Abyssal Road Trip - 254 - Hold the girl (Patreon)

Amdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic

When Ilya opened a six metre wide Gate, a beaming Dúhel beyond its threshold clapped excitedly at the sight of Amdirlain. Her bright smile challenged the brilliance of her blazing seafoam-green irises. “I’m so glad you’ve resumed sessions, Amdirlain.”

Amdirlain held herself nearly motionless and gave a careful nod. “I didn’t expect such enthusiasm; I know you’ve been busy.”

“It’s been months, and even though we had plenty of things to help with, it wasn’t the same,” dismissed Dúhel, and for the first time, shifted her gaze from drinking in Amdirlain’s form. “I like the new chamber.”

Sarah had engraved the gigantic dome with a vast wilderness scene and embedded runes to absorb excess noise. Amdirlain reflexively shifted position to follow Dúhel’s gaze, drawing a subtle gasp. At Dúhel’s inhalation, Ilya stepped between Amdirlain and the Gate, blocking Dúhel’s line of sight.

“Sex on two legs and a bunch of pent-up elves. We’ll have to be extra careful with your fan squad,” murmured Sarah.

“No, I’m fine, just surprised,” Dúhel exclaimed, waving her hands in protest.

Ilya snorted. “Amdirlain barely turned, and your heart started racing—that is not fine. You could have told Laergul you’re attracted to Amdirlain.”

“Don’t be crass; she has someone,” retorted Dúhel. “She’ll restore him. I’ve done enough work on duplicating the facility to be sure she’ll find a way.”

“I didn’t know you were involved, Dúhel,” said Amdirlain, happy to change the subject, even if it involved her failed experiments.

“My choir is handling the fifth facility you and Sarah excavated,” blurted Dúhel. “We’ve set up the processing room and started duplicating the armoury. Working through gates is weird, but we’ve got the constructs to be our hands.”

“Bunch of cheaters,” grumbled Sarah.

“You can’t have all the fun, Sarah,” laughed Dúhel. “And duplicating your enchantments made for interesting melodies, given the deeper notes they reach, Amdirlain wouldn’t have been able to handle them.”

Tapping her claws, Sarah rumbled. “Not what I’m talking about.”

“Should I apologise for theft of experience?” enquired Dúhel with mischievous meekness.

Sarah reluctantly huffed. “No, the weapons will be the bottleneck at some point, and we’ll need far more. It’s hard to give away toy designs when I’m sure there are features I want to add or tweak.”

“Given your nature, would they ever be perfect enough?” Isa asked and, slipping past Ilya, she stepped through the Gate.

“Perhaps not,” admitted Sarah.

Isa put a hand on Dúhel's shoulder and motioned her to step further back. “Seems Luck let us catch you isolated.”

“Yes, I’m slightly early,” admitted Dúhel, “I’ve let Laergul know you’re here.”

Laergul appeared further along the ledge, as if his name had summoned him. Looking between the pair, he glanced at the Gate. “Are you having problems, Dúhel?”

Glancing at the floor, Dúhel's fingers twitched against the fabric of her pants. “The grace of her motions draws the eye.”

“Then I’d suggest we’ll need holding racks in place, and you can keep your attention focused on them,” stated Laergul, not taking his focus from Dúhel. “Please put something that won’t hinder you in place, Amdirlain.”

“You’ve not seen her move yet, Laergul,” huffed Dúhel.

“I have, and neither Roher nor I have had issues. I suggest you conduct more exercises to improve your discipline instead of focusing on intellect with the levels the work is providing,”

“I’m disciplined,” protested Dúhel vehemently, and she pressed her hands flat against her thighs.

“Not enough,” remarked Laergul. “My apologies Amdirlain. I’ll ensure another supervisor or I arrive ahead of time when any of our more flighty kin are involved.”

“Laergul,” warned Dúhel.

Her tone didn’t even make Laergul blink. “If your behaviour shows it, how can you protest? Shall we begin, or should I refer the matter to your conductor?”

