Wild Wastes 6 -ch 5- (Patreon)

<Reload with audio>

Steve rushed headlong for the giant demon.

Who had froze in place, their eyes turning down to the approaching human. Watching in curiosity and what was likely shock.

After all, what human would dare to rush The Hungry One.

It was the very definition of outside of expectations.

“What?” murmured the Null off to Vince’s side. “Seville?”

“His name’s Steve,” Vince replied off-handedly.

A hand pressed to his back and he felt Johanna’s presence directly behind him.

Glancing over his shoulder he looked to the goddess of magic.

She had black hair that was just past her shoulders, dark eyes, and was actually quite good looking. Her figure was also very appealing.

She wasn’t at Dea’s level for her figure, but her good-looks had passed by everyone else in a flash. Making her hard to not look at.

Which was odd, she hadn’t been this pretty before they entered the battle-field.

Is it… because she emptied her canteen?

Ryker did mention that she’s screwed up her own faith. That it’s self-feeding at this point into a cycle.

“No, that’s-that’s Seville,” she hissed.

“Not anymore. His name’s Steve,” countered Vince again. He looked ahead as Steve continued running toward the demon.

He wasn’t moving with incredible swiftness.

Nor did it seem like his steps were heavy in any way.

It was just a man running along.

Ferris, Yaris, and Dea all eased over to stand nearer to him.

“What-who’s that?” Dea asked, reaching Vince.

Ferris was looking at Johanna then eventually tore her eyes off her to look to Vince. He got the impression she wanted to ask her something.

“That’s Steve,” Vince said again. He wondered how many more times he’d have to say his name today. “He’s my friend.”

“Friend!?” hissed Johanna.

“Well, new friend,” Vince corrected himself. “Still a friend.”

“I-you-you need to fill my canteen! Quickly! I can fight him if-I need power!” Johanna growled and spun Vince around. Her canteen was pushed up against his chest. “Quickly!

“Ah… nevermind, just, I’ll use my mouth. Just be quick about it!”

Johanna had already started to get down on her knees before Vince grabbed her by the elbow.

“You know what? Yeah, we’ll do that. Just not here, not right now. You don’t need to fight him,” Vince assured her.

Johanna had a strange look on her face, halfway between a crouch and standing, and looking at him.

Oh.

She wants me to do it anyways, despite not needing to fight Steve.

Fuck.

Johanna really did screw up her faith and is entirely stuck. If Red comes back and needs me to feed her, Johanna is really going to depend on other women being ‘milked’ for her.

Whatever.

We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Looking back to Steve and the Demon, Vince was just in time to see Steve’s axe swing into the monster’s ankle. At the distance they were at it wasn’t too hard to see what was going on.

The size of the creature had made it seem closer, however.

At least, they could see everything right up until Steve’s weapon struck.

Then the demon’s foot all the way up to above the knee was gone.

The whole of it vanishing in a violent spray of gore that shot off in the direction Steve’s axe had been traveling. Obliterating it.

“Uh,” Dea pronounced from an intellectual vantage point.

The boom of the strike reached them.

A meaty thwap that reminded him of plowing Mouth face down into Meliae with how wet it sounded.

Screaming, the demon collapsed down to one knee. It’s now mangled leg sticking out awkwardly to one side.

Steve leapt forward and brought his axe up in an underhanded stroke. The blade of it striking the demon below the shoulder..

The demon was split in half at the thorax. It’s upper half started at the armpits, and the lower half from there down.

There was a deafening shriek followed by the demon’s avatar scrabbling ahead a short distance. Only to slow down quickly.

From Steve, there was no escape at this moment.

All the demon was doing was prolonging the situation.

“I… I never… he… is he human?” Ferris asked quietly.

“Yeah. Just not from this world. He’s one of a kind,” Vince murmured.

A Red Dragon spilled out of the demon’s body and rolled free of the corpse. It lifted it’s head and looked at Steve.

“Oh, she lived,” Ferris remarked. “She’s from the east. She was coming this way because she heard about all the changes.”

Steve caught back up to the Demon’s avatar. It’d stopped moving by this point and was laying still on the grass.

Raising up his axe he brought it down almost without force on top of the big monster’s head.

It split in half and brain material began seeping out onto the grass.

