CHAPTER 13 - THE RITUAL OF FLESH

[System]

Partial connection: sensory entity identified.

Awakening of collective sexual flow.

Effect: +1 to General Tension.

Mission unlocked: survive the chamber without ejaculation.

Fuck.

Even the system was getting in on it.

We had left the room without a word.

Not a flight. A strategic fallback. But each of them knew something had broken. The creature hadn't tried to kill. It had touched. And it had marked.

The next corridor was narrower. Hotter. More alive.

The walls oozed the same pearly substance as the ceiling in the previous chamber. A hive sweat, warm, almost soft, that stuck to fingers and leather. It was as if the stone itself was seeking contact. Each step stirred an invisible dampness, like a breath held in too long.

I had placed Kal in the rear guard, and Myrr, still trembling, walked just ahead of me, covered with a dry cloak. But even under the fabric, her body still betrayed the discharge. She was sweating. Literally. And her legs still hadn't regained their strength. With each step, I saw her thigh tense, then falter, as if her hips refused to stabilize. A residual spasm.

Tessa, further ahead, held her weapon tightly against her bare chest. Her soaked shirt had never been closed again. She didn't even think about it anymore. Her breasts pointed like two answers, and her nipples sometimes brushed against the sword's guard with each step. But it wasn't modesty that had left her. It was bodily awareness. As if the place was eroding that filter between intimacy and function.

— Chief, she whispered, voice hoarse. You think we could die... just from this?

I didn't answer.

But I understood the question. It was no longer a physical fear. It was the fear of giving in. Of letting oneself be possessed by desire. Of falling, not to one's knees, but into oneself.

We emerged into a natural alcove, barely wider than a crypt corridor. The ceiling lowered, forming a glistening vault. Sorts of dripping vines hung in damp twists. The place was not defensive in any way. It was a wet sanctuary, a womb.

I signaled Kal to close the formation. He nodded, silently, and positioned himself at the entrance.

— Rotating rest. Fifteen minutes. Hydration, breathing. Touch nothing.

I couldn't stop my gaze from drifting toward Sae.

She had sat cross-legged against a soft, almost mossy section of wall. Her mage robe, torn at the collar, let her chest breathe. And what she was breathing... was something other than air. I could see it in her flared nostrils, in the tension of her thighs, in the way her fingers absentmindedly caressed the fabric inside her thigh. She didn't even realize it. But she was almost masturbating.

I knelt beside her.

— Breathe through your mouth, I ordered.

She blinked. Returned to me.

— I was trying... I...

— I said: mouth.

She obeyed. And her breath changed. Deeper. More controlled.

I slipped two fingers under her jaw. Her skin was burning. Too hot.

And suddenly, she looked at me. With a different look. Lower. More raw.

— If I asked you... right now... would you say no?

Her voice was soft. But it oozed obsession.

I stared straight into her eyes.

— If you're asking the question, then it's not really you talking.

She bit her lip. Slowly.

— And what if it is me anyway?

I leaned in. My hand slid into her damp hair, pushing it back behind her ear. My forehead touched hers. Her breath quickened. Her thighs parted a centimeter.

— If it were really you, Sae... you'd be begging on your knees. Not here. Not now.

She moaned. Light. Warm. And pulled her head back. Just enough to protect herself from herself.

I stroked the back of her neck, gently. And stood up.

Around us, the alcove pulsed slowly. The atmosphere wasn't just heavy. It vibrated.

And I felt the warning rise.

[System]

Squad mental temperature: critical.

Hormonal instability: high.

Advice: interruption.

Risk: accidental fusion with the Matrix.

Kal came up to me.

— We can't keep up this pace. Even I'm having trouble not feeling it.

— Feeling what?

He nodded toward Sae.

— She... gives off something. A fluid. A wave. My mouth's dry and my dick's hard for the past hour. It's not normal.

I nodded. No easy answer. Just a fact: the Matrix was eating us. Slowly.

But deep inside, something told me we hadn't seen anything yet.

And I knew it for sure when a vibration rose from the ground. A wave. A caress. A moan.

Something, in the next room, was waking up.

