Interlude - Dorothy

Dorothy

I walked along the trail to Crossroads, basking in the light of the burnings sun. It's amazing you can be a all powerful demi-god and a few hundred years underground will still render you susceptible to a sun burn. I was tan once, long ago, but now I had my cape wrapped around me as my bare feet crushed the rocks and buds beneath my feet.

In this distance I heard a cart approaching. So naturally I slung my cape open, faced the direction of the cart, and posed. The sight of a naked woman alone is enough to get most people to rubber neck, but I'm a little bit more than that.

My first star Beauty, gives a magical aspect to my appearance, if you're able to feel attraction to a woman, or even appreciate artistic qualities in the female form, you'll find me attractive, painfully so.

Indeed even if you don't find women attractive, you'd still find me attractive.

You see my Beauty star is cultivated to the third level. This means the circuit created by my star has expanded, and been filled in a few wonderful ways. As you cultivate stars they get more complex. At rank 1 they only have a simple effect, but at rank 2 you can add a secondary effect to the star. Say you have a fire ball, you can stack it with a multipolicy effect, giving you two fireballs when you cast it. Then at rank 3 the circuit splits and forms a kind of diamond. An initial effect that splits off into two nodes, which convene at a forth and final node.

It's complex but worth it.

The circuit of my Beauty star beings with being attractive then diverges into it's second rank. At this level the intensity of the attraction is increased on one node, and on the other even beings incapable of feeling attraction, are attracted to me. Which is to say even the stones quiver with desire for me. Then for a bit of vanity the circuit is closed, and complete with the forth node, making me eternally youthful.

All of this is to say, I'm used to getting my way, and this cart was no different.

It skittered to an abrupt stop, the men packing the cart jump out eagerly, too eagerly.

I took a step back and prepared myself for an attack. It's not lust I see in these men's face though I can feel is slowly flaring inside of them. The longer they look at me the more facets they find to catch their eye. It's like body heat, at first invisible to me, but soon I'd be able to sense their locations with my eyes closed. "What's this?" I ask calmly. To me these men are moving in slow motion, the thought of them being a true threat is laughable.

"You've been marked Dorothy." One of them called out. Curious to think someone out here would know my name. The grandchildren of anyone who would have known me died of old age long ago. "Sssverithea will at last claim you life."

"Ah." I nodded in understanding. "A **** squad, I'm flattered." I stood proud and tall, my tits poked out in challenge. "How many of you have a full set of stars?"

They remained silent, and circled me with the timid slowness of prey.

"I always admired how accurate the visions the Snake goddess grants can be. To think you knew I'd be along this road. Though..." I shrugged warming up my muscles. "I always find it so queer that she sends you out here to die."

They roared at the heresy and threw off their cloaks. As expected they were a motley crew of mutants. Not that I have any ill will to those warped by the touch of a god. Only these ill-bred and their cold blooded master. They too were exiled from this world, and yet when we fled their took every opportunity to attack us, swallow us whole, poison our food. Their grievances with us was too great to set aside their bile even for the sake of survival. Even three hundred years later, they still hunted and they hate.

It was pathetic.

They revealed the writhing hissing snakes, they now have for genitals. The blasphemous beasts grew thick, and long in anticipation for my blood. On some folds of skin began to unfurrow around their neck, the hoods of a king cobra. They bore fangs dripping with poison, and knives that do the same.

They were all going to die.

"Musk, Three Stars!" I call, activating the full circuit of my second Star. My glands flare to life, my pores groaned and yawned open, sweat suddenly pooled in beads along my skin. Then a thick and shimmering vapor began to waft off of me. Those civilized amongst you may turn your nose at my methods. Know this, there is more to seducing a mate than purely visual. You can speak to the heart, to the stomach, and mine is the seduction of the nerves. All means can be employed, even chemical. The thick steam that erupted from me, strong, and animalistic in scent. I licked my arm savoring the sour taste. "It's been a long time since I've gotten to use this." I said feeling myself grow wet at the burning of my own mating scent.

An assassin positioned to strike me from behind, and did so. It'd been a long time since I fought a snake, and I'd forgotten just how fast they could move. Even if the movements of the humans seemed lethargic to me the lightning fast movement of the snakes attached to their crotches was fast.

Too fast for me in all my arrogance.

As I reveled in the scent of myself, this snake shot out, and took hold of me. It's fangs sunk into the meat of my shoulder and neck, and my veins bulged as torrents of poison were pushed into me.

I groaned as my third star kicked in. Poison Immunity. I'm the leader of an evil cult, did they not expect I'd been poisoned before? Did they not, truly know who I was? I'd killed better snakes than this in the past. The poison did not stop me. In fact my body began to convert it, from a deadly toxin to a potent combat ****. Their movements slowed further, my muscles twitched, flushed with a raging toxin.

Did they think I'd never fought a snake before?

Two more snakes shot out at me, this time their movements I could follow. I shot forward, dragging the man connected to me along for the ride.

