Ephestus - God of War

Ephestus sighed, relaxing in his throne. Though to say it was originally his throne, or even a throne at all is kind of misleading. It was more of a crater blown out into the shape of a throne’s seat indented into the sphere. The populous of the makeshift chair all deceased from not only the bombardment, but also from the hordes of raging armored soldiers spilling out from it all over the globe, like a raging wildfire eager to burn away the foliage on a stone slab. A greatsword roughly the same size of the planet itself was casually stabbed within the side where Ephestus casually stored his weapon.

Another busy day of wanton destruction with a satisfying conclusion, taking another world for his own, for he did not like having his own base of operations. Butchering and barraging helpless worlds, seeing who would fight back, and whatever fellow god had the balls to stand up to him. Of course, this god’s world was a cakewalk to dismantle. First it was political downward spirals, then bam! Right into the mutual loathing! Then when there was a clear winner, let the masses of the Army of Ephestus spawn to wipe out the rest.

He fumed at how feeble the God of Currency acted trying to ward him off. The sniveling no-neck was still bawling his eyes out over how this influx of dead would affect his perfect business empire, while he doesn’t even realize that Ephestus attacked him specifically because Rika, Goddess of Conflict, was planning to set up a meeting involving the concept of money matches and pit fight bets. It felt good to bombard down on someone’s hard work to extinction, all that money did well to encourage a bunch of explosives from all parties involved until he went in for the stragglers, but their actual caretaker was so dissatisfying. Still, you do what you do to try and incite outrage.

This relentless has to antagonize at least someone higher up, he thought, idly kicking the nearby moon into the deep void of space, the business astronauts upon it screaming in terror. But really, despite how much he flexes his secret political influence talents, no matter how much he destroys or gets in peoples’ way, it never seems to work on getting the gods’ attention. None that he actually cared about of course, the lower rungs notice all too well and try their best to stay out of the way.

Plus he couldn’t shake the feeling of favorite rival; Rika, and the only equally ranked god to him, was starting to waver. Especially after his last visit. She couldn’t even bother giving him a proper battle, but instead, it was pathetic. It was like she was treating what they had as some sort of sick joke…

At any rate, it was so infuriating that he decided to destroy the world he was just in to blow off steam. Unfortunately, it was merely momentary, the half an hour of carnage only sustained him for so long until his thoughts once again turned to her. Was he just not aggressive enough? Not taunting enough? Was she seeing some other destructive god? That last thought made his mood cloud up in fury. It couldn’t be. Nobody was as threatening to the Godly Circle as the Warrior To End All Warriors. At least in his mind.

He took a deep breath as he swept back his wet-looking black hair from his eyes, the inhalation snuffing out the local star’s heat. He rationalized that it was probably a bad day or something for her, and didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of the thrill of combat.

He scratched his bristled chin that set upon the end of a rugged jaw, wondering where to go next. He usually would antagonize a bigger entity, but not even the one person he usually fights has the time for him anymore.

He could go and trash Wanserou’s place, but annoyingly, that one seems out of reach of his tremendous might, the safeguards that that bastard created were more intense than merely trying to power through. He was on a supposed blacklist of people needing to go in as…How did that stupid genie that barred his way put it? Read-Only Mode to select individuals? He tried barging through, but that only ended up with the odd feeling of being restrained. Not physically, of course, he’d break any physical binding, but one that seemed to cling to his mind like a sticky web, or how his mind envisioned it clearly as chains made up of interlocking ones and zeros. He decided to forgo that visit, not until he figures out what that was, he wouldn’t voluntarily offer himself up to such a trap that breaks through his defenses like that.

Perhaps Evanore, perhaps she would finally give a shit about him destroying something that was hers today. No, she wasn’t exactly all that fun. The sassy missy just decided the best course of action was just to ignore him and rebuild later. That bitch, thinking she can stomp all over him just because she can remake the things that he breaks.

So then maybe Klotho- No, she was the worst. He touched at the blood red jewel embedded in his chest at the thought of her, the jewel framed by spiky ribcage-like tattoos seemingly also glowing red briefly from the contact. The Bloodrock of True Time may have rendered him immune to temporal shenanigans, but that only made it worse as she would smugly just undo all the damage that he had inflicted. The awareness only made her more insufferably smug. It’s a wonder how anyone puts up with Klotho’s attitude. No, the black and white clock woman that spouted the outdated lingo would not have the satisfaction of his rage today.

