I set Jacoby gently down on the lawn and looked at the Nakamamon who had come out of their odd house. All Nakamamon houses were odd, and this was one of them: a narrow, tall structure of white marble, where the veins of the marble had a glowing and rainbow quality to them. You’d expect for that kind of house to have columns, a triangular pediment, and perhaps relief sculpture up there inside that big triangle.

This one did not have any of that. Instead it looked as though it was heaped together, like a mountain. Windows were cut into the sides to allow in light, yet they were circular and not filled with glass. An inverted mountain gave the house a flat top, and the Nakamamon owner, a fairy, stopped to stare down at me.

“I was forced to tie her up so she wouldn’t be subjected to the divine presence,” I told the fairies, who fluttered down to their lawn. After this, I escorted a thoroughly nude Celine out onto their lawn as well. “If you could kindly untie her, she’ll be very grateful.”

Jacoby was looking at me over the gag, frantic eyed. Celine was of course mortified, but she’d gotten the reward she wanted in the form of undreamt of pleasure.

“Don’t worry, Expedition Leader,” I told her, “I’ll make sure the remainder of your people are able to get out of the affected area, so they don’t pose any further threat… to themselves.”

To me. They wouldn’t pose any further threat to my person. I didn’t know if they were under orders to capture me, but they were in no condition to capture anything.

She made a sound in her throat, but the gag didn’t allow for words. I didn’t particularly want to hear what she had to say right now.

“Stay with Celine, pretty please,” I told April. The flower fox made a whining noise in the back of her throat. “I’ll be back for you, okay?”

I made my way back into the district with Azalea in tow. She still walked with that same gorilla gait, using her tentacles to let her lope along. The Prismatic Apparel had transformed into a yellow dress to match her eyes, flaring out with curly ruffles just above knee level. It also had given her a spiky purple muffler around the shoulders.

She seemed to be feeling fine, and I learned that she had several hours of divine resistance remaining before she would lose her shirt and attack me sexually yet again.

I took a moment to handle the system-related stuff, regarding bringing Azalea into the fold.

Entwined Ecstasy: You have entwined with Azalea. Your relationship status is close confidants. This bond isn’t easy to forge so quickly. These lovers have shared a bed only once, but outside events have led to an immense amount of trust and familiarity. Azalea is very comfortable with your presence and trusts you implicitly.

Pleasure from intimate acts between close confidants is boosted highly.

The next UI message that arrived pertained to bringing her into the fold.

Entwined Ecstasy: You have brought Azalea into the fold. She has gained the ability Verdant Rejuvenation. You have gained the ability Venom Shot

from entwining with Azalea. Entwine more deeply with Azalea to unlock further abilities.

You have reached your maximum capacity for abilities gained through Entwined Ecstasy. You may choose to strengthen the associated ability (Fierce) or gain Venom Shot.

I rolled my eyes and pushed a groan away. However, my Affinity allowed me to seek an answer through the UI. A quick Mana Affinity check gave me the answer I needed.

Venom Shot is a rare ability that allows you to secrete a variety of toxic substances into your saliva and spit it, or coat weapons with it.

Your relationship level with Ivy O’Malley and Azalea means that this ability will rise to level III. You will gain the following abilities:

I- A venom capable of causing sluggishness, or in the case of multiple doses, paralysis.

II- Increased range and accuracy using the ability.

III- A venom capable of causing hallucinations, or in the case of multiple doses, brain death.

“Yeesh,” I muttered.

A grin on her part revealed needle-like teeth, no doubt coated with some venom or another. “What causes you distress, savior?”

“Please, call me Fletcher.”

“As you wish,” she said, smiling again.

I pressed the accept button, replacing Fierce with Venom Shot. Goodness gracious, was I about to do this, really?

Venom Shot III

(Special Ability, Rare, Active)

I- You may channel mana into mixing with your saliva to create a type of venom that can be spit or coated onto weapons, called Leadenlimb. This substance removes 3 Agility, 3 Ingenuity, and 3 from associated Agility and Ingenuity skills from targets struck for 4-12 hours. Spend an Affinity Token to activate.

Note: repeated doses of Leadenlimb may result in unconsciousness.

II- You may spit the venom up to 30 feet with great accuracy. You gain the Venom Shot skill at twice your rank in this ability. Increasing this skill’s level does not increase this special ability’s level.