“It’s a pity he won’t be able to stick around. With that kind of strength we could bring everyone to heel,” Vince admitted. “He can only stay for so long before he has to go back.

“Apparently it’s more of a risk to his family than it is to him. Otherwise I imagine he’d be happy to help out.”

“I dedicate this victory to Vince Campbell! Lord of the Elves, Dryads, and Dragons! King of Yosemite of the Legion empire! May his ears hear your prayers should you need him!” Steve shouted in a booming voice. “The undisputed ruler of Spain and it’s territories!”

It felt as if it was carrying far further than it realistically should have. That he had done something to make it carry as far as it had.

Steve waved his arm back and forth over his head in wide arcs at Vince and then a portal opened not far away from him. The look of it seemed odd from this distance and didn’t quite match what Vince was expecting.

“Sorry, I need Steve to help me elsewhere. Hi, by the way, I’m Bianca. The new Architect,” said a female voice somewhere above Vince. “No one else can hear me right now, so you probably shouldn’t respond to me verbally.

“I know Runner said Steve might be able to come back and help out more, but that’s just possible. I’m sorry. I really need him to help me out with some other places.

“For that to happen, I need to get him home and decompresed first.

“I’ll drop by later to chat! Ta-ta for now!”

Steve jogged through the portal.

Surprisingly, the Red Dragon stumbled to it’s feet, then wedged itself into the portal. Then through it, vanishing entirely.

“Alright then, bye, have a great time,” Vince murmured more to himself.

No sooner than that portal had shut, then a new one opened.

Halfway between himself and where Steve had been, a strange red oval tore itself into reality. A twisting, writhing thing, that looked as if it were actually battling itself to remain open or close at the same exact moment.

Three people rushed out of it and looked back into the portal they’d come through.

“Same, Leila, and Red?” asked Vince, spotting the three familiar figures.

At the same time a strange bubbling hiccup escaped him. Rising up through his guts and fighting it’s way out through his mouth.

Though it sounded more like a sob, really.

Leila made a hand gesture at the portal, then stood there. Only for the portal to suddenly slam shut on itself.

Then all three women turned to look at Vince.

Before he’d realized it he was jogging their way.

Red and Sam were instantly moving toward him.

One sprinting on all fours, the other flying at him as if they were a round shot from a rifle. Both of them barreling forward at their maximum speed.

The undead, red-eyed, brown-haired, fearsome monster known as Red reached him first by virtue of not slowing down. In fact, she launched herself off the ground and at him.

It caught him off guard, though he should have known better.

“Bringer!” squealed Red a second before she slammed into him.

Rather than trying to stand there and take the hit, he let himself be knocked off his feet. Flying backward and hitting the turf with his shoulders and sliding for a foot or two.

Red was kissing him even before he stopped. Her hands holding tight to his shoulders.

“Oh, Vince, I’m so glad you’re here,” Sam got out in a thick voice. It sounded as if she were about to cry..

Red broke the kiss and pushed her face into his neck, practically grinding herself into him on the ground then and there.

Opening his eyes he saw Sam above.

Sam was of course the largest Fae Vince had met or heard of

Somehow, she’d grown larger than even Leila was at this point. Perhaps an inch or two bigger than the gnome.

The large fairy wings that stuck out of her back were putting out a fair amount of air-current with how fast they were flapping and their size.

Her dark black hair was pulled back in a pony-tail and make her azure-colored eyes stand out all the more. A warm and wide smile split her face and her eyes indeed did look to have tears in the corners.

The Fae blinked several times before her wings went still. Then she landed atop Red and Vince, hugging both of them, though kissing the latter.

A few seconds went by before she also broke the kiss, and put her face into his neck on the other side of where Red was.

“Red is very happy,” whined Red. “Very happy. Red wasn’t sure she would ever get home.”

Nodding his head, Vince hugged both of them tightly and kept them pressed to himself. Lifting his head slightly, he saw Leila trudging up to them.

The gnome warlock and her incredibly large purple eyes were looked tired. Tired and worn out.

The glittering sparks that dwelled in the depths of her eyes were dull at the moment though present.

The elegantly sculpted face with perfect features was pale and she was breathing hard.

The attractive gnome woman collapsed onto her rear end next to his head.

Her hair was dirty-blonde looked ragged and was loose. There were several streaks of either mud or blood in it.