He wrenched out his greatsword with one hand as if it were merely penetrating butter before he took it out, the planet almost crumbling from the suddenness of the , and proceeded to slash downwards, opening a massive gash into the fabric of space. From the wound, blood began to spill, though instead of merely pooling downwards or floating in the void of space randomly, the bloodstreaks began writing themselves in rough bold words, as if smearing themselves against an invisible glass before the burly barbarian. The writings were displaying lists of godly names, all within the rankings, but Ephestus had no care for the numbers or how high they were on the leaderboard, it was merely another rung of a ladder, just because you’re higher up doesn’t make you any less stepped on when someone like him wanted to go higher.

The names kept writing down and down, with a gesture of his hand, the names began zooming upwards and breaking through a stray moon, allowing him to witness the names lower down on the list that were being written out.Out of all the names he read through, he just scoffed and tapped a random name in the list at random.

He gave a small chuckle at the result. A relatively minor god in things. He’s still taking part in that God School for crying out loud, how can he be of any challenge? Still, it is what he had landed on, and he was in the list of world-makers in the first place, so maybe the son of Lady Luck can surprise him.

Ephestus butted the pommel of his weapon into the void of space, cracking into shards and making way to a portal. Stepping through, he grinned, baring his mighty fangs as he pondered how he’s going to fight this one. In any case, Randalmiser; God of Results, is going to receive some very violent company.

—

“Yeah, that’s right, keep going without me! I gotta take this call, don’t stop on my watch~” Wanserou said with the airs of a generous host. He strode out of the party room, the invitees enjoying themselves immensely to his catering service…and the catering staff since .Chf’s were some seriously foxy babes dressed in cooking attire.

As soon as the door closed on the party, Wanserou’s car salesman-esque grin quickly morphed to one of great annoyance. Making a gesture up to his ear as if he were mimicking taking a phone call. A holographic screen popped up before him as he does, the image of a dumpy balding man in a regal suit sweating profusely was displayed on the newly appearing screen.

“What do you want, Nounick,” Wanserou said, making this interruption clear in his voice that this was an inconvenient event, “I’m busy babysitting Evanore’s pet ghosts while she’s away hunting for some kind of artifact or whatever, so this better be important, or so help me-!”

“Oh thank Us for finally picking up, Mr. Wanserou!” The man bawling into the cravat around his neck, “It’s horrible, just horrible! My recent world got bulldozed by that horrid brute Ephestus! Destroyed everything so easily! Snf” Nounick then made a loud honking noise as he blew his nose into the neckpiece, “I really need help, as I’m in quite the pickle here!”

Wanserou sighed. Of course it’s a Code Ephestus, he does love making this awkward. “So what do you want me to do? Get him to leave or something?”

“Oh heavens no,” Nounick said, seemingly now over the worst of his crying fit, “What I want to ask you is if you can recover the lost data from the universal stock market of the world before I refresh it. That was valuable data stored away in there, and I need it if I were to brag in Klotho’s face that I’m better at finances as my field of godliness suggests.”

Wanserou could only close his eyes as he shook his head with bemusement, “Oh Nounick, I told you to look into purchasing my One-Zero Security Package, but now it doesn’t look like I'm overcharging anymore now that you didn’t have it in time, eh?”

Wanserou then stared dispassionately at the monitor after his spiel, before finally saying, “Five Nobucks.”

Nounick quickly retorted without a beat, “One Nobuck.”

“Four.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

“Deal.” Nounick finishes, giving a sniff of satisfaction as he tugs the lapels of his suit jacket, then proceeds to extract a smoke pipe already smoking from the inner pocket. “Now, I hope you’re able to get the data soon. Ephestus has already left towards Lady Luck’s domain to bother her son and I need that info in two days.” He says, puffing out three puffs of radiating green smoke into the air.

“Oh? Which one, by chance? The bad luck catgirl with a fun sense of punishment, or the good luck one that wears a bunny suit and thinks slot machines are sexy? You know they both go by the same title.”

“Er, the latter…Not that it really matters, right? I need that data, that's what matters! Can you do it or not?”

“Sure sure. Of course. Anyway, you wanted it in two days? Psh! With that blowhard gone, I can get it in an hour easily.” Wanserou brags, looking at another monitor conjured up, seeing a number go from 0 to 3.

