guild found me I could feel that his soul was near but not quite within my grasp.”

“So you decided that you’d just play around in the world while you waited but you’ve been a Luvarian longer then I have.”

“Near is a relative term. Yesterday though when I was at my strongest due to all the life energy inside me and my mind was the most focused I was able to see his soul and spirit through the song. I can still see them now as the time is close.”

“What’s going to happen when his soul and spirit return?”

“I’m going to go and retrieve them of course. Silly, what would you do if you lost Dehvess and had to wait for a chance to retrieve him?”

“I see your point. So that is what you were looking at?”

“Yes it was and is. In this form I’m my most powerful and as long as I am not blinded by hunger I can see him far more clearly then in my smaller shape.”

“Do you know how much longer it will be until he returns and what are you going to do about his memories?”

“It will be very soon just two more decades or so and I’ll have his soul and spirit back. As for the memories I have them. I wasn’t able to reclaim his soul or spirit at the time but I was able to create a copy of his memories. The mirror in my music box contains them. That is why it only reflects my and his past.”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“I didn’t want to risk anyone mentioning the subject to me. If they happened to get me in a bad mood or when my hunger was particularly strong I’d really over reacted. The memories are nice and I enjoy reliving them but at the same time they make me feel a little lonely or empty. Making me feel even emptier when I’m already hungry is a bad idea.”

“Well then it’s a good thing you never told us about it. So where are you going to set me? I don’t believe you have a street wide enough for me to lie in right now.”

“Once we get closer to the temple I’ll teleport you inside of it.”

“I hope you mean inside of a dimensional pocket anchored to the temple.”

A slight chuckle escaped Meridea and she gave her head a quick nod. “Yes I do. Amara is supplying the energy while Dehvess is doing the delicate work. He began after you contacted him.”

“I’ll have to thank them later. Still, isn’t that a waste of energy?”

“It was the only way we could convince Amara to let Dehvess meet with you. She won’t let him leave her body unless she knows he’ll be safe and with your current lack of mobility she was concerned. Apparently she’s quite upset that he was injured by the assassins and she wasn’t able to do anything to really help him. OH that reminds me. Sense you’re so full could I have the assassins.”

“No. Hey and how does she get the idea that I suffer from a lack of mobility? She’s the one that can’t leave the temple.”

“Come on. How about half of them then? Surely you can’t fit much more of anything in there. I’d say Amara is just worried about Dehvess after feeling that she’d failed to protect her creator. She’s trying to make amends but she can’t do that if she lets you take him away.”

“I can fit a few more humans in so no.”

“Stingy.”

Instead of responding verbally Jahnah parted her lips and extended her altered tongue out to its full length. As she glanced up into Meridea’s eyes though she quickly tried to pull it back in.

A slight chuckle escaped Meridea as she caught hold of Jahnah’s tongue with her free hand. “Stick it out at me again and I’m taking it out. Do you understand me young lady?”

“Uhuh”

“Good girl.”

************************************************************************

Annette smiled as she felt the elemental energy running through her fingers and into the earth. While it meant she couldn’t feed on the energy it gave her practice channeling it which would increase how much she could draw on the eye over time. Looking up from the ground in front of her she watched as the power spread throughout the fields and into the near by river.

A few months had passed sense the last true battle of the war. Maxwell and Dehvess had been working to restore order and prosperity sense then. Currently Annette was helping with that task. The elemental energy would enrich and purify the soil and water for a better crop yield. Eventually Annette would even be able to hasten the growth of the plants though that would require much more practice.

Once the soil and water began to reach the danger zone Annette finally withdrew her hand. She had wanted to start enriching the soil even sooner then she had but Maxwell had forbid her. Thankfully he had also shown her why. The right amount of elemental energy put into the soil and water would allow for much better plant growth and health. However, too much and it would start creating and summoning elementals. He had to first insure that Annette knew what the optimum amount of energy for a given location and how to spread it out properly.

He had also insured her she didn’t want to see some of the changes that could occur in people and animals if they ate overly enriched plants. While he hadn’t gone into too much detail he had insured her that the affects could be quite unpleasant if they didn’t know how to handle the energies. Of course animals never knew how to handle such energies. A slight giggle escaped Annette though as she was made to envision a fire breathing rabbit.

After taking a moment to examine her handiwork Annette turned and began to make her way back home. This had been her last stop for the day. So far she had enriched the soil of every major crop producing region. Now she had moved onto the smaller out of the way towns and farms.

Maxwell gave a sigh as he looked at the obsidian golems that surrounded him. Dehvess had them provided as a gift to celebrate a recent arrangement. The Luvarians would rebuild the fortification that had been destroyed by the monolith and work to cleanse the land of the elementals. In exchange they were the exclusive owner of all the shards produced from the endeavor and had the only rights to hunt the elementals there in.

They would hold the fortification and rights for twenty years at which time if needed a renewal contract would be discussed. In exchange Maxwell had his fortification restored though it wouldn’t be his for twenty years at least. He would also insure that the Luvarians at the fort were supplied with the basic items for human survival and the shards received escort to the port.

