New Gifts and An Escape Plan.

"You..." Tia stopped mid-sentence as her own deep, strained breathing interrupted her. She swallowed briefly like their copulation had actually left the goddess with a dry mouth from the effort, though John doubted it, and then she looked back at John from where she was still bent over on the bed and sent a flushed smile his way. A part of him tried to watch to see if her apple-sized breasts might jiggle or shake whenever she inhaled so mightily, but his attempts were all for naught. With the goddess's chest still mashed down into the mattress, it was almost impossible for John to see her tits from behind her, and despite how out of breath the goddess may have seemed, John felt ragged in comparison. His breathing was erratic and strained, his head was spinning and stuck in a haze, and whenever he tried to stand and push up from the bed, he stumbled! Trying to satisfy a goddess with his low Endurance was a fool’s errand!

It was fun... but also still a foolish thing to try.

"You didn't get rid of that necromancy crap like I told you to..." she muttered after the two of them had finally taken a second to separate from one another and John managed to slide to the foot of the bed. Hestia didn't bother with moving all that much. At the most, she simply rolled around onto her back and then dropped into the giant puddle of cum and pussy juice that the two of them had left to soak into the bed. She smiled when John's eyes widened at her blatant disregard for the mess it made on her body and then writhed slightly as if she was trying to bathe in it...

"I..." he swallowed dryly as he tried to **** his breathing back down to a normal level again and then froze momentarily when Hestia, without looking away from John, began to play in their mixed juices. At first it was just a few little things, like rubbing their churned, milky, sticky nectars into her skin while he watched. Her fingers dipped between her legs, scooping whole lumps of seed out of her little honeypot, and then with a wicked smile, she let lump after lump dangle and drool from her fingertips into her own mouth as she tasted him. Her face scrunched up almost immediately after doing that, like she had been surprised by a sour taste that she hadn't been expecting, but tried to hide it as quickly as possible. It was only after she started rubbing her hands across her belly that Hestia finally stopped with her adventures into cumplay.

His eyes dropped down to watch as Hestia's fingers slowly trailed around her stomach and then widened slightly when he realized what it was that she was trying to show him. Her stomach was distended, pushed out almost unnoticeably by all the cum that he had packed into her womb. It didn't go out very far or round out in any way that he could see. It just seemed... slightly larger than it was before they had sex. He would have missed it completely if not for the fact that she seemed to be trying to show it to him.

"I uh... forgot," he mumbled, unable to take his gaze away from her belly. A deep flush passed over the goddess's form as he stared at her, and after a moment, she shrunk back down into her bed and pulled her hands away.

"S-sorry." Her eyes were still reading into his expression and watching for his reactions, he realized. "It seemed like something you might be into..." The hardness between his legs didn't contradict that.

"Oh, don't worry! I... just wasn't expecting it," he tried to reassure her for a couple of seconds... and then pushed up to his feet. His words seemed to help her to stop retracting away from the young Gamer, but once again, she didn't try to close the distance between them or leave from her cum-covered spot on the bed. A part of him idly wondered if she might have liked the mess more than he did.

"When I get a proper moment and an idea on how exactly I'm supposed to dispose of this necromancy crap, then I'm going to get rid of it. I'd prefer it if I could find a way to sell it or trade something for it somehow, but I don't know how." As much as John would have liked to find a way to get something for his efforts with the zombies, it was starting to seem like he might just have to throw the necromancy stuff away. A part of him considered trying to lock it all into a box somewhere and just bury it until he could find a proper way of disposing the stuff, but then the idea crossed into his mind that that could have possibly created something like another Beacon of Ruin, and he changed his mind.

"Try asking your friends in the Frozen Flame," Tia said, interrupting his train of thought, and then smirked at him. Her smile widened as John stared at her for a long moment and then furrowed his brow.