“Oh thank you, Mr. Wanserou, you are truly worthy of that high godly position of yours! It’s truly a blessing!” Nounick celebrated with a hearty chuckle before Wanserou closed the screen by grabbing at it.

With a flick of his wrist, out from his sleeve flew out a digitally constructed genie with a skimpy outfit in a flurry of sparking particles, spinning around dizzily before righting herself before Wanserou. “Oh great, what now?” Jenny replied, sighing, floating back around to stop Wanserou gazing at her ass to instead look her directly in the tits.

“Ah, Jenny, glad you’re up and about. Finally finished scrubbing those backup disks I see. Good, keeping my security is important." Wanserou grins smugly. Jenny rolls her eyes and makes the motion to idly check her nails which she doesn’t really have in response. Wanserou notes that after that recent security breach, this may be the third illegal download copy of Wanserou that's out there now. Still, he at least marked them as Dummies so that they can't be used to commit Data Fraud or actually have any divine influence. Well, Jenny marked them, Wanserou just told her to do so.

“Anyway, I need you to get all the financial data from Nounicks’ most recent world, here’s the keycodes,” He startled her by slipping a piece of paper into Jenny’s massive bosom, the paper slipping in and grinding like being put through a paper shredder as a line of zeroes and ones circled Jenny’s head for a moment. “Make sure you’re quick, I promised it’d be done in an hour.”

Jenny shook off the digital trance she was under for a second to respond, “An hour?! But-!” Jenny was about to complain but Wanserou quickly interrupted, casually flicking open a new window to what appears to be a messaging system typing away. He eventually replies to her, “Don’t you start complaining, I know you can do it, you did much harder projects before in less time. And besides, he paid me in Nobucks, so I’ll make it up to you by going shopping later.” Jenny cocked her head as Wanserou finishes sending his message, before looking up what Nobucks were in her dictionary directive, her eyes glowing as text typed away through her perspective;

[Nobucks are a special currency that the divine specifically trades in, minted by Nounick himself. He’s quite respected only because he created this coinage, but only because he did buy his way into power because of said money. Nobucks are able to buy anything that a person or god has without fuss or muss. Spending a coin in such a manner apparates the legal tender from the user back to the Novault, but the person then gets the subject they wanted from the subject without complaint and treated as an amicable trade in all respects, be it a commission, power, or even godly artifact. Certain things such as ownership over a deity or anything that would a deity to lose their godliness has been outlawed and thus is not legally tradable. See Forbidden Nobuck Trades under Historical Purchases for details on what the coins are unable to obtain.]

“Ooo~” Jenny coos, and makes a deep bow, granting her god a deep look into her genie cleavage, “Well with that in mind, I’ll do it lickety split! Though I want a coin as well, you might want to be aware of that.”

Wanserou smirked, “Heh, you know, I knew I liked you, you know what you’re worth. You make a fantastic partner.” But then the smirk turned cocky, “But nice try, I know how these coins work. I’ll hold onto the Nobucks and buy one thing for you.”

Jenny shrugged, cheekily saying, “You got me. I’ll be over to Nounicks’ so fast he won’t even know I was there~”

Wanserou nodded, “Great to hear, now I gotta get to the party, the .Chf crew can only distract those kinky-ass ghosts for so long. On your way out, let the security protocol crew know about a potential breach with the Randalmiser account, Ephestus was headed that way.”

As Wanserou turned to leave and Jenny opened a warp gate, “Right away~” She snapped her fingers and zipped into the gate.

Right as the door opened, Wanserou was once again in a sexy lady version of himself, but done to the nines in a sexy pinata themed getup of some rainbow socks, tight tube dress with tassels, and a goofy sombrero donning her hair. “Alright boys, who wants to slap around my titties and ass for some of that good sugar~” She said lustily with a slight spanish accent, unaware of anything different.

—

Ephestus glared as he stood in place, arms crossed as he stared ahead. His portal should’ve taken him to the world governed by Randalmiser, but instead he is currently standing in the abyss of his portal connection to it. A wall of invisible is blocking his might. He tried destroying the offending interruption, but the weapons he had summoned all were stuck within it, as if wedged in there too deep to pull back out, but showing no signs of wear or tear. All that shows of this wall’s method of passage that makes it distinct is a text box floating at eye level.