He was happy just to have the land cleared of elementals and the fort restored. That was enough to make the deal exceptionally worthwhile. Maxwell knew that if he asked another mage’s guild to take on the task he’d end up paying far more. While another guild would insist on keeping the rights to the shards they would also require far greater payment for clearing out the elementals.

It wasn’t that a mage’s guild wouldn’t profit from converting the elementals to shards. That was quite profitable and should make the project worth the effort. However, they’d still charge just because they were the only ones suited to removing so many elementals. Mage’s guilds weren’t known for being generous whenever they had you between a rock and a hard place.

So Maxwell had been quite pleased with the Luvarians terms as they showed no intent of further exhausting his funds. However, Dehvess had insisted that he accept the golems. Now Maxwell had come to believe Dehvess just wanted to insure his freedom was limited as well.

Despite peace and stability returning Annette insisted Maxwell keep the golems with him while she was away. He had believed that once the war had settled down Annette would allow him to go about his business without twenty four hour supervision. He had been quite mistaken in that thought.

A sigh escaped Maxwell as he looked up at the golems. At least if he didn’t leave the room he could imagine they were exceptionally well made statues modeled after a Valkyrie. The sound of approaching foot steps drew his attention to the window where he looked out to see Annette approaching. She’d grown so large sense eating the avatar that the surrounding hills couldn’t hide her approach any longer once she drew close enough to be heard.

There was one thing that still bugged Maxwell about the whole event. They’d never been able to find James.

Dehvess smiled as he stood on the bottom most foot step of the temple. Bending down he felt of the street just before him. What he felt wasn’t hard stone but warm remarkably solid flesh. Over the past months Amara had finished consuming the temple growing in power the whole time. Now she had began work on the city immediately surrounding the temple.

As a shadow fell over him he looked up to find Xyra looking down at him. “Well I’m ready to go.”

After the war had settled down Xyra had been quite upset to learn that Dehvess would no longer allow her to consume those that belonged to the larger kingdom. However, despite her pleading Dehvess had insisted that peace time and war time had different rules. Fortunately he had found a way for her to continue doing what she loved. She was taking over Annette’s work as a mercenary. “Alright Xyra, the ship has been prepared for you. You’ll receive the major details while you’re in transit.”

Nodding her head Xyra glanced around for a moment. After she felt no one was looking, she quickly fell to her hands and knees. The force of the impact resounded throughout the city and nearly knocked Dehvess off his feet. Leaning forward she made to give him a kiss when she felt her head bump into something exceptionally solid. Glancing to her side she wasn’t too surprised to find part of the temple had reached out to stop her.

Amara’s core body stood on the top door step glairing at Xyra for a moment. “You didn’t ask.”

A sigh escaped Xyra as she looked at the flesh golem. She would have just pushed the arm out of her way normally but honestly she wasn’t confident that she could take Amara. Especially now that Amara had finished consuming the temple and could reshape it into a body on par with her own. “It was supposed to be a surprise.”

A slight chuckle escaped Dehvess. “Don’t worry Amara. I don’t mind.”

Nodding her head Amara reformed her temporary arm back into the temple. After a moment more Xyra leaned forward and gave Dehvess a rather long good bye kiss. In replacement of surprise she went for duration.

“How are you feeling today?”

Meridea smiled up at Jahnah even as she tore the giant skeletons rib cage open. Reaching in she took hold of the heart of fire and pulled it free from the undead reducing the skeleton to a lifeless frame work. Placing the heart within her mouth like it was a tiny candy she then began to slowly drain the energies out of it. “I’m doing as well as can be expected. Returning to my smaller state is never an easy process.”

Jahnah gave a quick nod and set down beside her friend. She didn’t say it but she was kind of happy to see that Meridea now only came up to her shoulder now if they both set. This wasn’t due to Jahnah growing though she had grown thanks to eating the titan and continued energy flow from the temple and tiara but so had Meridea. Rather it was due to Meridea intentionally shrinking herself. “That’s good. I hope we have enough skeletons to last.”

“There should be enough I planned for this after all.” While it only took Meridea moments to begin growing into her other state it took several months for her to return to her smaller. During that time her hunger had to be kept under control. To make this possible she feed on the energies within the undead she had created, those that were created due to the taint of the undead and supplemented her diet with life energy whenever she could. The giant skeleton’s hearts were her primary source of sustenance. “So how is Dehvess doing?”

“Well he’s a little upset that even though his punishment is officially over he still has to be with either me, Xyra or Amara at all times. He keeps insisting that he’s an arch-mage and doesn’t require such extreme levels of protection.”

A slight giggle escaped Meridea. “I’m sure he’ll see the logic behind your actions soon enough. He’s too precious for you to risk losing. So of course you’re going to insure his safety to the best of your abilities.”

“Oh I’ll have to use that the next time he starts to complain.”

End chapter 7 of For Hire end For Hire first novel.
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