“How do you credit Isa’s calmness?” demanded Dúhel.

Isa gave a wicked giggle. “There are many reasons, plus I’ll have a complete catch-up with Ilya later.”

Amdirlain almost mentioned the combination of powers and skills Isa and Ilya had discussed in the last months, but held her tongue.

Dúhel’s jawline tensed as she held back a retort. “Perhaps you’re right, Laergul.”

“Any preference in style or approach, Laergul?” asked Amdirlain.

“Whatever works best for you, Amdirlain. Something practical that also sets a barrier to aid those who might otherwise find themselves distracted until you’ve overcome your new challenge,” suggested Laergul, and he frowned in surprise. “Your chamber’s tone is significantly different, how far underground is it?”

Amdirlain created a steel-mesh rack on the side towards the Gate, its grid layout mirroring the wall niches. On her side, however, each slot was angled to ensure the sphere would fall into a trough behind it when its weight stabilised. She was glad when neither Sarah nor Isa commented on its resemblance to a snack machine.

With the item quickly completed, Amdirlain seized the subject change. “About 120 kilometres. We found an adamantine vein we’ll use for some weaponry. While we’ve had issues with some burrowers, Sarah enjoyed the snack.”

Dúhel almost jerked her gaze up but kept her attention on the rack’s framework. “How did you locate it?”

“I was stretching Inventory’s range and kept pushing deeper.”

“Luck favoured her,” observed Isa once Amdirlain had finished.

“Not having to create the metal would speed the process somewhat,” agreed Laergul, sidestepping Isa’s observation. “Shall we proceed?”

Laergul smiled. “Dúhel, if you start on the left, I’ll handle from the right. Is that acceptable?”

“Fine,” Dúhel replied curtly.

As they completed spheres, Sarah drew them from the end of the trough and loaded them into a crate in a continual flurry of activity. When they finished the session, Laergul gave Dúhel enough time to say farewell before he escorted her away.

[Crafting Summary (Category: Basic utility item [assorted]) - experience by item grade:

Sphere-in-a-hurry-vending machine: 400

Basic Items - Masterwork: 450 x 441,600 = 100 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Total Experience gained: 99,360,000

Fallen: +19,872,000

Scion: +19,872,000

Ascetic: +19,872,000

Ostimë: +19,872,000

Ontãlin: +19,872,000

Symphonic [S] (43 -> 44)]

“That’s what you’ve been doing?” Isa breathed, looking faintly sick. “That has got to be the most boring use of True Song I’ve witnessed. How could you willingly endure that?”

Sure they’d need it again, Amdirlain stored the rack away and let Isa through the Gate.

“We used to create them on the floor with needles or rods between the spheres to stop them rolling around until Sarah could move them,” admitted Amdirlain. “Not pretty, I know, but it gets the job done.”

“How much experience was that?” asked Isa.

“99,360,000 plus 400 from the rack,” shared Amdirlain as she stored the last spheres that Sarah hadn’t yet loaded into a waiting crate.

“Oh yeah, can’t forget the rack,” drawled Ilya.

“Nice rack,” commented Sarah.

Isa laughed. “Nice balls?”

“Not in this group,” quipped Amdirlain.

Sarah laughed. “You could always… never mind.”

“Yeah, not using that disguise again,” Amdirlain said with a shudder.

“Not making yourself useful again. Is that what I’m hearing?” asked Sarah.

At Isa and Ilya’s blank looks, Amdirlain waved a reproving finger at Sarah. “You took that joke too far, buster.”

“That’s an insane amount of experience,” interjected Ilya. “Isa, isn’t that what we needed for gaining level 66?”

“A bit more than that,” agreed Isa.

Amdirlain shrugged. “Doesn’t even get me a level now, even if it all went into a single class.”

“I’ve gone up an enormous number of levels with all the help I’ve given the Lómë, but that’s crazy. That said, I wouldn’t be able to handle that for, what, eight hours every day?” asked Isa with a shudder.