Again, the words blink at him;

[Please Log In or Register for Access as a Player. If you do not wish to register, you are clear to enter the Free World Experience and start playing right away. Tap the relevant selection to begin.]

[Login] [Register] [I Want To Play]

He sighed. It was clear he wasn’t brute forcing his way in. Which only made him want to break the place more, naturally. After all, if some God School brat was able to keep HIM out with this level of strength, he is either getting someone else to help him provide security to his worlds, or he’s quite prestigious that would make for an excellent fight. Despite his anger, he can only lick his lips at the thought of such brutal mutual carnage. He can just imagine tasting the blood of his enemies now.

Nevertheless, he still needed to get through, and it seems the only way to do so is either “register”, which sounds like something that would give away his position or restrict him, or to go in a “Free World Experience”. If that means that he gets access into the world, then that should be good enough. If he gets a foot through the door no matter where he ends up, Randalmiser is going to have a VERY tough time getting it out.

Ephestus taps [I Want To Play] aggressively, and the panel vanishes, the embedded weapons fall to the floor, likely meaning the wall has vanished. Though the action did spark a subtle zap at his hand, emblazing a mark into his palm, writing that said [1 FREE ENTRY]. The God of War has felt so much damage and pain that he’s practically numb to anything short of a railgun shot to the eye, so it was beneath his notice. Feeling forward, he nodded in satisfaction that he could continue. Stepping forward into the light, he grins, revealing teeth that have chewed the heads off of demons grinding in eagerness, cracking knuckles that have cracked celestial bodies into dust, eager to begin his latest onslaught.

The light enveloped his vision, the new world before him now clearing into his sight. Though it was enough to rub his eyes with a free hand. It was like he was seeing double right now. Not like doubled vision, but more of…layered on top of each other. In one perspective, he was standing in a beautiful glen, sunshine streaming through the high trees above him, pleasant sounds of birdsong meeting the ears of one that would rather hear screams and explosions. Pretty idyllic all things considered. Ephestus was disgusted at this tranquility.

Though that second sight is far more…concerning.

From this sight, what he actually perceives is that he’s not in fact in a lovely forest, but instead in a bedroom. Or rather, a giant bedroom as he seems to be greatly scaled down, and standing on a table. A table with a gridded mat on top of it. With various other pieces scattered around as well.

Aw hell, he’s in a tabletop game.

Just as he realizes, the sound of a loud clap was heard, which brought his attention up to the figure that just peeked from over a GM screen. The appearance of this figure was that of a man cast entirely in thick black shadow, save for his clothing and blue glowing expressive eyes. Decked out in what looks like a dusty blue poncho with a matching wizard hat, his hands clapping together in excitement showed brown leather gloves, one hand having a small brown satchel looped around his wrist.

“Ooo goody!” The giant wizard exclaimed, seemingly unable to contain his joy, “Someone decided they wanted to play with me after all!”

Ephestus was furious. He was not going to play any such game as a pawn. War games, sure, he might entertain the thought as it’s more of a game of brutal carnage and strategy only, but from the looks of the GM screen and the pieces on the table, it looked to be a more roleplaying type of game. He willed himself to grow, channeling his godly might to return to his regular size, no, bigger so that this nerd would see his true power as the room collapses around him from his sheer presence!

Only to be disappointed as none of that is happening, he remains the size of a regular figurine. At this time, the wizard decided to look down at the piece that had entered his domain and was wide-eyed in disbelief. “Ephestus?! At my table? Now this is quite a shock!”

“What is the meaning of this?!” Ephestus said, pointing the head of a model axe at the nerd giant, “Whatever spell you have me under, relinquish it, immediately!”

But it seems that Randalmiser wasn’t listening, rummaging in the little pouch on his wrist instead of paying attention to the God of War on his playing table. Hearing a clacking of something rolling across the table behind the board before the noise of popping is heard, Randalmiser clicks his tongue, and nods in approval at something.

“Huh, so you really did sign up to join the board game. Wanserou was right, nobody wants to just make a new account to access something that’s free.”

He laughs a little before saying, “Well, since you agreed, then we can have some fun! You have no idea how much I’ve been waiting to be able to play with somebody! Nobody ever comes over to play with me. Only people that bother to come over are for my sist-”

But Ephestus wasn’t having it, “ENOUGH! I will not be a part of any game of yours, little man! You free me from this containment at once, lest I see to it I raze your domicile to the dirt!”

