Amazon Apocalpyse 6: Chapter 45

While waiting for Nakano to get his faction in order, I built something that had been on my mind for a long time. I’d redesigned it mentally several times during my little vacation to Onibushi, and now that I was back in my workshop, it was finally time to bring the best version to life.

For years, I’d been puzzling over how to build power armor suitable for a spellcaster. Outfitting a melee fighter was simple. All they needed was sturdy and durable gear that could take hits they didn't want to. But a mage was trickier. Most of the strongest magical materials were designed to resist magic, which was the last thing I wanted wrapped around me when I needed to cast. That’s why spellcasters usually went into battle wearing humble robes. In my case, robes were even more important, since many of my best tricks relied on extradimensional sleight-of-hand. Armor with its own extradimensional properties would only get in the way.

Thankfully, the Robes of the Enigmatic Scholar of Fate, given to me by the Goddess in Jade, were far from ordinary. I still couldn’t design anything with better defensive properties for myself, so they were my current battle regalia. But Reluna wasn’t so lucky. She hadn’t upgraded her wardrobe since D-Grade, and some of her gear was long overdue for enhancement.

This armor wasn’t going to look anything like my Mark Two power armor. Large portions of the chest, waist, and thighs were cut away to leave ambient mana more accessible. Elevated stirrups on the boots would force the wearer to stand as though in high heels. These were bad for melee combat, but useful for sudden bursts of flight. A tight, reinforced gorget protected the neck while providing easy access to several high-level monster cores for quick mana infusion. The helmet was especially clever and was able to phase in and out of this dimension. it would function as the brains of the suit. Unlike the Mark Twos, however, this one wouldn’t be entirely under the wearer’s control.

And that was just the outside. Inside, it was a masterpiece of magitech engineering. It vibrated, tightened, loosened, shocked, massaged, caressed, penetrated, or soothed on command. Specifically, my command.

Like my Doomblade Armor, it came with every amenity necessary for someone to live in it comfortably for weeks or even months. It also locked itself onto the wearer, making escape impossible. The Amazonians had a name for gear like this: cursed armor. Powerful, but inescapable once equipped. Personally, I suspected the prevalence of such items on Themyscira was because I wasn’t the first enchanter to think Amazon warriors were incredibly hot in their own impossibly fit barbarian fashion. Either way, I couldn’t exactly criticize them now after creating this monstrosity.

All in all, it was exactly the kind of skimpy wizard armor I’d never be caught dead wearing. But for Reluna? Perfect. I draped long white robes over the shoulders to give it a scholarly look, matching her usual style. No one else even had to know she was the armor’s very-willing victim.

While I worked on the armor, I made Reluna take a break. She loved her massage chair a little too much, and she’d been spending far too much time trapped in it and gooning her days away. It was past time she got some sunlight.

“Was it always this bright outside? Why does everything feel tingly?” Reluna squinted up at the sky.

“You’re forgetting your clothes. How long has it been since you wore anything besides that chair’s restraints?” I asked.

“Uh…” Her voice trailed off. She probably knew the answer. She also knew it wasn’t one I’d accept.

“Go on. Get dressed.” I nodded toward the robes hanging in her room.

“They feel so uncomfortable now…” she muttered.

“Don’t give me that. You’ve been happily wearing restraints for a month. Here, if you won’t dress yourself, I will.” I grabbed Reluna by the wrists, and she melted against me as I pushed her against the wall and roughly dressed her.

It was a strange experience for me. I had plenty of experience undressing women, so this was just the process in reverse. Reluna was of limited help, struggling feebly against me and letting out panting moans the entire time. The entire process nearly ended with me getting undressed instead.

Fortunately, Reluna was soon decent, and I took her on a walk through the city for coffee and brunch. As we moved about in the real world, the cloudy helpless fog in her eyes faded, and she started acting normally again. By the end of our little date, she was back to speaking in complete sentences.

“I’ve noticed some describe gaining levels rapidly 'grinding.' If so, I’ve been grinding levels for my scribe job faster than anyone in history. Once I reach the B-Grade and my level caps increase, I suspect I may fly straight to level three hundred or higher,” Reluna explained.

“Yes, you’ve been undergoing some rigorous training...” I chuckled.

“When others no doubt ask how they can replicate such a feat, I will tell them it is impossible. Only a talented wizard such as myself can use such mysterious means to grind job levels so quickly.” Reluna spoke with a straight face. Only the faintest tinge of purple in her cheeks betrayed the words as jest.

“That’s probably a good idea. We’ll keep your mysterious means to ourselves, if anyone asks.”

“...Okay.” Reluna’s cheeks flushed a deeper shade of purple.

After an entire day of proving she hadn’t ruined her brain with nonstop sexual stimulation, I decided it was safe to reveal the project I had been working on for her. We returned to my workshop, where I grabbed a blanket and pulled it off the new power armor I had made.

“Behold, I call it... the Sorceress’s Grindset Stimulator. I made it custom for you. It's like your chair, but more mobile.”

Reluna’s eyes scanned the revealing armor, her chest rising and falling as she stared unblinking.

“Y-you really want me to wear that?” Reluna asked.

