Amazon Apocalypse 5: Chapter 53

Reluna and Mimiko demonstrated the ritual the two of them had developed working together, and even I had to admit it was pretty damn good. By combining their efforts and knowledge, they’d repaired the flaws I pointed out and created something that would likely work as planned.

It would be challenging to operate, but once they showed me what needed to be done, I was reasonably sure the two of them could handle it. I could lend a hand if needed, but for the most part, I’d just be making sure we were grabbing the right souls.

With all that settled, and the Goddess in Jade’s recent request already weighing on my mind, I saw no reason to delay further. It was time to resurrect Ben and the others.

I dropped in on the council in Crownhill to let people know I’d be busy for most of the day and to have a chat with Margaret and the rest of the council.

“You’re going to what?” Frank asked.

“Resurrecting a few people. Don’t worry. It’ll just be a quick ritual. I’m just going to reach into the afterlife, grab a few of our dead friends, and stuff them into new bodies. That’s actually what I wanted to talk to Margaret about.”

Margaret stared at me with distant eyes. “The souls you’re resurrecting. Who might they be, exactly?”

“Mostly people who helped us during the fight with Craig and got screwed over. I remember those people and feel like they all would have been powerhouses here in Crownhill if they’d survived the early days of the integration.”

I smiled at the thought. All of them had been fierce fighters, quick to adapt to our new reality and very motivated to take action. Ben wouldn’t have gathered us all up to deal with Craig if that hadn’t been the case.

“And... would my husband be among them?” Margaret asked hesitantly.

“He would be. But there’s a little caveat to that. He can’t come back as a human. He’ll get a human body eventually, but not right away. I did offer him a human body, but it would come with a few downsides he isn’t willing to accept. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure how much to tell you. He didn’t want me to get your hopes up if there were none, but I think this ritual has a real chance of succeeding. If it does, he can explain his reasons to you in person.”

Margaret folded her hands and nodded. “Okay...” she whispered, still nodding, but this time more to herself than me.

***

With that settled, Mimiko, Reluna, and I went to Sir Trellis’ shrine. I wanted access to the mirror so we could talk to Ben and the others and make sure things were working on their side. The magic mirror for seeing into the afterlife would make the most delicate part of the ritual far easier.

“Sir Trellis, thank you for letting us take the shrine for the day on such short notice. And thanks for letting us move all the candles, incense, and other holy decorations here,” I said. I shook the knight’s hand firmly while Reluna and Mimiko unpacked their things for the ritual. Meanwhile, acolytes buzzed around us, picking up candle holders and incense burners to make room for our ritual components.

“Your words are our commands, your holiness. Besides, it isn’t every day that we get to witness a genuine miracle. Resurrecting the dead is something special.” Sir Trellis took my hand in both of his, bowing low as he went to kiss the back of my hand. I held him up before he did so and made him accept a more traditional handshake, though he seemed unsatisfied with that.

“Ready!” Reluna said, and I waved Sir Trellis and the nearby acolytes to step aside so they wouldn’t interfere with the ritual. They left the room reluctantly, though I sensed more than one eye peering down at us from different directions. They really wanted to watch the ritual.

As long as they were far enough away that they wouldn’t interfere with the mana flow, there was no problem with letting them watch. So I pretended I couldn’t see them and placed the first dragon egg in the center of the ritual diagram.

This was the largest of the Torchdragon eggs, which were themselves the most powerful breed of beast egg I could acquire. I’d chosen the best for first because Ben had volunteered to be our test subject. It was a brave gesture, since if our ritual failed catastrophically, his soul could be seriously damaged. But it was a risk he was willing to take.

“You’re sure about this?” I asked, glancing up at Ben one last time through the mirror.

“I’m sure. I will be the first, whatever risks that might entail.” Ben nodded resolutely.

“The mana is resonating with the formation. The first stage is complete,” Mimiko said.

Energy flowed around us. I monitored the mana diagram and associated items for anything unusual, but everything was working just as it had in Reluna and Mimiko’s demonstration. The two girls sat on either side of the egg, legs crossed as they concentrated. I stood off to the side, ready to help either if something went wrong. Across from me, I saw Ben standing anxiously in the mirror.