Randalmiser waved a hand passively, “Yes, yes, barbaric threat here, promise of bloodshed there, but for now, we play by my rules! Get your focus into the game world, because you’re going on an adventure! I have it written out and everything~”

With a snap of Randalmiser’s fingers, Ephestus’s main perspective shifts back into the glen he had been transported to within the game. “You can’t just-! Argh!” Ephestus yells, cutting himself off when he realized he wasn’t going to be listened to. He buried his axe deep into the nearest tree in frustration. The fact that it didn’t cleave through like water was a definite sign he’s not in his own power anymore, making him very uncomfortable as he wrenches the axe free effortlessly.

“Whatever…” Ephestus mutters, “Let’s get this over with, whatever this is, and then I leave…” And with that, he trudged off down towards the beaten path nearby.

“Okay, let’s begin! ahem” [You’re on a path in the woods…] Randalmiser begins, his voice suddenly shifting to sound like he’s speaking directly in Ephestus’s head, [And on the end of that path, is a dungeon. And at the end of that dungeon, is a princess. You’re here to save her. If you don’t, it will be the end of the world.]

Ephestus cocks an eyebrow to the sky, as if questioning the voice in his head.

[Fine, it’s not the most original, but just roll with it, do you want out or not?]

Ephestus shrugs, and continues his annoyed shuffling down the path, “What do I care, I’m just gonna slay her out of spite, honestly.”

[We’ll get there when we get there, of course.]

Clack, clack clack.

The sound of dice rolling catches Ephestsus’s ears. Clearly it isn’t anything in the environment, but he can’t help but look around, axe in both hands. If there’s one thing he knows of RPGs, a Games Master rolling dice means that something is being checked. And if something is being checked, something might happen. And if something happens-

[Suddenly, out from the branches, comes the manic laughter of a pack of doglike humanoids. They fall to the ground with nary a sound other than their sinister chuckling, their fangs bared as sharp as the daggers they draw from their leather garments, as dark as their black spots that dot their mangy fur.]

Ephestus looks unimpressed as indeed, a bunch of Gnoll bandits do in fact appear before him, giggling like madmen as they brandish daggers, growling out, “Your money or your flesh! Either way, we are feasting on something tonight whether bought or freshly carved!” in what sounded like Randalmiser putting on a voice.

Ephestus confidently grunts, slinging his axe against his shoulder confidently. “Banditry? Is that the best you got to challenge me? Very well, I’m eager to draw blood, let’s see who’s delightful ichor shall stain the grass first!”

Clack, clack clack.

[Your intimidation was a success it seems, as the laughter ceases, their manes bristling as a chill runs down their spines, nervously stepping back as they try to keep their composure.]

“S-say friend, apologies! We didn’t know who we dropped in on!” Said the apparent leader, as they seem to be the only one to speak, “W-we’ll just leave and act like we never saw each other.”

This made Ephestus grimace. “Is that cowardice I see?” He spits on the ground as he walks forward in a confident stride, scowl on his face.

“Y-you’re right! We should be bargaining for wasting your precious time!” The leader gnoll whimpered, all of them backing off slowly. The leader shucks off a backpack he was wearing and rummages through it, pulling out some gold, “How about ten gold, for your troubles?”

This only made Ephestus increase his stride, the gnolls now all looking at the leader in desperation as he was pulling out stuff and dropping them on the ground, “Okay, not gold, uhh, how about some lunch? My Grandgnollma made it special!” Crunched underfoot, “Alright! An enchanted weapon! We got a nice Fire Sword of Striking here!” Kicked away into the nearest berry bush, setting it alight, “Okay, I know! A nice potion! We stole these from an alchemist that passed by! She told us they were really potent!” The bottle was broken like a balloon as it was stepped on, “Please don’t hurt me!!”

Finally, the gnoll cowers, curling into a ball of fear as the others flee in opposite directions. Ephestus unshoulders his axe, gripping it tight in both hands, “Don’t you get it? You made a promise of bloodshed.” He raised the axe over his head, grinning in a psychotic expression of blood-drunk passion, “And I intend to make you keep it!”

[That’s a little…Hrm…] Clack, clack clack.

[Before you can finish the final blow, you feel something crawling up your leg. Looking down-] “I don’t care, I’m murdering this whelp!” [-LOOKING DOWN!] Ephestus felt his body go stiff, save for his head, wrenched down to look at himself. [You notice that the potion you stepped on wasn’t just any liquid. Indeed, it seems more like a black fluid that has come to life, and is currently slithering up your body.]