“Better. I want you to fight, kick ass, and save a city in that. Once you learn to use it, it shouldn’t hinder your combat abilities too much. If I’m right, it might even enhance them. It will also help you reach that B-Grade level cap you’ve been talking about. What do you say, do you want to try it on?” I asked.

Reluna licked her lips and nodded. It took me about half an hour to do the last of the fine tuning and get everything sitting perfectly.

It took some getting used to, especially the heels and the odd posture the suit encouraged.

“Is it just me, or does this suit make my butt and boobs look huge?” Reluna asked.

“Surely just an optical illusion,” I lied while ticking off another box in my notes. The posture and dimensional adjustments were working correctly. Truthfully, it was not all for aesthetics. This design lost a lot of the mass that normally covered the chest, thighs, and stomach. Even I could only bend space so much, and the extra components had to go somewhere.

Just as I finished the last of the tune-ups, Sakura stepped out of the teleportation array bearing news.

“A delivery came for us through the usual channels. But this time it’s from San Francisco.” Sakura waved a neatly folded letter. It was sealed in a standard business envelope, and it even had prepaid postage, though I was pretty sure Thulga on Themyscira did not care about that when routing our mail to us.

At my urging, Sakura popped the letter open. It was addressed to both her and me, but since it was from her father she was clearly the more eager to read it.

Sakura’s eyes scanned the letter, then she flashed a thumbs up. “We’re good to go over. Their teleporter is working and my father has things well enough in hand to make use of us. When can we leave?”

“I’ve already taken care of everything on my end. If you don’t mind, I’d like Reluna to come with us. She’s testing some new armor out for me.” I jerked my thumb back at Reluna, who took a few shaky steps toward us. She was getting better by the second though.

Sakura seemed like she was practically bouncing on her heels to get moving, so we decided to go immediately.

“You know, I have a real kanabo in my bedroom. It should still be there. Maybe I’ll switch to that over my homemade one. And I could even show you where I grew up!” Sakura bounced on her toes excitedly, practically skipping along.

“Sounds nice.” I figured the odds that Sakura’s childhood home was still standing were very slim, but I wouldn't be the one to break that bad news to her.

***

We took the trip to Themyscira, and then passed along the coordinates for San Francisco’s teleportation array to Thulga. She grunted a few times, clicking in disapproval at the imperfect way the destination array was set up. But we had her on our payroll because Thulga was very good at what she did, and she could get us there intact even without a destination array, as long as we had good coordinates.

“The destination array at the coordinates you gave me isn’t standard. Someone’s tampered with the enchantments. I’m going to set you down about a mile away just to be safe,” Thulga explained. A moment later, we vanished.

We appeared expecting to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and maybe the rest of the harbor beside it. Maybe a few other famous locations like Fisherman’s Wharf.

But as I’d feared, the integration had torn the place to pieces as surely as it had in Crownhill. The Golden Gate Bridge lay in a hundred pieces. If all of them were gathered up it would be enough to make a dozen bridges, but the bay was far larger now.

The city itself was also in ruins. Entire portions of it were a crumbling mess of phone wires. Some of the abandoned buildings were on fire.

“Ah, it’s exactly as I remembered it!” Sakura said, much to my surprise. She pointed in the distance. “Look! Those might even be the same junkies.”

I followed Sakura’s finger and stared into the distance. There were about a dozen men leaning awkwardly along the sidewalk, backs crooked and eyes vacant. One of them leaned over and bit another on the side of the neck.

“Sakura, those aren’t fentanyl zombies, those are real zombies! And it looks like they’re in our way. We promised your father we’d make this city safe, seems like now’s the best place to start.”

I made sure I was partied up with Sakura and Reluna, then we attacked. Chains of bright light shot from the staff bound to Reluna’s hand by the cursed armor she was wearing. Sakura smashed a few zombies apart with a railing she tore off a nearby building, since she didn’t want to get her normal weapon dirty before reuniting with her father. I fired a few spells and cleaned up anything that got by.

It was less of a fight and more of a clean-up crew. It would take ten thousand of these guys or more to gain so much as a single level for me. They were D-Grade at best, though most of the undead were E or F-Grade.

We carved a swath of destruction through the city and found Sakura’s father and his companions had already spotted us from afar and were doing the same.

“There you are! We were worried when something went wrong with the teleportation. We wanted to meet you when you arrived,” Kogai said as he marched along beside Nakano.

Sakura tossed the bloody railing behind her back like she was trying to hide a joint from her father, but he didn’t seem to care as he rushed over and embraced her.

“Our teleporter said something was wrong with your array. Mind if I take a look at it?” I asked.

Nakano pointed back in the direction he’d come, and both our groups returned with him.

Upon visual inspection of the array, it was obvious why Thulga thought it had been modified. Wires, dishes, computers, a mechanical arm, and all sorts of other devices surrounded the teleportation array. It looked like we were in a robotics laboratory, not a teleportation center.

“When we turned our backs on Onibushi, we installed some defensive measures into our teleportation array. If we receive an unexpected inbound teleportation request, these devices will automatically reroute whoever’s coming to another array we dropped to the bottom of the ocean. Don’t worry though, we were expecting you,” Nakano explained.