“Some days she pushes past sixteen,” corrected Sarah.

Isa pretended to stick her fingers down her throat. “Shoot me now; I couldn’t do so many repetitious songs for so long. Singing pillars at least involves variations in the compositions.”

“Enchanting the crystals gives far more experience,” conceded Amdirlain. “If I handle setting the songs in all the spheres we created today, it would be a touch short of 225.4 trillion.”

“Why don’t you do that, then?” asked Ilya, and she gave a cynical bark of laughter. “Listen to me giving advice. All three of you are way out of my league. I earn experience from killing stuff while you and Isa are legendary elves, and Sarah comes up with weaponry that would make Hell jealous.”

“Yet Isa likely wouldn’t be here if she’d not be fortunate enough to meet you,” noted Sarah.

“Once legendary elves, now we’re us, and you came through intact but scarred by events that would break many others,” commented Amdirlain. “We had a rough start, but of the four of us, you get my vote for coming out the sanest.”

“I wasn’t sane,” admitted Sarah.

“I’m still not,” declared Isa, and she gave Ilya a one-armed hug and leaned into her reassuringly. “We’re in this together. Since the settlements are all now clustered, we can spend more time killing bad things with all those new spells you’ve learnt, or we could sleep in for a change.”

The warm, satiny melody that brushed through their songs had Amdirlain hastily tuning them out.

“Sleep? Not what I’d want to use our bed for,” mock whispered Ilya.

Amdirlain laughed happily at the meaningful smiles they exchanged. “Good choice.”

“After we’re out of said bed, I could spend time each day creating a variety of crystals for Amdirlain to enchant,” offered Isa, getting back on track. “Not the spheres or rods. I’d want to go back to flying through trees in a snowstorm in short order.”

“You said all the settlements are together? When did the last one get transferred in?” asked Amdirlain, even as Ilya muttered about vigorous physical training protocols.

“Not joined at the hip, but close enough that the central pillar’s field provides backup to the local barriers. They should have handled the last relocation today,” clarified Isa.

Sarah hummed. “Has anyone said how many of the Lómë are alive?”

“I’ve not asked anyone for an exact count. I believe you might have spares if you gave them each a sphere from today,” replied Isa. “But back to my offer: yes, no, maybe?”

Holding in the wince, Amdirlain let it be. “What were you thinking of?”

“Various equipment, armour and weapons, or an enormous crystal that could support massive enchantments to stretch your True Song. What would you prefer?”

“Create whatever comes to mind on the day; mixing it up might save what’s left of your sanity. True Song crystals to enchant would save me from trying to push this further,” admitted Amdirlain, ignoring Isa’s pout. “I could sing these for the Lómë to work on and then enchant objects or conduct other training afterwards.”

“You certainly need more training to turn your Femme Fatale’s instinctive awareness into planning,” agreed Ilya.

Amdirlain raked her fingers through the electric blue locks of her current pixie cut. “I just turned.”

The protest had Ilya adopt a sultry half-lidded gaze and pant dramatically. “You just turned? I think not; you stretched your neck proactively and motioned her to come hither with an enticing finger twitch. Fairly dared her to trail her tongue from collarbone to ear in one heated, lust-laden swoop. The poor maid's heartstrings were sorely plucked.”

Sarah groaned. “Have you been corrupting Ilya with period dramas, Isa?”

“No, it's just the voice of experience,” Isa laughed and pretended to smack Ilya when she nodded vigorously. “Seriously, they all need to unwind occasionally, but they’re concerned about corruption, what with being in the Abyss so long. Makes them very puritan in some respects.”

“Uptight is how I’d classify it,” commented Ilya.

“Come hither finger twitch?” asked Amdirlain, and wished she hadn’t spoken.

With a coy look, Ilya let her hands settle at her sides before sliding one hand slowly across a thigh, curling fingers drawing focus towards her crotch.