III- You may channel mana into mixing with your saliva to create a new type of venom called Mindwhirl. This substance causes hallucinations in targets struck for 4-12 hours, removing 5 Ingenuity and Likability, and 5 from associated skills. Spend an Ingenuity Token to activate.

Note: repeated doses of Mindwhirl may result in permanent damage.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Wonderful, thank you!” she chirped. “You’re far bigger than the males of my species… so my mother told me, anyhow.” Azalea only grinned those needle teeth at me again. “It felt very snug. Quite nice.”

I held myself back from snorting.

“That’s great, thank you. Listen…” I outlined the general problem we were about to come up against. One, there was an issue of time. If Jacoby was really going to be ungrateful like that and try to arrest me, it would mean siege tactics. They could surround this district and wait us out. “Are you okay with poisoning all their people with something that’s not deadly?”

She shrugged, uncaring. “I could also kill them, I suppose.”

“Limblocker will be lovely, if you’re okay with that.”

Another shrug. “You saved my life. I’m with you.”

Goodness… a man could get in serious trouble taking advantage of that kind of situation.

“Great,” I said. “They are wily and they are many, so we’ll see what we have to do.”

I now also had Venom Shot.

Removing the large Guardians from the affected area was the most difficult task of them, but it wasn’t impossible. After all, they’d put the circle of protection in the very corner of the affected divine area. I thought they might try and jump me, because of the Lovers and the effect they had, but we only had to swat away one grabby hand. All of them had been at the sex-having for hours, and they were all spent.

Azalea was tougher than she looked, and could handle her half of dragging someone out of the divine orgy area without breaking too much of a sweat. I didn’t have a lot of Muscularity Tokens, but I made use of them, throwing the larger Guardians over my shoulder until I needed to put them down. After a good few hours of work, all of them were groaning, getting to their feet, seeing they were naked, and freaking out a little. The Wizards in particular were the type to cover up with their hands and run around looking for a robe or a pointy hat.

Jacoby soon joined them, and we had words across the dividing line. I confirmed that Azalea had a good few hours of divine resistance before she needed to head outside, while I had almost a full day’s worth.

The betrayal was not mentioned.

“It seems the circle of protection was compromised,” Jacoby said. “A day earlier and we would have been in serious trouble.”

“Luckily we had time to treat all the fighting aspects we could,” I replied.

“You don’t want to come out?” Savannah asked. Azalea tensed and drew up several tentacles, nice and slow. She knew the Bard could influence my mind and get me to want to come out.

“I have to start looking for pieces of a dead god,” I lied. The Lovers were around here somewhere, not yet dead, just sick. “Lucky for you, you get to head back to HQ and report what happened. Unlucky for me, I have a divine mess to clean up, and not a lot of ingredients or instructions to do it.”

The Lovers were not remotely similar to the God of Productivity of the God of Footfalls, and I would be willing to wager not similar to the God of Apparel either. They were the same size, so most likely dosage was similar, but all the ingredients would be different. None of that would even begin until I had run my diagnostics.

And none of that would even be considered until I watched all of them leave this town.

“So you’ll be leaving then?” I asked.

“That’s right,” Jacoby said. “We have some supplies to get, but—”

“I’ll help you get access to them. I have a very high divine resistance.” I motioned for Jacoby to approach, and she did. “Oz, Savannah, and everybody except a single Guardian and Wizard head for the exit.”

The very real bonus of having saved them from more sexual exhaustion gave me legitimacy and command which had never existed previously. Oz and Savannah wouldn’t touch me or go against me anyway, because I’d pulled them out of a situation that had started out pleasurable but was becoming painful. Very painful, for both the males and the females.

They dressed in quiet shame and avoided eye contact the whole time. None of them talked about the crazy things they’d subjected one another to while inside. The guys didn’t want to openly discuss penis sizes, and the women didn’t want to talk about any of those aspects that made them feel inferior. Nobody wanted to talk about the column of blue goop Nakamamon that had held its female partner up to the neck and shoved itself repeatedly in and out of her. She’d done nothing but float in what looked like an upright vat of blue shampoo, crying out in pleasure. She was now studying the ground intently, possibly reexamining everything she thought she knew about herself.

On the other hand, I was happy to see there were a couple of furtive glances and shy smiles passed between couples who hadn’t been dating before. Oz had been with Ribbit, and both were attempting to make eye contact without letting everyone else know what they were doing.