“What the Fu-?!” [Was all you could say before the slime wedged itself down your throat. For a brief while, it felt like you couldn’t breathe, you drop your axe as you grab your throat, trying anything to breathe again, tearing at the ooze was doing nothing. Just as you were about to black out, suddenly you can breathe again, the ooze fully gone and freeing your lung passages.]

“Urgh! Wheeze!” Ephestus breaks down to his knees, coughing and spluttering after an ordeal of being choked by an ooze worming itself down his throat. Taking much needed deep breaths, he stands back up, and finds that the gnoll is gone.

“Where’d that bastard go?!” Ephestus coughs, looking around. [You recall through your fit you heard them say “I’m glad I never drank that stuff after all”, and saw a glimpse of him running away, carrying your axe before you started to pass out.]

“Dammit!” He yelled, echoing through the canopies of the trees. Just what he needs, both his main weapon of choice gone, and there’s some kind of slime in him or something. He had no clue on what kind of nasty effects that thing was going to have on him.

Clack, clack clack.

[Contrary to that thought, it seems that the few points I put in alchemy on your sheet for -related purposes was just enough to know what kind of captured slime that was, and realize it was no slime at all. It was an emergency spell put on the mixture within to be ingested upon breaking open, in case the owner was not able to drink, such as passing out from loss of hit points. Upon ingestion, the animation is rendered inert, and proceeds to produce the potions’ effects. They are quite unpopular due to the uncomfortable nature of the invasion process, but some agree that sometimes down a concoction is worth it versus dying.]

“Oh great,” Ephestus complained, “I still don’t know what it’s going to do, but at least I know it’s not sapient.”

Walking back to the burning bush the flaming sword from earlier fell in, he kicked away the remaining ashes, picking up the blade despite the cinders still burning on the grip. It’s no wonder the bush caught fire, the sword fell out of its sheath slightly through its travel. Ephestus sighed. One weapon is just as good as another, if anything, this’ll help feel more satisfying to kill things with because they will be screaming in agony as they burn and bleed out. That made Ephestus feel a little better, as he strapped the sheath to his belt then sunk the sword into its apparently flameproof pit.

Clack, clack clack.

All of a sudden, Ephestus felt woozy, stumbling around as he felt a churning in his stomach. Clutching his gut as he leaned against a tree, he groaned as his body felt like it was on fire all over. A fit of muscles straining, joints pulling, flesh churning, all a circus of internal discomfort as he tried his best not to vomit from the experience. After a few minutes of wracking miasma that was his body undergoing whatever the hell that was, he looked down and sighed. “Oh goddammit…” She spoke in a husky tone.

To match the voice, it seems that Ephestus’s body morphed into that of a female version of himself. Still a muscled barbarian of a woman, but with a nice curvature to her figure regardless, very amazonian in style. Her shapely breasts rose against her strong chest, wrapped in a set of tastefully done bandage strips around her chest, seemingly spawned from nothing but as a preset for modesty for her previous lack of shirt. The thick waistcloth that was present before was raised slightly, allowing a little more peeking at her legs and thick powerful thighs. The hair she was able to see remained the same long unkempt locks as before, but seemed to look a little more neat, like she actually bothered taking care of it. And of course, she couldn’t see yet of her face, but feeling around with one of her slightly more delicate hands she felt that yes indeed, she felt way more feminine, her previously iron jaw now more sleek and beautifully shaped. If it wasn’t for her body, she’d probably be mistaken for a fashion model pretending to be a barbarian.

“Rrgh, why do these things always happen with gods?” She complains, “Still, not the first time I became a woman, so it’s manageable.” She nods in acceptance, remembering the fun times she had when she was in a similar form amongst tribes of warrior women that greatly impressed him. After she rode along with their tribes for long enough, she had accepted them into his vast collection of armies as an honor to their deeds on the battlefield. Good times.

For now though, changing into a woman showed to be merely a distraction, for now she will just move on the path to where she is supposed to go and finish this stupid game.

[After a while of trekking through the forest, it was pretty uneventful, save for the faint sounds of howling and crying riding on the wind, but nothing in a distinct direction. Finally, after your walk, you spot the ground dipping into a pit. Looking over it, it was a stone inset into the earth, with a staircase going down into it, an ornate iron door on one of its rounded walls.]