“The pathway to System space has been established. The second hurdle has been surmounted,” Reluna said.

I looked beyond myself into a dimension beyond normal space and in the direction I knew the System dwelled. A spiraling corridor of mana spanned the distance between here and there, growing thicker and stronger by the moment. We were burning monster cores like the acolytes normally burned incense, but it would all be worth it if this ritual succeeded.

“I will now project my nascent soul into the astral realm,” Mimiko said.

As I watched, her stomach began to glow. A tiny, infant-like figure of Mimiko shot out from her abdomen, attached to her by a silver cord. The little infant rubbed her eyes and looked left and right before floating out of our reality and through the tunnel of mana the ritual had created.

“Mimiko has successfully approached the outer layers of the System. Stage three is complete. Now all that’s left is getting access and grabbing the soul,” Reluna said.

I braced myself for what came next. The following moments were the ones that I had the most doubts about. If the System fought us on this one issue, this entire project was finished. If Lyra caught wind of what we were doing and decided it was against the rules, we were finished.

Distantly, I heard Mimiko’s voice echo out, though it didn’t come from her body. It came from that infant figure she’d projected beyond our dimension.

“Open in the name of Carter Smith!” she said.

A long moment passed, but then all of a sudden, the wall barring Mimiko’s entrance vanished, and she passed into the System dimension.

I let out a sigh of relief, as did Reluna. I'd been shocked when that worked in Reluna and Mimiko's demonstration, and thankfully it still worked now.

“Mimiko has entered the afterlife. It worked just like in our tests. Stage four is a success,” Reluna said.

Mimiko was gone from my Kindling Architect sight now, but she reappeared again in the mirror this time. She looked tiny next to Ben’s full frame, but somehow Ben seemed far more translucent when compared to Mimiko’s projection, like Mimiko was far more real than he was. That was no doubt due to the strength of their respective souls.

“You’ve got the right Ben. Now to reel him back,” I said.

Mimiko grabbed Ben’s arm. Her small size relative to him meant she couldn’t get a very good grip, but when he wrapped his arms around her, they looked a lot more secure.

“Initiating stage five retrieval.” Sweat beaded on Reluna’s brow as the mana currents connecting the ritual with the System dimension swirled. Mimiko was being carried back like a leaf caught in a breeze. But just when she was midway between the System dimension and our dimension, the entire ritual shook.

It was like a stray gust of wind from elsewhere picked up, wiping away most of the mana current we were depending on to carry Mimiko back.

“I’m losing them both! Emergency!” Reluna cried as she struggled to correct the errors the unexpected gust of extradimensional wind had caused for the ritual.

I stepped in to help. Without me, everything would have collapsed a moment later, but I dumped a large bundle of neutral mana to fight the wind, then reached out with my mind for Mimiko’s astral tether. While I supported the ritual with my mana and some of my attention, I helped pull them closer with the rest of my willpower.

It felt like hauling two people up off a cliff with only a rope, but I grit my teeth and strained my magical senses, until, with a heave, I sensed them cross the threshold back into our reality.

Mimiko’s form remained solid, but Ben’s soul seemed far more flimsy now. He was a faint wisp, barely an outline of himself, and invisible to anyone but me. I pointed to the egg in the center of the diagram and put a hand on his back, urging him forward.

He nodded and took a knee next to the egg. He placed his hands on it, concentrated, and all of a sudden, his wispy form seemed to get sucked right into the egg.

That was the end of Reluna and Mimiko’s ritual, and both ladies sighed with relief as their task was done. But mine was only beginning.

There had been a faint sliver of a soul gathering within the unborn egg, and Ben was fighting with it for control. It would have been much harder with a drake that had hatched and spent a few weeks alive, but this one was easy enough to defeat, especially with my help.

Then came the hard part, which was attaching Ben’s soul to the body. There were lots of major nodes in his spirit that needed to be tied down, and the structure of Ben’s spirit didn’t match his intended body. I had to push and shove a bit to get Ben to fit, and the whole process took me nearly half an hour. But when I was finally done, I sensed Ben’s presence within the egg.