The floor vibrated.Not like a seismic tremor. Like a sigh.

A deep, diffuse breath rising from the bowels of the earth. And with it, the air changed. It grew hotter, denser, more... intimate. As if the alcove was no longer a room, but a throat moistening before swallowing.

I clenched my fists. My glove already oozed with that absurd dampness sticking everywhere. Kal stiffened. Tessa lifted her head. And Sae, she... she started trembling, without knowing why.

The vibration intensified.Then, it became presence.

A sound formed. First indistinct. Wet. Like footsteps in a puddle of cum. Then clearer. Viscous. Slow. Something was crawling, or walking, just behind the soft wall separating the alcove from the next room.

— Get into formation, I whispered. Immediately.

Kal raised his shield. Roud armed his bow. Myrr, bare-chested under her soaked cloak, sprang up, face already hardened. But it was toward Sae that my eyes turned. She, she didn't move.

She was frozen. Standing against the wall, eyes open but vacant. And her mouth... her mouth trembled as if she already felt a foreign tongue wrapping inside.

I took a step toward her. Too late.

The wall opened.

Not an explosion. A dilation.The wall parted like a vulva of moist flesh, revealing a corridor of pulsing darkness, at the end of which stood she.

The creature.

Or what was left of it.A long, sinuous body, covered in soft plates streaked with glows. It had no face. Just a mouth. A vertical maw, gaping, fringed with shivers and juices. And with each movement, it moaned. Not a beast's cry. A groan. An endless orgasm.

It leapt.

But not at me.

At Sae.

I shouted. Kal reacted — too late. The creature was already on her. A stream of slimy tentacles spilled from its maw, wrapping around the mage's bare torso. Her robe was torn off like a useless rag. Her naked skin was exposed, stretched, offered. And her breasts, hard, erect, seemed for a moment to glow under the beast's light.

— SORA! she screamed.

But it wasn't a cry of distress. It was a lewd moan.

She wasn't being attacked. She was climaxing.Her thighs parted by themselves. A tentacle slid between them, slowly, brushing her already soaked intimate lips. Her back arched. Her head fell back. And a wild moan escaped her throat.

I didn't hesitate. A second.I leapt.

My blade sank into the creature's flesh. A spurt of fluid burst out, warm, milky. The creature moaned. Moaned like a woman in orgasm. A deep, guttural groan — almost human.

It turned toward me.

And in my head, a voice.

Not mechanical.Not from the system.A woman's voice.

— Why do you want to separate us? You offered her. She came. You saw it. You felt it. Why do you refuse what you are?

I slashed again. Harder. My blade split the flesh, this time to the bone. Or something like it. The creature recoiled, hissing, drooling a thick substance. Its tentacles flailed in the air, then retracted, still twitching.

And in its spasms, I saw Sae fall to her knees.

Naked. Trembling. Thighs open. Mouth parted.

Streams of cum still flowed from her pussy.

She panted. But she was conscious.

I caught her before she collapsed.

And in my head, the system.

[System]

Sensory target: Sae

Status: overload complete

Active corruption: 38%

Side effect: deep stimulationLatent

mission: complete

I held her against me.

— I told you to hold on, I whispered. You held on. That's all that matters.

She nodded. Tears were running down her cheeks.But she smiled. A filthy smile. Exhausted. But relieved.

— She was... in me. Not like a voice. Like a memory. I wanted to feel her penetrate me all the way to my brain.

I gently helped her up.

— That wasn't you.

She locked her red eyes into mine.

— Yes. A part. And that's the worst part.

Around us, the squad didn't dare speak anymore.Kal looked away. Tessa had sat down, bare-breasted, trembling. Myrr was short of breath, hands clenched over her shorts. Even Roud avoided my gaze.

They had all seen. All heard.

And all had gotten hard.

I laid Sae against a drier section of wall. I covered her naked body with my cloak. She was still trembling. But her breath was stabilizing.

I turned toward the opening left by the creature. A gleaming trail still flowed along the ground. A path. A call.

— She's not done, I said. And neither are we.

The vibration resumed. Faint. Distant. But it would return. And next time... it might not be a test anymore. It would be a ritual.