Ephestus grunts, not impressed at the massive stone pit before her. She doesn’t bother taking the stairs, and just jumps down, cracks spiraling through the finely carved floors from where she landed. She draws her sword and makes her way to the iron door. A few rattles of trying to push it open proves that it is locked in some manner.

[Unfortunately, it seems like the entrance to the dungeon is locked, and there was no keyhole in sight. Looking around the walls, you see the carving actually look like they can be messed with, a sort of puzzle, perh-]

The door cracks open wide to the inside of the entranceway, Ephestus’s foot imprint bending the doors as they fall to the floor, clear that the hinges were to swing outwards.

“Puzzle solved.” Ephestus cheekily remarked, raising the sword in front of her and letting the fires flickering off of it to light her way through the dank depths to come.

[Ugh…Fine, you make your way into the dungeon, sword in hand providing enough light to let you see through the narrow passages…Prick…]

“I’m sorry, what did you say, narrator? Was that an insult?” Ephestus taunted once again.

[Hmph, you know what? It wasn’t, it was an onomatopoeia for what just happened.]

Clack, clack clack.

[As you wander forward, you were too busy talking to the smart and handsome voice in your head that you couldn’t help but not notice that you stepped onto a pressure plate. A pricking sensation stabbing your foot. You try wrenching it free, but you can’t seem to move your body. A paralytic poison perhaps? No, it’s something more than that.]

“What the- ow!” Ephestus yelped, feeling something like a needle stick through the bottom of her foot through her fur boot. She was about to move backwards to step away from it, but it was as Randalmiser said, she felt stuck, her whole body locked into position like a statue in mid-step.

Clack, clack clack.

[Oooh, sorry, looks like you got an unfortunate roll on your Fortitude, the poison starts seeping deeper into your body. Soon enough, your Strength starts plummeting.]

Ephestus’s eyes were luckily stuck in a position that she could see herself from when she was startled by the prick, and was able to see the effects taking place. Not only did she feel like she was being sapped of energy, but also her muscle mass began shrinking greatly. She felt much lighter after the process of the poison taking root, and indeed, her figure was a lot more slender. Now presenting more of a tall fashion model than anything amazonian. Annoyingly, because of the mass being reduced, the clothing she wore slacked, and dangled awkwardly off her body.

The cloth pelt around her waist fell passed her supple thighs and were only just hanging by her knees from how she stepped, revealing her crotch, as her cloth panties almost followed suit if it weren’t for her ass and hips still being roughly wide enough to hold them in their current position. The bandages around her chest unraveled from the chest muscles slimming, which not only bared her chest through their draped state, but made the decently sizable masses look bigger in comparison to the rest of her chest.

If she could scowl, she would be doing so by now.

Clack, clack clack.

[After the process has run its course, it seems that your body finally got up the nerve to shrug off the paralysis, but unfortunately, the secondary effect has done its damage.]

Ephestus gasps as she stumbles forward over the trap, almost tripping over her belt. She flexed her hands and other joints after she made sure she was safe in the position she was in. Indeed, the paralysis was fading away. “Dammit, you pest, that was purely out of spite, wasn’t it?!” She yelled up at the ceiling as she redid her bandages and tightened her belt around her waist.

[I don’t know what you’re talking about, that trap was in my campaign notes in case of foolish barbarians busting through my carefully designed puzzles like a- You know what, nevermind. I’m calling time out, I’m heading to the bathroom and getting a snack, stay put.]

All of a sudden, Ephestus’s perspective shifted again, and she was back on the table, though her “model” was altered to match her in-game effects. She was not pleased with that. She looked up at Randalmiser standing up to full height and left the room, leaving the door to his room wide open.

This gave Ephestus some time to think.

For one thing, what she was going to do when she even gets free. Of course, such an effect like this was temporary, and she can always return to her original form. But this also means that if the nerd were to report this incident to his mother, then Ephestus might be in some actual trouble trouble, since Lady Luck isn’t one to mess with. At first, Ephestus figured this would be a quick trip to destroy the kid’s art pieces, see what the new generations’ creative skills in warfare would fare, then leave before Lady Luck even knew she was there and claim full deniability, because “Why would I ever mess with some kid that probably gets more beatdowns from jocks than actual wargrounds?” Of course. But now…