The embryo had been idle until that moment, but the presence of Ben’s soul had lit a fire within it, and it started dividing over and over again. The whole process happened remarkably fast, mostly thanks to all the mana in the ritual circle. It drank up fire mana like a sponge sucking up water. Eventually, those cells would assemble a baby Torchdragon named Ben.

I picked Ben up and set him aside. I’d need to put him back in the volcano, along with his new siblings. This place wasn’t nearly warm enough for a baby Torchdragon. And without the monster cores I was cracking open, it wouldn’t have the right kind of mana either.

Quest Completed! Resurrect Ben.

• +10,000 reputation with Margaret.

• Ben the Torchdrake has joined your faction.

• Your renown has increased.

• Your Holy Saint of the Goddess in Jade title has been enhanced.

• You are a man who keeps his word, no matter the challenge. All oaths from you will hold additional weight.

“Well done ladies. Now we just have to do that a dozen more times,” I said.

Reluna and Mimiko straightened, bodies braced for a long day of work.

***

Hauling over the rest of my friends’ souls from the afterlife took the rest of the day. We got better as we worked, but it was still a big project.

“I’m finished. My strength has left me,” Reluna said as she lay on the shrine floor.

“We’re going home,” I said to Reluna.

“Eight hours of labor... I’ve never spent so long on one task in my life...” Reluna groaned from her spot on the floor.

I rolled my eyes and did my best to stifle a chuckle.

“Alright, I’ll carry you. How’s that?” I asked.

“That would be most appreciated...” Reluna groaned from the floor.

I scooped her up and put her on my back.

Nearby, Mimiko clattered to the floor. She’d been standing just fine moments ago.

“What’s wrong, Mimiko?” I asked, though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

“My strength is fading, my lord. I don’t think I’ll make it back on my own either,” Mimiko let out a gasp like she was dying as she sprawled limply on the floor.

“Fine, fine. I’ll carry you home too.” I chuckled as I picked her up as well.

I took them both home and brought them to my bed. It was the comfiest one in the house, after all. They’d earned it. Plus, I thought it would be amusing to have the two of them wake up next to one another. No doubt they wouldn’t be happy with that.

“Stay...” Reluna grumbled, eyes half-lidded as she tugged on my sleeve.

“Mhm...” Mimiko’s hand was wrapped around my waist.

The two of them pulled me toward the bed, and I blinked a few times, only to realize how pretty the pair of them were.

Reluna, for all her faults, had the regal features of an aristocrat. I wasn’t sure if that was because she was an elf or if she was just born that way.

Meanwhile, Mimiko had a carefully sculpted beauty that had been very much deliberate on her part. Even the way her hair fell as she pretended to be half-asleep seemed artful.

I chuckled as I looked between them, united in purpose even though the joint task I’d assigned them was completed.

“You know, I really thought I could have you ladies competing against one another a while longer.”

The two were silent.

“So, what did Sakura tell you both, anyway?” I asked.

“That I would be competing for your attention. And that you do not love easily or quickly, but when you do, it is a fearsome thing,” Mimiko said.

“That there was only room for one more, and Sakura didn’t think it would be me,” Reluna said.

I nodded. That did seem like the kind of thing Sakura might imply. Like most bosses, she wanted the threat of layoffs dangling over her employee’s heads to keep them scurrying a little faster. But my household wasn’t a business, despite how Sakura might want to run it. I thought of my life and the people in it more like a family.

“Let me tell you ladies a little secret. Sakura doesn’t decide who I spend my time with. There’s no real reason I have to take just one of you.”

The eyes of both ladies cracked open, and I made to stand. But their grip on my sleeves was all the tighter.

“You... mean to say we’ve been competing for nothing?” Mimiko asked.

I chuckled. “Not nothing, per se. Everything you did was very useful to me. That ritual was fantastic. And the skimpy outfits the two of you have been putting on improved my mood. Very much worth it, if you ask me.”

Reluna’s eyes fully opened, and the illusion that she’d been completely exhausted vanished. “All this time, we were but your playthings. I might take offense if you didn’t have such a handsome face.”

Mimiko opened her eyes and sat up. She glanced at Reluna. “I have mistreated you lately, Reluna. When the two of us joined forces, we were capable of things neither could alone. Now, I think we are faced with a similar challenge, and our interests are aligned once more.”