“I so did not,” gasped Amdirlain.

“You so did,” refuted Ilya. “Just at a faster speed.”

“Alright, I need to get the body language under control.”

“Dúhel been fangirling over you for years,” offered Isa. “Your brain might have missed the cues, but something caught onto her libido today.”

“That term I’ve learnt; an Orhêthurin fan girl would be the correct reference,” cautioned Ilya.

Amdirlain grimaced. “Not interested‌. Happy to be her friend, but regardless of other factors, I don’t swing both ways, and I’m not Orhêthurin.”

“Unless you have something else to do, we can get on with more training,” suggested Ilya brightly

“Before you get to your training, Amdirlain, you’ll likely have to handle Gail’s training in True Song when she’s older,” stated Isa.

“I thought we agreed-”

Isa scowled and crossed her arms defensively. “I tried to give her a hand with that nightmare crystal you gave her. After an hour, the little miss thanked me and said I jumped around too much. Decided she’d be better off working through the lessons and asking questions directly when they next visited.”

“How is it a nightmare crystal?” protested Amdirlain.

“It’s so dense in content that it makes my head hurt, yet she enjoys it,” proclaimed Isa, throwing her hands up in disbelief.

Amdirlain frowned in confusion. “What’s your composition evolved to?”

A snort greeted the question. “Evolved? I’ve not pushed it hard enough to evolve. Why?”

“Ahh, she’d already moved it to True Song Formation before she finished the first crystal,” explained Amdirlain.

“Roher’s going to laugh at you,” commented Ilya, smiling at Isa to ease the sting of her words.

“Don’t I know it. Outdone, and she’s not even 11,” huffed Isa. “Can you make me a copy of that first crystal you gave her?”

“Gladly,” replied Amdirlain, tossing her a memory crystal in short order. “Shall we get started, Ilya?”

Ilya shooed the others off and drew her swords. “Let’s try a different lesson today and see if sparring gets you back in tune with your body.”

Seeing Ilya’s blades brought out a smile to light up Amdirlain’s face. “Oh, you lovely person, you.”

“Oi, stop flirting with my better half,” laughed Isa before she vanished from the chamber.

As the pair squared off, Sarah also vanished.

With the chamber clear, they blurred into motion. While the recent increase in her classes tipped the balance of speed in Amdirlain’s favour, Ilya’s weapon skills kept her from being overwhelmed, and weapons disappearing and reappearing from Amdirlain’s hand continually put her on the back foot.

Amongst the sparring, her zen clarity settled into place, and Amdirlain caught herself using exaggerated motions to draw Ilya’s gaze. Her combat style didn’t suffer from it; if anything, it used distractions to put Ilya at a disadvantage.

After the fifth time she caught an occurrence, Amdirlain stepped back and lowered her swords—sure, she’d missed far more. “I’m catching it only after I’ve already flirted.”

“Flirted, or suckered me into a trap?” laughed Ilya. “Teasing smiles and artful poses are the blades of a Succubus, getting in under their target’s skin. So let’s figure out how to align this towards what you want.”

“Which is?”

Ilya gave Amdirlain a sceptical look. “You don’t know what you want?”

“World peace?” joked Amdirlain.

“Which piece of it do you want?” asked Ilya, and a twitch of her lips had Amdirlain rolling her eyes.

“Isa’s humour has corrupted you,” declared Amdirlain gravely.

“Which differs from yours or Sarah’s humour, how?” enquired Ilya.

Amdirlain smiled mischievously. “Clearly, her name is different.”

“Word play!” exclaimed Ilya. “Your humour isn’t identical, but you all use it to deflect from topics you don’t want to talk about or when you’re scared. That is the key I think you’re missing with the succubi. They don’t use only their bodies to entice and corrupt; they also use words.”

“The last thing I want is to pick up more succubus traits,” rebutted Amdirlain.