The two snakes snatched uselessly at the air, and now that I was free from danger, I grabbed the snake in my shoulder and yanked forward. The man behind me gasped as he was lifted off of his feet and went flying towards me. Without looking I had nothing to offer him but my elbow and with a crunch and the sound of something wet I surmised he would no longer be a threat.

By now the smokestacks of pheromones erupting from under my arms and my cotch had reached the enemies. The vapors were thick, and obscured their forms and my own.

One of their numbers coughed, drawing my attention. "Your cheap lust tactics won't work on us." He said confidently. "We've trained to resist, and kill your kind."

"Likewise." I smiled to myself.

His words were a hope, more than a promise. They did not reflect reality. Though the field was now obscured by my musk I could see two figures clearly. Their lust glowing clearly to me and my senses. I nodded to myself, based on the absence of two other signatures I'd identified the assassins who had stars. My main threats.

I danced as a volley of snakes strikes came at me through the musk. Even if their masters could not see, they could still sense my heat.

There was a coughing sound from a direction behind me. That was the sound of venom flying my way. I rolled out of the way, and faced the blank spot in my vision. Sure enough a moment later a sizzling splattered the ground where I had been. The ground beneath it melted briefly. There was no immunity to that.

I launched myself forward arms held out intending to ram into the foe in that direction. I burst out of the cloud that'd been developing in my area, and missed my mark. I could see a form darting back into the cloud when I turned to check.

"Keep her surrounded." A voice called.

"She killed. Sedick!" Another voice cried.

I took a moment to sit down, and let my musk envelope me as a new cloud. So very few enemies are ever able to resist my advnances. I could almost always see a foe who'd entered my cloud. Which was helpful because I myself couldn't see out of it. I had to outrun it if I were to get a good sense of the battlefield. I could always cancel the cloud, and fight them fair, but that wouldn't be any fun.

Besides my cloud in addition to hiding me, did more than make my enemeis want to mate with me. It debuffed them as well. Their physical stats declined, as well as their mental. They were dumber, slower, and weaker of will for having inhaled my scent. Even as I twitched where I sat, combat **** compelling me to move, to act, to kill, fuck and bite.

A snake struck out to strike me, and I threw my hand out and jabbed it down the throat of the beast. My fingers flexed and took hold of a fistfull of quivering flesh. It latched onto my arm digging it's fangs in there, and pumping me with a fresh supply of poison-cum-****. The man behind the snake cried out in pain, and well he might. I crushed the throat of the snake from the inside just to get a good grip of it. I braced the beast with my other other arm, and then torqued my body. I spun, planted my feet on the ground and rose up, lifting the assassin off their feet. I spun in a complete circle whipping, one, two, three opponents before releasing the assassin and letting the **** of the spin send him careening away from me and the fight.

With that I launched myself towards the only signature I could read, confident that they would be caught in a ball with the two who could keep theirselves hidden.

I was half right. One had managed to get up and escape into the musk before I had arrived. Quick reflexes, one would almost call them snake-like. I came in fast. I planted one bare foot on the neck of the starless assassin, and let him drown in my musk. His lust by this point was a blazing beacon to me. He squirmed and writhed under my touch, and even a eunach like him sought someway to release his sexual urges. He clawed at the ground, not me. For I was now all he could focus on. The dominace of a female snake is what I'm sure he saw in me. Such cold eyes, such quick movements, whatever he desired in a mate, there it was in me.

The real prize was the man, who even as he laid there, swiped at me with a curved dagger. I kicked off of my victim's throat, and flipped myself over the slash. I landed on my hand, which in turn landed on the attacker's chest. For a brief moment my hand glowed pink, as my fourth star took effect. His reproduction chakra suddenly roared to life.

I'm sure he had some kind of star that proudly proclaimed it could resist seduction, or produced an blasphemous asexuality when equipped.

I'm confident he didn't have a star that removed the reproduction chakra all together.

It glowed pink in him now, just beneath his stomach. His own body turned against him now. All his mana flowed towards that chakra point, attracted to it by a divine gravity. If a person were to try to cast a spell in this state it would be nearly impossible to muster the **** to escape the sucking certainty that now radiated from that spot. Pleasure and desire pulsed and ripped through his body, he orgasmed plentifully, easily. Sexlessly. It was a divine state. The orgasm was in the mind, in the soul. The center of his spirit that controlled pleasure was now enflamed, awake, his every nerve was alive with it, overwhelmed with it. The touch of the grass, the caress of the breeze, the cloying smell of his most hated opponent. His soul drank it all in, allowing it to detonate across his body like star bursts.

That was the ultimate expression of who I was, and why I served Bellowyn. Even those who were castrated, lobotomized, set in stone could still lose themselves in her pleasure. The very fire she brought down from the heavens. A secret kept only for the gods, and deprived to our primative mountainous ancestors. Let all cum and feel pleasure! Let all gasp and delight! She was the groan, the delight, she was Bellowyn goddess of sex!