“Now that our true foe has been unmasked, I agree.” Reluna twirled her finger and those blue chains of light she fashioned sprung into existence. I looked down to finding them winding around my legs.

“Now hold up, ladies... I know you’re both tired. And there’s something you should know about me. I have this thing called the Scepter of the Supreme Patriarch. It’s an ability that--“ Before I could finish, Mimiko’s tugging on my sleeves turned into a firm yank. Suddenly, I was in bed between two skimpily dressed ladies who'd spent a lot of time teasing me as of late.

I frowned, conscious of Reluna’s magical chains winding further up my legs. I thought pranking the two of them by having them wake up together in my bed might backfire on me. But I hadn’t expected it to backfire quite this fast.

I spent a few long moments debating how much effort I should put into trying to escape. But doing that would probably send the wrong message. Besides, Mimiko and Reluna both had a look in their eyes that I recognized. The last time I’d seen it, it had been on Myrina’s face when I was sleeping in her room before we were married.

I could escape these ladies’ hold just fine. But the resulting chase would endanger a lot of my stuff. This castle was still new, and I didn’t want to rebuild it quite this soon.

It would be better to just explain a few things to Reluna and Mimiko before they did anything rash. They needed to know what a relationship with me meant and what my Scepter of the Supreme Patriarch skill meant.

“Hold on a second. Reluna, Mimiko, there really is something the two of you should know about me,” I began, only to be cut off again.

“I lay claim to his face,” Reluna declared.

“Suit yourself. I seek the real prize,” Mimiko said as she tugged at my pants.

I lost sight of her when Reluna swung her hips and straddled my chest. She held my head between her hands possessively, then bent low to kiss my forehead.

“While working, Mimiko and I theorized you responded better to a more aggressive approach. We should have done this as soon as we saw how far that common girl, Linda, had nearly gotten with you just by asking,” Reluna said.

Then she shifted her hips, grinding herself against my suddenly bare chest. I felt something warm and wet and knew that, like usual, she wasn’t wearing any panties.

I wasn’t sure if it was that realization that got me going or the warm and wet feeling on my cock a moment later. I vaguely remembered that I had something I really wanted to tell the two ladies, but as the blood rushed out of my head to somewhere far lower, I had trouble remembering what it was or why it was important.

I wouldn’t have been able to tell them anything anyway, because a moment later, Reluna shifted her hips forward until she was straddling my face. At that point, I was too engrossed in studying elven anatomy to talk.

As I’d noted before, Reluna’s pussy was faintly blue on the edges but transitioned to a more traditional pinkish red near the slit and clit. It was also naturally hairless, and most interesting of all, it tasted like blueberries and vanilla ice cream.

“Oh, by the System! Your vibrating chairs are heavenly, but I think I’m ready to upgrade,” Reluna said as her fingers gripped my hair.

She spent a few long moments moaning and panting, and I felt her thighs quivering on either side of my head.

“Mhm...” Reluna moaned. I took her many happy noises as the compliments they were.

I was pretty skilled with my mouth to start with, but Ted’s book, which was the subject of my recent studies, meant that I’d gotten far better than before. I had complete confidence that even without the magical effects of Scepter of the Supreme Patriarch, I would be the best lover most women ever had.

Given my current position, my ability to do anything with Mimiko was a bit hampered, not that it stopped her from seating herself atop my cock. I couldn’t get a good look at her since my sight was filled with Reluna, but my extradimensional senses told me she was licking her lips as she stroked my hard cock.

I was already fully erect, but she seemed to take innocent delight in running a finger up and down my length and watching as my member swayed. Eventually, she could restrain herself no longer and gave my head an innocent kiss.

The moment she did so, her eyes went wide, and it was like a feverish frenzy overcame her. In moments, she went from a shy kiss to trying to cram my full length into her mouth and down her throat like she was a starving woman afraid someone was going to take away her only chance at a meal.

That was about when I brought Reluna to her first orgasm, at which point her control over her magic chains flickered and faded. Sensing an obvious weakness, I decided to exploit it and show her an area of improvement. I dove into her pussy with renewed vigor and soon brought her to a second orgasm, where the chains broke completely.