“Impressive work. You did all this with computers? No enchantment background?” I asked curiously.

“Trial and error. We found a few key enchantment components that can be moved out of position using the robotic arm. My company still has a lot of people good with tech. Nobody good with enchanting, though I brought a few books home and hope to train a few people in such skills,” Nakano shrugged.

“Well, Dad, you’re in luck! You’ve got one of the best enchanters in the Arcadia Multiverse right here!” Sakura wrapped an arm around my waist.

I chuckled awkwardly at the praise and shrugged. “I know my way around a shield ward or two.”

“And can make armor so great that B-Grades will fight to buy it! And design new bespoke enchantments nobody’s ever heard of. Hell, even the System has been trying to snatch Carter here for freelance work. Trust me, Dad. Just give this guy some raw materials and he’ll make you an impregnable fortress,” Sakura said.

Nanako looked me over with the eyes of an experienced hiring manager. “I’ve seen a lot of resumes making similar claims, but this is the first time I’ve heard you give such praise, Sakura. I must admit, I’m eager to see Carter in action. Let me show you our existing walls.”

Nakano led us from the teleportation facility to his main compound. This, at least, seemed reasonably clean and intact. I recognized most of the grounds as our company’s headquarters. I’d only been here once before when I drove Sakura to some important business meeting. She never liked traveling alone.

“You converted our old company headquarters to a fortress?” Sakura asked in surprise.

“I did. Seems like I was smart to ask for extra-thick walls during construction. We’ve had to make a few changes to the interior, but you should still know your way around. The upstairs offices have been rearranged into personal quarters. I’ve set aside two rooms for you,” Nakano said.

“One room is plenty.” Sakura wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me tight. She rested her chin on my shoulder in a way that was unmistakably a gesture of affection and possessiveness.

“...One room for you and Carter. But what about this other companion of yours?” Nakano asked, looking at Reluna. Her armor no doubt looked ridiculous to him, but if he’d seen us from afar, he knew the number of spells Reluna could throw out, and she had to be taken seriously based on power alone, no matter how she dressed.

“I’m with them,” Reluna nodded to Sakura and me.

“She’s our side bitches,” Sakura said shamelessly.

Reluna shrank in on herself. The helmet feature on the suit automatically activated, concealing her face as she blushed.

“Your... what?” Nakano raised an eyebrow.

“Carter and I have a harem. Don’t give me that look, Dad! It’s the modern era. People can do whatever they want with their sex lives.” Sakura stared her father down as she wrapped one arm around my waist and one around Reluna’s.

Meanwhile, I was running fingers through my hair awkwardly and giving Nakano my best helpless smile. Truthfully, I’d been under the impression that it had been my harem, not our harem. But phrasing things like that would have made things even more awkward with Sakura’s father.

Thankfully, Sakura had me covered. This must not have been the first time she’d confronted her father in such a manner, because eventually his shoulders slumped and he shook his head.

“You’re a grown woman and can make your own decisions. Very well, one large room. As long as you are on top of things, I won’t judge.” Nakano let his shoulders sag and entered the building with us, where one of his assistants led us to our rooms.

“Thanks for getting that one out of the way early. I’ve been dreading having to explain to him that you’re part of a harem. It was easy enough with Myrina and Cyra’s dad, since he had a harem of his own. But your father—”

I was cut off when Sakura pushed her fingers against my lips.

“Talking about my dad is a good way to get me out of the mood. But you heard his orders. I’ve got to be on top!” Sakura grinned widely.

“I don’t think that’s what he meant, Sakura,” I laughed awkwardly.

Sakura tackled me and pushed me onto the bed. My clothes came off, and a moment later hers joined mine on the floor.

She leaned down for a kiss, and by the time she let up, she was already manhandling my cock, which slid inside her with easy familiarity.

She bounced up and down a few times excitedly, shifting her hips back and forth as she rubbed her clit against my groin.

Eventually, she climaxed, but I was far from done and so flipped her around and pushed her face into the sheets.

I felt her clench down tight around me in a second climax, and soon she was a star-struck, lovey-eyed mess. I pulled myself free and lay down on the bed next to her.

She curled up next to me. I ran my arm along the small of her back until I cupped her firm and perky ass in my hand. I gave it a squeeze, which only made her snuggle up next to me all the more.

“Is it selfish to say I’m glad the apocalypse came? I know it destroyed the world and all, but if it hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here,” Sakura mumbled into my chest.

“Me too, Sakura. Me too.” I kissed her forehead. Meanwhile, I reached out to Reluna’s armor and adjusted some controls remotely. Her armor began moving in my direction. I’d locked out Reluna’s controls as soon as I knew what Sakura wanted, since otherwise Reluna would have already joined us.

“Your turn, Reluna. Let’s see how well that suit of yours can bounce.”

“Yes sir!” Reluna panted eagerly.

<Note>

Snuck in another sex scene here, since it felt fairly natural. Might take it out in editing if I stop feeling it or just leave it as fade to black, but the characters would definitely smash here either way. As I've mentioned before, I'm keeping these short right now until there's a new love interest or the plot requires something extra.