My foe moaned and convulsed on the floor, as good as defeated. He'd stay in that state for as long as his mana could sustain it. For some that was only a few seconds, depending on his training and his stars, it could be longer.

A blade rushed in at me. I didn't have time to avoid it, and it made a skimming scratch about my ribs, the skin there burned with poison.

Curious.

I looked up, in what I hope wasn't shock. No not shock, merely surprise. I swayed away from another strike, and another. A shaved head female was coming at me now, her movements somewhat sluggish in my eye. That was impressive enough. She must have had a very good enhancement Star if she could keep up with me. As a three star I was already three times as fast as a normal human being. After the combat **** it shouldn't have even been a competition.

And it wasn't.

I drifted around her blade strikes, looking for my opportunity to strike. I could avoid forever, but finding a moment to strike was...

There!

My arm reached out to the forearm of her free limb, and crushed it.

She let out a bloody shriek, then jerk away from me, and like a lizard losing it's tail, she ripped her arm off. It came loose in a sheath of loose skin, and embryonic fluid, she pulled away naked now, ripping free from her clothes, a new arm already regrown while I held the melting old one in my crushing grip. "Now that's an impressive ability." I said letting the boneless arm flop to the ground. "How many more times can you do that?"

She glared at me, and held her knife up defensively. No answer on her lips.

I wish I had that ability, my back was wet with blood, and my dominate hand was trembling from the effort to hold it up, those fangs had struck true no matter the state of the poison. Once the **** wore offer I bet my hand won't work at all. How sloppy.

Around me the resistance wasn't coming to the rescue. The only other assassin who could resist my powers was out cold, orgasmed into a coma. Another laid dead, and two more writhed in pain and ecstasy, fully drunk on my musk. It would be a fine harvest if these were normal foes. I'd fuck them, and fuck them until Bellowyn entered their hearts, and then I'd fuck them some more.

These would not serve that purpose. I'd be **** to deal with the pleasure of a good fight by myself.

The last remaining assassin flicked her eyes to the side to check on her allies, and that's when I struck.

I was on her in a moment, speed that would be the envy of any snake. I struck her throat and pulled her to the ground. Her eyes bulged in horror, and hatred. The frills on her neck extended as a full hood spooled out on either side of her head. I was suddenly stricken with terror, paralyzed even. Some kind of fear effect, and not something I was equipped to handle. Nothing scared me in real life, but stars tended to stimulate your fear organ manually. The only major movement in me, was the twitching of the combat ****.

Her stomach swelled, the fascinating creature. She was going to spew acid on me, from point blank. Admirable.

Major muscle function was beyond me, but minor movements were still in my reach. All it took was squeezing my hand, to block the passage along which the acid would travel. The bile bubbled up into her throat grotesquely, and her neck ballooned as the acid filled and filled the cavity. She was protected from the burning of the acid, but not he pressure. He mouth yawned open, bubbling acid and spit boiling at the back of her throat.

It seemed an unpleasant way to die, but I'm sure there was glory in it for her. Righteous **** at the hands of the enemy. I hope her god rewarded her well.

A moment later my body relaxed as her star faded. A short effect for taking your enemy off guard. I rose to my feet as her broken body convulsed and seized on the ground. I surveyed the field once more, and saw that all my foes were on the floor good and defeated.

My musk protected me more than I knew. If she'd been able to stun me with that move at the start of the fight things would have gone very differently.

That would have been a humiliating end... and pointless.

There was no god for me now. No one to bargain for my soul at the end of it all.

I cleared my mind of it, and went to work dispatching the others.

I prayed uselessly that future battles would be more fruitful. Killing for the sake of it is anathema to the goddess. Battles were a time to dominate, to earn slaves, and make friends. Here I could only take joy that a few of these snakes had felt the warmth of passion and the burning of pleasure before they died.

With a **** of effort I demanded the **** clear from by body. Fatigue set upon me like a jackal, but along the road I spotted another cart.

Perfect timing.

I limped to the road, and and brushed my cape back revealing my naked form to the passers. I held no fear of the gore behind me, or that my blood covered body would repulse the cart driver. He was a man, and at times they can find other things about me... distracting.

There we go, our first look at a 3-Star in action. Do let me know if the explanation of how an upgraded star function makes sense. If not I can attempt to clean up the explanation.

I hope I did a good job showing how scary it is to fight opponents with higher stars. Totally not a set up for fighting another 3 star opponent later on, nope!

Any way this was a highly skilled **** squad of people trained specifically to kill followers of Bellowyn, and they still got low diffed. They could see through her cloud of sex stank, resist and in some cases were immune to her charm abilities, and all had attacks that could match her speed. But the raw power and versatility of a 3 star let her take the day. A normal squad of soldiers wouldn't have stood a chance, and some wouldn't have even gotten to the battle, her beauty would be too compelling to destroy.

I was just excited to get to show Dorothy off! Hope it was fun. Next week, I've got three very intense chapters for you! I'm kind of in a set up and transition phase in the Herald's story, but it kicks off next week!

Stay tuned!