“Don’t be in such a rush,” calmed Ilya. “You don’t just need control over this Skill; you need to redirect its evolution.”

Blowing out a slow breath, Amdirlain felt like facepalming. “I’m listening; not sure why I didn’t think about that myself.”

“Not sure anyone can catch everything themselves. Isn’t that why you and Sarah have been bouncing your armoury ideas between each other?” enquired Ilya.

When Amdirlain nodded to acknowledge her point, Ilya continued.

“Now‌. Hell still has plenty of succubi who are fine with something available to fuck their brains out regularly, but they also have a lot whose main arsenal is in their words. There are cities in Hell where the hierarchy is entirely succubi, and no, they’re not giant brothels,” drawled Ilya, cutting off the question on Amdirlain’s lips.

“You got me,” surrendered Amdirlain. “A Succubus generally isn’t the most powerful of combatants. How do they keep control?”

”Rules, of course. The cities I’m thinking about all have a particular ward in their protections. If you hit someone, you find yourself naked outside the city, your gear left behind,” Ilya grimly explained.

Amdirlain raised a hand, beckoning Ilya to wait. “Let me guess. The locals use the setup to their advantage?”

“And you’d be right, since the gear drops where the attacker was standing. These cities aren’t too common, so we didn’t cover them in our discussions. Within the walls, it’s a literal war of words where those that raise weapons are the losers.”

“Randomly insulting devils is unlikely to get you much,”

“The succubi master learning through observation and casual conversation. While many are what you’d expect, whores or spies with little regard given to them, those that have climbed the ranks are a different breed,” explained Ilya. Putting her swords away, she sat cross-legged, unheeding of the hard stone. “Did your world have those that made their living by their ability to communicate and manipulate?”

“Politicians, salespeople, and even some entertainers found those skills profitable,” admitted Amdirlain.

“Your Polyglot is weird. I heard one word—politician—and got an impression of the tribal council of my Human life saying one thing, yet getting away with acting in bad faith. Did these politicians take lessons from Hell?”

“No,” laughed Amdirlain. “Just the wording of your question had me focus on those who abused their position and conned people.”

“You’re likely going to find this frustrating,” cautioned Ilya. “And take it as a suggestion we’ll need to verify, as all I’ve got to go on is observations; I’ve never seen the imprint of the higher members of the hierarchy.”

“Go on,” encourage Amdirlain.

“Learn Interrogation, but also relearn Diplomacy,” suggested Ilya

“Really?” grumbled Amdirlain.

Ilya nodded firmly. “It’s not just the skills—it's the use you put them to. You want to take this Skill that is an alluring manipulator and alter its course. My first idea would be to focus it more towards being a confidante type, with whom people would trust and share secrets, but that is likely not the only option.”

“Okay, I see what you mean, but I’ve not had much time to sit and talk with strangers. Getting someone you don’t know to open up would likely be the way to advance the skills towards that end,” commented Amdirlain.

At that, Ilya winced. “You’ll likely need to do something else now that I hear you put it that way. Even with your Charisma suppressed, you don’t have trouble getting people to talk to you.”

“I’ve had people that strongly hated my guts,” refuted Amdirlain.

“Charisma can emphasise the feelings people have about a situation they encounter a person in, or their appearance; the alien becomes intolerable,” countered Ilya. “Maybe you were just ugly to them.”

“One persistent girl, I was interfering with her expectations and dreams. I’d need a place with elves, or a charismatic race where my looks wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.”

“Physical appearance is hardly a limiting factor,” Ilya noted and reinforced her point by changing her skin to purple

“You’re a purple people eater, are you?” quipped Amdirlain to distract Ilya. “Best go find Isa.”

The joke actually got Ilya to wiggle her eyebrows. “Isa’s educated me on some of your music and idioms, and she’s finger-licking good.”

“Yep, she’s corrupted you,” chuckled Amdirlain.

Ilya gave her a bland smile instead of joining in. “See, subject change with humour.”