"I thought this stuff was dangerous. Wouldn't that be a bad idea? Plus everyone out there seems to think I'm already a necromancer, I don't think that would help to stop that line of thinking," he frowned at her as he spoke. As hard as John tried, understanding the Abyss was only getting more and more difficult, but Tia didn't get annoyed or frustrated with him. She just answered what she could.

"They will have a variety of proper methods for receiving and storing the items... if they don't need to be destroyed. Some things are too dangerous to keep or fix," she explained and then watched as John slowly nodded... and then went to touch some of the blue sapphires that had been affixed to her couch. He wasn't sure why, but a part of him felt like they hadn't been real when he had seen them. A part of him wasn't sure of whether or not the goddess herself was real and the whole thing was just a wet dream, but he couldn't deny how it felt when he finally touched the stones. They were solid... and smooth like they had been cut just for neatly decorating her couch. They felt real to him, and when his eyes went to the hearth, he felt even more confused at the presence of the jewels.

"Why are sapphires your favorite? Why not rubies or garnets, something that would match the hearth a little better?" he asked and turned to try and look at the goddess, only to find her already standing next to him. Her body was clean and spotless again, but the bed wasn't. She was dressed in her silken, candy-red, sheer nightgown and holding a hand to her stomach. The only sign of their act that she still wore was that slight distension in her belly.

"Why not something red, you mean?" she corrected him, and John gave her a sheepish nod. "Rubies and garnets don't burn. Neither do sapphires, but there's no point in favoring them if they aren't actual embers. They share a similar shade. That's all." Her eyes slowly turned down to the spot where John's hand touched at the couch and her full lips spread into a soft smile. Her glowing golden eyes brightened suddenly as she reached out and... touched his hand, trailing her fingers softly across his before she plucked one of the sapphires off the cushion, tearing the fabric that it had been affixed to. "Would you like one?" John turned to look at the gem as she held it out to him. He opened his mouth to try and politely question that decision, but he couldn't find a way to phrase it.

He just stood there silently, feeling stupid and confused as she pushed the strangely spherical jewel into his grasp and smiled sweetly at him again. It was a dream. The gem was a part of his dream. There was no way that he could actually keep the thing... right?

When John didn't thank or even speak to Tia after she gave him the gem, she frowned at the young Gamer. Her brow knit together tightly and drooped as she stared at his hand like she had given him a bad gift... and then her eyes widened with a fresh idea. She grinned at John as her hands finally pulled away from his and stepped back over to the hearth.

Without even thinking, John followed after her.

"Perhaps you would like an ember instead?" she said, and her golden eyes burned wickedly into John's own gaze. The flame roared as the two of them stopped next to it, and with a gentle touch to his shoulder, Hestia suddenly shoved John down to his knees in front of the flame. His hands shot out to the sides of the hearth to try and stop him from falling in... but as soon as he touched the stone, his hands sizzled against the heat that had been steadily burning into it. He yelped and yanked his arms back as Hestia knelt down beside him, and he looked at her with a shaky breath.

She certainly changed attitudes fast.

"Relax, John," she said with her hand still placed firmly on one of his shoulders, even without her strength constantly there to try and hold him in place, John didn't think he could have moved away. For some reason, his body felt like it was still following her, tensing in the direction that she wanted him to go in while he actively tried to **** himself the other way. His fighting against her impulses merely led to him sitting in place... but it was better than going face first into the fire. "You have to trust me for this."

"Fuck that!" he swore and then tensed up again as he felt her other hand grab the back of his head. With a slight twist of her arm, Hestia shoved his face closer to the flame until he could feel it burning on his cheeks and forehead. His neck ached as he tried to push back out of her grasp, but she simply held him there with the sapphire still in his hand. "Let me g-"

"Look, John!" she snapped, and his eyes were **** to stare into the hearth. The largest log in the center of the fire cracked as he glanced at it and then fell apart. A single lump of lumber dropped into the bed of hot coals at the bottom of the hearth... and then began to glow like one... giant... ember. It sunk slightly as the fire burned hotter and hotter, until finally John felt like he was staring into the center of a small sun. It glowed... almost unnaturally bright and drew his attention so far into it that he didn't even notice when Hestia pulled her hands back away from him.