“We’re back,” she said in a soft rush of breath. “It took… it took a lot of effort, and some really messy work, but we’re back.”

“And a helpful man,” Sam added.

“Yes… and a very helpful man that I’m even now highly suspicious of,” agreed Leila. Then she leaned forward and kissed Vince briefly. She put her forehead to his afterward. “Before you ask, he showed up just in time to ask me questions that were too precise, inferred far too much, then practically opened the way for us home.

“Far… far too easily. As if he knew exactly what he was doing, saying, and what the result he wanted was.”

“An enemy?” he asked curiously.

“No. Not an enemy. But… maybe not an ally, either. I didn’t get the impression there was any care for us, he just wanted us… gone,” Sam interjected.

“Red doesn’t care. Red is home. Red will wish them well,” grumbled the Undead beauty.

They all went quiet as everyone just laid there and hugged one another.

“Looks like we missed some things,” Leila remarked after a time. “Want to catch us up?”

Vince grunted and nodded his head.

That was a good place to start, really.

Squeezing Red and Sam, he reached across the two, and snagged Leila. He forcefully dragged her down onto his middle. Pushing the other two women to his sides.

Now that he had all three in his arms he let his head rest against the grass.

He closed his eyes with a smile.

“Well… let’s see… after you got eaten by the portal storm everything sped up but also slowed down,” Vince mused. “Got out, found everyone, saved a colony of Ratkin, mostly conquered Spain, made a new border with Prussany, and turned a pretty goddess of magic into a Seed Zombie.”

Leila clicked her tongue, then sighed.

“No, too summarized. In detail,” she demanded, cuddling into him.

“Okay… in detail…”

***

Vince was staring down at the corpse of the avatar of The Hungry One with a sour expression.

“— endless plane. Endless!” hissed Sam. “If it wasn’t for Leila getting us water, me finding things to kill, and Red killing it, we’d have died. Forever ago.”

“Red ate the hearts. Sam and Leila ate the rest,” Red added. “Endless… nothing. In every direction.

“Red felt like Red would fall into the sky. Would prefer flying.”

“Needless to say, it was… very boring, and life threatening at the same time,” remarked Leila with a sigh. “Then that man showed up and… here we are.

“And no, we didn’t see him approach. Didn’t hear him. Didn’t smell him. He just… appeared.”

Sounds like a god to me.

Except Ryker’s dead.

So it wasn’t him.

Runner would have told me if he’d done something.

Bianca, the new Architect, didn’t mention it.

That means there’s someone else messing around in a similar way.

One that’s an ally up to a point.

I’ll ask about it when I get the chance.

“That does sound rather awful,” Dea remarked in a strange tone. “Trees are the lifeblood of an area. Everywhere needs trees.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re a Dryad now. Your eyes even glow like theirs do,” Ferris remarked. “If you’re not a Dryad, I’m not a Dragon.

“I… well… yes. I suppose I really am a Dryad now. I’ve accepted it and embraced my newfound heritage. I like being a Dryad, in fact. It’s quite lovely so far,” admitted Dea. “Still. Trees are needed.

“And speaking of trees and needs, you need to head back to Galicia at some point. It’s become the home-city of all Dryads in Europe.

“There’s quite a few altars to me and you that’ve been erected. They’re calling it the cradle of Dryad Divinity.

“Since, you know, all those Dryads were resurrected at the exact same time. Apparently bells have become quite the holy symbol now. They all started chiming in concert after all.

“Just as the lord of Dryads had promised, they all returned.”

“Fine. It’s… fine. I need to do a ‘tour or whatever anyways, don’t I, Yarie?” Vince asked and sighed. He pulled out his energy sword and moved toward the lower half of the dead avatar.

“I-yes. You most likely do. I’m not entirely… aware… of everything that’s going on out here, but you do need to commit to a tour,” Yaris agreed. “Let’s… send you away somewhere to eat that heart and recover. After everything that happened, it would be best to have you out of sight for a time.”

“Alright. That works. I can go home, now, by the way,” Vince remarked. “All the rules are gone. We don’t owe the Overgods anything anymore.”

“Oh? Oh! Fantastic. Then yes, a tour is certainly needed in the near future. You probably won’t be needed here on the front line either for a time. The appearance of that avatar will likely bring everyone to the bargaining table,” Yaris concluded. “You should tour Europe first, then Yosemite. The Emperor in the west is almost completely routed. He’s in his last stronghold. We’ve just left him there because it was easier than risking people.