The observation got a grunt from Amdirlain. “I’d want it to be a place where I felt comfortable in my appearance while dealing with others, not like I was lying to them.”

“When’s the last time you released your control of your form to see your natural appearance?” asked Ilya.

“I’m a lot taller but otherwise have stayed the same, except my wings have more red spicing up the black and gold,” stated Amdirlain. “Be glad I keep the auras concealed.”

Snorting, Ilya traced her fingers across the claw marks Sarah had left on the floor. “I’ve been around some brain-melting individuals. So, a path to redirect the Skill from a sensual manipulator into a confidante or something else benign?”

“Any reason your primary suggestion is the confidante tack?” asked Amdirlain.

“You told Isa you’d intentionally screwed up Diplomacy because you were worried it amplified your Charisma’s influence. Many people don’t expect a confidante to give advice—they just want someone to listen to them,” Ilya said, and gave a broad shrug. “Anyway, I’m not sure where we can find information on options, but I know this lady with a thing about Luck and Skill.”

“Remarkable!” exclaimed Amdirlain playfully.

“That she is,” agreed Ilya, and stopped at Sarah’s sudden return.

With a Cheshire cat grin firmly in place, Sarah glanced down at the scratches Ilya was still absently running her fingers along. “Feeling up the wrong slit there, Ilya.”

Amdirlain gave Ilya a sympathetic look before she flipped off Sarah. “Not all of us think about sex as much as you do, Sarah. Why don’t you spill it?”

“I unleashed our dogs of war,” laughed Sarah.

Ilya looked between them. “Hadn’t you already started hitting places?”

“Sarah moved the armouries the towers draw from to another Plane to negate any chance of Moloch’s forces tracing them,” explained Amdirlain.

“If they figure out a way to trace them, they’ll still be able to access other planes in the Abyss,” cautioned Ilya.

Amdirlain gave her a wicked smile that had Ilya inhaling in surprise. Coughing, Amdirlain schooled her expression. “They’re not in the Abyss. Although Mount Olympus is no longer home to a pantheon, it’s still a heavenly Plane that demons can’t intrude upon. We still have the slimes teleport locally, but they’re below ground and concealed. Their spheres provide a beacon for the weapons to be shifted across planes, so the placement is still accurate. I take it the latest tests you planned went well?”

“Flawless, they’ve rotated crews and are still going strong. I’ve kicked it up to eleven with a new set,” Sarah said, and she transformed into her Human form. Not bothering to dress, she held out an orb that served as a psionic-relay and projected the captured imagery so they could see it.

The perspective was from a kilometre overhead of where sixteen hundred towers surrounded a great number of low-level demons. Even as they watched, another hundred towers appeared, these topped with singular cannons. Their shells, wreathed in a prism of Celestial energy, tore at the air, sending out at a wave that shredded demonic flesh even before they hit.

Ilya grunted at the sight of swaths being cut down. “Dretch I can understand being ripped apart, they’re slow and plodding. What I don’t understand are the horde-lings or schirs not blinking into melee range or fleeing that way,”

“Interdiction fields; missy doesn’t want Moloch’s forces getting away,” purred Sarah. “Pity about these training brigades.”

“Where are their commanders?”

Sarah pointed out large chunks of shattered crystal within the ring of towers. “I started the deployment with some Order explosions and raw kinetic force; which netted me the experience for some balors and senior schirs.”

“Celestials, when they attack the Abyss, turn up and go toe to toe,” breathed Ilya as she watched the carnage continue.

“That can be fun, but I prefer force magnifiers,” retorted Sarah.

Some towers faltered momentarily as litres of glowing, silvery-white gel burst across the battlefield melting flesh and bone. The demons didn’t exploit the opening before the towers resumed firing—though initially with slightly reduced accuracy.

“What was that?” asked Ilya.

“Some slimes levelled enough. Amdirlain’s gizmos sent the souls onto Judgement, but the slime’s body got repurposed.”