 The most important thing for me was that Jacoby was now put in her place. She turned, defeated, and issued orders that matched up with all my conditions.

And this was how we got through the next several hours: me lugging supplies from the afflicted area across the line, the Wizard and Guardian on duty helping to pack them up and get them in the hands of the larger team, and Jacoby pouting.

Celine stayed just across the line, staring in, but she had made it clear that she desperately needed the job and the Agency’s support. Back on earth there were a lot of debts and family members depending on her. What she’d done with the circle of protection wasn’t known. Jacoby had blamed it on increasing divine pressure, and the Wizards agreed with that assessment. It was possible that in time, the circle of protection would’ve buckled anyway.

So for now, Jacoby and the rest of the team didn’t know. Jacoby only knew that Celine was addicted to me, a sentence I’m amazed to write, the way that others were. With Celine’s secret safe, she now had to leave me. Celine did have a forlorn look, and gave me a lingering kiss before heading off. I called her a very good little slut, very quietly, and gave her an affectionate ass squeeze. Judging by the deep blush and the look she turned my way, she was reconsidering staying with the Agency, or defecting over to this AWOL rogue and his poisonous, tentacled protector.

Azalea had to leave the affected area as well, but was able to rejoin me using the Prismatic Apparel for several hours’ worth of protection.

Soon enough, it was me, Azalea, and April. The flower fox rejoined me and prowled the divinely affected border.

I squatted and watched April stalk back and forth, back and forth again. We were on the edge of a street, and the divinity could be seen in the waning light of day, a shimmer of white rising from the ground with some sparkles.

Those sparkles were creeping across the edge of the street. Sure, it was slow, but with my Durability and Ingenuity like they were, I could crouch down like this and observe with precision. It became clear as the minutes ticked past that the affected area was spreading.

“Ehhhh crapadoodles.”

I was pleased and relieved to find Psyspeech still allowed me contact with my mother. The link was thinner and weaker than before, meaning they’d moved away rather than towards. That wasn’t awesome. Still, I told her the mission with Jacoby was over, Jacoby’s team was headed back to HQ to deliver their report on the fighting aspects, and that at least one team was out on the lookout for me. Since I was in Flunt-on-the-Rustle, that wasn’t a huge concern.

…unless the team came directly here, I didn’t need to mention. Being stuck in a single town with only one exit was not ideal… but neither was instant discovery by people who could fly.

I ended my message to my mom explaining that more importantly, there was a sick god here that I needed to tend to. They were now welcome to come here.

Now, I knew The Lovers. I won’t say intimately, but they were the ones who’d started this whole mess with my second class and my ability to get powers from bumping uglies. They’d been watching while Tara and I first consummated my new powers.They were the only deity to have granted me power without having done something nice for them. For all the others: the Goddess of the Meadow, the God of Footfalls, the God of Apparel, the God of Productivity, I’d been rewarded only after saving them.

“I’m going to search through the area to find our sick god,” I said. “I don’t think it’s died yet, which is a good thing.” April yipped uncertainly and I gave her a good petting, and Azalea agreed to stay with her.

I was greeted with a fair day, no rain, and if you could ignore the ghostly shapes of buildings in front of the delightful sky. The effect was actually pretty amazing, to be able to see through the entirety of the town opposite where I stood.

It didn’t take long, scouring the affected district, for me to find The Lovers. One of them lay on the attic floor of a small house.

Fairy Poppins returned the following day, and over some relaxed sex that definitely wasn’t her making constant demands and me gently chiding her over it, I got the news that they’d located another sick god in the area just offshore, under the water. They’d located an underwater village of some Nakamamon or another, who were under the effects of yet another malfunctioning god.

“In the sea,” I said.

“Mm-hmm!” Poppy said, bobbing her head happily, since she had me buried all the way up inside her.

“I wasn’t aware my mother could breathe water, Poppy.”

“Oh, she can’t,” she said blithely, slowly rocking forward and back and just savoring the fullness of having my girth stretch her out. Gradually, through the haze of oncoming or outgoing climaxes, Poppy became aware I wasn’t thrilled with the answers I’d gotten.

“Oh,” she mumbled suddenly, though she tried laying on me, rubbing her body against mine to make me stop worrying about something I admittedly had no control over.

This is Christopher caught between a rock and a nice soft place.