Once free, I grabbed Reluna’s quivering hips and pulled them off me. She squirmed on the bed and panted, but her closed eyes opened up to look at me in surprise.

“I’m the patriarch of this household here! I can’t believe the two of you would conspire against me like this. There’s only one punishment for a pair of naughty girls like you.” I shook my head, though I knew there was more than a glimmer of mirth in my eyes.

Sitting up, I grabbed Mimiko by the arm and flipped her over. In one smooth motion, I ripped the scant tape-like bands of fabric she’d been wearing apart. Her sex dripped like a fountain, and my cock was already hard and stiff from her unpracticed attempts at sucking my cock.

I entered her, and she felt as tight as a vise. Mimiko whimpered as I entered her. I was about to plunge my full length into her like I did with my other girls when I felt something stopping me.

“Oh dear, is my cute little cultivator assistant a virgin?” I asked.

Mimiko’s cheeks flushed, and she bit her lip. “...Maybe,” she said in shy embarrassment.

I chuckled. “There’s no maybe about it. Let me show you what I do to cute virgin cultivators...”

I gently pushed myself the rest of the way in. If I were in my right mind, I would have felt a little bad for Mimiko. This was her first time, and she was already ruined for other men. My Scepter of the Supreme Patriarch skill meant she’d never be able to enjoy being with anyone else.

But while my conscious part felt bad, the more primal and possessive part of me felt glee at the thought. Mimiko and Reluna were both mine now, and that was how I wanted it. It was how they wanted it, too, if the last few minutes were any indication.

Fully inserted into Mimiko, I leaned over and whispered in her ear. “I should have done this a long time ago. I could have, you know. You were my prisoner, and you offered yourself to me. Remember that?”

Mimiko nodded. “Y-you should have taken me then and there! I would have given in to you right away. You wouldn’t have had to waste the spirit stones.”

I laughed in hungry pleasure as I took Mimiko. Then, she reached the peak of pleasure, and the thing I’d forgotten about reared its head.

You have drained cultivation power from Mimiko the rogue cultivator!

You have gained a lesser wood aspect spirit root!

It seemed not even cultivators were safe from the ravenous powers of my magic dick. I was intrigued, but didn’t want to push Mimiko too far for her first time. So pulled myself free and let her recover a moment before switching to Reluna. The greedy elf had been rubbing herself while she knelt on the bed and watched me take Mimiko’s first time.

“Yes... yes! Take me!” Reluna pleaded, eyes wide.

Instantly, I realized she was someone I should be much less gentle with. So I pushed her face-down into the pillows and hoisted her butt into the proper position before I plunged myself into the wet sex I’d been preparing for myself minutes before.

I slid right in, and my cock immediately felt at home. Again, I realized I should have done this ages ago.

I felt Reluna’s inner walls quiver around me, and her clit felt unnaturally warm against the base of my shaft.

“I used your favorite screwdriver to masturbate while you were gone,” Reluna admitted out of nowhere.

“You what!?” I barked in sudden outrage. As I did so, my cock pulled out and slammed into Reluna in quick succession.

“I did! And I’m not sorry!” Reluna said, letting out a panting moan.

“You damn elven slut!” I shook my head. I used that screwdriver every day. Thinking back, it had felt a little more slippery than normal when I first returned. I’d just assumed I’d spilled some oil on it at one point. But it had been Reluna’s doing all along.

“And not just your screwdriver. I used your chair too. And your vibrating toothbrush.”

Reluna’s sins just got worse and worse the more she spoke. I knew I had to teach her a lesson, and I did so with great vigor.

You have drained two levels from Reluna!

Your class, Prophet of Forbidden Knowledge, is now level 273.

You have drained four levels from Reluna!

Your class, Prophet of Forbidden Knowledge, is now level 275!

You have drained six levels from Reluna!

Your race, Homo Fatum Deus, is now level 274!

That process repeated deep into the night. When morning came, I blinked to sunlight beaming through the window and two new beautiful women lying in my arms.


<Note>
Bit of a long chapter here. I've been on the fence about cutting it in half. Might be nice to have the sex scene as its own chapter.