Take it.

He wasn't sure who it was that said it, it could have been Hestia, his own thoughts, or something else for all he knew... but for some reason... the idea made sense to him. He thought he could take the ember, and when he reached out to try and grab it, his hands sizzled again. He watched as his fingers slowly began to blacken and burn when he got closer to the ember, and searing white-hot pain lanced up through his arms. He winced... and then screamed as he reached out to try and touch it... but the ember sunk again. It disappeared into the bed of coals at the base of the hearth and John had to dash forward just to try and catch it, his hands plunging into the glowing embers like there was no ground below them.

At first, he merely clawed around for that miniature sun that had burned in the hearth. He sifted back and forth through the orange coals and ashes like it was just sitting there beneath the surface waiting for him and kept going until the skin on his arms felt raw and ruined... but the sun wasn't there. No matter where he searched and sifted through the flame, the ember always felt too far out of reach. He screamed and screamed again, but he couldn't tell if it was out of frustration or pain. It was like he lost the ability to tell the difference, and then just as he was about to pull back, his fingertips brushed against something... solid.

A little gasp escaped the Gamer as his fingers flicked across the hard surface of the largest ember he had ever seen, and then, when it sunk even further into the flames, he dove after it. John moved so far forward when he felt the little sun falling out of his grasp that he went face first into the fire as well. His arms cracked... and then finally went numb as he figured that the fire had started burning down to the bone in his hands, but still he went further. His face, his shoulders, and then eventually even his waist pushed past the bed of coals at the bottom of Hestia's hearth until finally... John himself had disappeared completely into the fire with the sun. His vision went white in the bright searing hot light around him and then disappeared as the flame slowly ate into his eyes, but he didn't stop falling.

Eventually, he caught up with the sun. He was so stiff and sore that his form barely moved and he couldn't bring himself to grab onto the giant ember, but he caught up with it. When his arms wouldn't move to try and take the thing like he had been told to, John simply curled his body over it and closed his eyes to rest. A part of him somehow registered the fact that the ember felt so incredibly warm even in the center of all of that fire and smiled when he thought about how much of the rest of the world that it could heat up. A flame like that would consume... burn through everything until there was nothing but ash and dirt left behind... and in its wake, the world would grow again.

It was the end and the beginning... and then the ember was gone again.

It sunk through John as he curled up in the flames and disappeared from his grasp before he could try to catch it again. When he spun to search, it was nowhere to be found...

...and then he was back up at the fireplace again. He crawled up out of the hearth like Hestia's home had always been within an arm’s reach of him the entire time, and his fingers clawed at the stone floor for purchase as he pulled himself back out. Hestia came to help him when she realized how sore John was after that, and he hoped to get out in time before his health bar completely dropped to zero, but when he finally rolled out onto safe ground again, gasping for air that wasn't laced with smoke, he paused on his hands and knees when he realized that his hands hadn't been reduced to bone.

They weren't charred, bleeding, or even red and raw. His skin hadn't even been broken. His hands were fine, his chest was fine, he was fine... he just felt sore like... well, like he had just been burned alive in someone's fireplace. More than that... his hands were still burning. All of the skin from his fingertips to a little ways past John's wrist was completely engulfed in a layer of glowing orange flame. The sapphire that he had been holding onto earlier glowed slightly from within his grasp with a soft fiery light hidden in the deep center of it, and when John opened his mouth to try and question why it was that he was suddenly on fire... some of the pop-ups that he had not read yet told him before Hestia could.

Infused Strike has leveled up!
Infused Strike is now level 5!

The Pillar of Fire has been found!