“The warlords in the East have been completely conquered. We’ve been forced to leave a number of troops as garrison forces but… it’s taken.

“The Tri-liance in the south has been very quiet. What little we’ve gotten from them is… well… it doesn’t really make sense. It’s all conflicting.”

“Because it’s all true, I imagine,” Ferris said dryly. “Every Dragon the heard me and listened took with them their wealth and power. The Tri-liance is likely suffering a power vacuum in some ways.

“Those Dragons who remained are probably unable to maintain their promises and oaths. The prayers I receive are often disjointed and… well, honestly I can’t hear them as well as I used to.

“I think they’re praying to a version of me that doesn’t technically exist now. As I exist now, the wife of Vince and goddess of Dragons, I’m not the same Ferris I once was.”

“All the better,” stated Vince as he waded into the chest of the avatar. He was looking for it’s heart. He was going to start with that and see what else he could wolf down.

Power is power.

If I have to eat garbage to do it, then I’ll do it.

“Why thank you,” Ferris cooed with a warm laugh. “I look forward to our marital union! I didn’t think I’d be the last one to get anything from you at all.”

Oh, I guess she’s right.

Huh.

That’ll be fun.

Hey, Dea, I’m praying to you ass the goddess of Dryads. Make sure you’re there so I can make you watch me plow Ferris into a bed and try to knock her up.

You can clean me up like the good Dryad you are.

Cause you’re a Dryad now, aren’t you?

Dryads love this sort of thing.

That means you probably love it now.

And if you didn’t want to be the goddess of Dryads, you could have stopped it. Look no further than Johanna. She knew what she was doing to herself.

You knew this too, did you not?

There was a strange gurgling squeak that escaped from behind Vince.

Glancing over his shoulder he saw Dea staring at him with wide and intensely glowing eyes. She’d most certainly heard him.

“Complaints?” he asked.

“N-none. I knew. I agree,” answered Dea with a quick shake of her head.

“Huh?” Sam asked.

“He prayed at her. Most likely involving me given how my poor Dryad’s eyes lit up,” Ferris murmured and wrapped an arm around Dea’s hips. “Though I suppose that’s good news for me.

“Okay, so our next move is a global tour. Then what do we do?”

“No clue. I leave that shit to my beautiful Royal Bedroom Elf Queen, wonderful general of cuddly fun, and sexy green Fes,” Vince answered and began sawing at the arteries and veins that held the heart in place. “So look at the most likely blushing and pregnant Royal Bedroom Elf and ask her what we’re doing next since she’s here.

“Oh, and since all my goddesses are here, we should probably hold a religious ceremony. Maybe have all of you at the same time while all the priestesses pray at me. That’d be fun.”

Vince was feeling pretty good as he pulled out the massive heart.

His duty to the Overgods was done.

The lost comrades he worried for had been returned.

Even the limitations he’d been suffering under were gone.

He could even go visit his dad soon as well as his sister.

“Ah, one more thing. I have a sister, and I found my dad,” Vince said and sat down next to the boulder sized heart. “You’re all going to get to meet your father-in-law and sister-in-law.

“Felix is also likely back home, or can go back home, now, too.”

“Oh? Red will call Andrea when we get back. Red wants to make sure her best-friend knows this news immediately,” Red muttered and then started to look around. “Is there anyone from Legion here? Red wants to call now.”

“Petra’s over there somewhere. I’m sure she’s got one,” Vince said and waved distantly back the way they came. Then he patted the heart. “Okay. I need someone to carry this off somewhere for me. I want to dig into this but I’m going to need time to do it.”

“I’ll summon Renata,” Ferris offered. “She can get you back to Galicia quickly. You can enjoy your meal, rest, then begin your tour there.”

“I’ll let-I’ll let my Dryads know,” Dea murmured. Her eyes were still burning from the inside out while staring at him. “They will be excited for you to return to the city of Dryads.

“And yes, it really is. All of the trees you end up seeing around the city are all Dryad trees. All of them. It’s a city of trees, now.

“Every Dryad that could plant there, that isn’t with you, has done so.”

Vince nodded his head at that.

It sounded like a perfect city to him.

Dryads were amazing.