Infused Strike. Level 5, 5 MP.
Infused Strike: Charge an unarmed attack with the power of your mana and, perhaps even, the very pillars of the Abyss itself. A standard Infused Strike deals magical damage (Ability Level times Two) on top of regular damage. Infused Strike, if empowered with the energy of an Abyssal pillar, may apply additional damage, conditions, and effects based on the type of pillar applied. Empowering Infused Strike with the energy of a pillar may be done by meditating within the heart of each pillar. One pillar effect may be active at a time.
Current Pillar Effects: Fire

• +5 Points of explosive damage on hit. (Damage bonus is equal to current ability level.)
• +5% chance to apply the Burning status effect to enemies on hit. (Percentage value is equal to current ability level)
  Total Infused Strike Bonus Damage: +15 Points.

"Holy shit..." he muttered between deep gasping breaths and gingerly lifted his burning hands up into the air. The slightest traces of smoke and a wave of heat could be seen drifting off his hands as he held them up for Hestia to see, and the little goddess beamed at him before the spell finally ended and the fire on his hands was snuffed out. Despite how sore he felt, he had somehow not lost any of his health. A quick glance at his character sheet actually told him that he was completely healthy. He had the Fatigued status effect with him once again, but it was counting down a lot faster than it should have been. He was lucky, a status effect and a fading sense of fatigue were things that would he have taken over being burned alive any day of the week.

Well... burning alive after a good fuck might not have been one of the worst ways to go out, but he would have preferred to just not die at all. Walking away after a good lay was the much better option.

A part of him still did wonder if the whole experience had been a hallucination though, and as he turned back to the fire, Hestia reached out and grabbed one of his shoulders. Whatever thoughts he had been harboring about reaching back down into the flames to see if it was real were quickly forgotten as Hestia quickly turned him towards herself and shook her head at him.

"No. Even if you try, you won't be allowed back. You were able to survive it this time only through my grace and protection." A small smile curled across her lips as John blinked hard at her, a little confused as to why she might do something like that for him, and then stared dumbly back down at his hands. "I hope you like this new gift a little bit better than some measly gem." Again, John blinked at her.

"Y-yeah..." he didn't know what to say. The giant sapphire alone had already been an incredible gift, one that had stunned him into silence before. It felt like the size of a golf ball in his palm. He hoped it was real, especially now that his Infused Strike was stronger. "I... Thank-"

"We're almost out of time..." she interrupted John before he could thank her. Her face turned away from his, hiding a faint blush and a smile. He immediately assumed that he didn't even need to finish his sentence. She knew what he had been about to say. "You're waking up soon." That shocked John out of his stupor.

"I need a plan..." he shook his head slowly and squeezed the sapphire in his hands. The gem pulsed back warmly in his grasp. "I think... based on what I saw before I got here, that I was captured and... put in some kind of mana tank." Hestia said nothing. "So I need to figure out how I'm supposed to break out of a place that keeps me docile, immobile, and drained of all of my magic..." he looked up at the goddess hopefully, and she smiled weakly back at him. His problem was made only all that much more worse when John got the idea to open up his character sheet and check on his 'Kingdoms' tab to see if there really was a new button there. The screen flashed as soon as he pulled it up, and sure enough, right next to the big information label that listed the specific Mana cost for using it, John found the big blue 'Enter/Exit' button for his kingdom. If he had no Mana because the tank was draining it all out of him, then he couldn't teleport out. "Any ideas?" His voice came out weaker than he intended it to. He was running out of ideas and options.

The best thing he could think of now was that the goddess might be able to help him, and when she opened her mouth to speak, he was ready to plead and thank her for more help as much as he possibly could.

...Only she didn't say anything. Her lips moved and her mouth opened like she was trying to talk. The flames of the hearth flared like they were still burning, but all of the noise that the room should have made was simply... silenced. The only thing he could hear anymore was the whistling of the cold, snowy winds outside...

... and then the door to her home opened again...