The Midnight Pool

In truth there was something I could lose, the only thing I had left: Time.

I couldn't let one more moment slip through my fingers. Every wasted day was another my goddess spent in torpor.

I still wasn't sure who or what killed me. Which made me scared of returning to town, but I had plenty to occupy me in the dungeon.

There were the prisoners who could occupy my time, but there was a feature of the dungeon I'd been interested in since I came here.

I was starting to develop a theory on what this dungeon was supposed to be. It was in some way a reflection of The Raven Lady's palace in The New Moon Plains, It'd seen ruins of it in that realm while I was passing over. It was an ill omen of what my own after life would hold for me if I didn’t shape up.

That left me with an interesting theory.

You see in lore The Midnight Pool is where The Raven Lady would induct the members of her cult as her eternal children, the pale elves known as vampires.

It's possible that what I had before me was the fountian of etenal life, eternal youth, and infernal power.

I spent days studying the pillars around the pool. I took etchings of what I could, and drawings of the rest. The pillars here were in an ancient language, old even when my cult was driven underground. I'd been a tourist through The New Moon Plains, but I hadn't picked up any local dialects. This was a difficult task, but as much as you've seen me fail as a warrior I assure you I'm not a half bad scholar.

It'd be easier if that vampire hadn't betrayed us, but the same can be said for much of my life.

It'd be easier if I had Elizabeth to suck my cock while I studied too.

I couldn't help but sigh wistfully at that. Still no word on her, though it’s not like I had spies or allies with which to track her down.

I offered the prisoners a prize if they volunteered for the job, cocksucker to the herald. The only taker was the Ranger and I’m pretty sure he just wanted to bite my dick off.

And it just felt wrong asking Cyrus to do it. It’s like it would change our dynamic or something…

Anyway.

So it was just me, deciphering alone, rock hard and no where to plug it!

Obviously frequent masturbation breaks were needed and this Rosetta Stone I was creating was lightly speck with cum.

All in the name of science I assure you.

Hard as fuck I will say.

Not just me, the project itself.

A single word is not much to go on, but luckily the pillars were liberally marked with pictures for the illiterate like me. The pictures showed the process with which the Raven Lady turned men to vampires, exactly what I wanted.

In addition I was soon able to recognize a phrase used repeatedly which I soon realized was ‘The Midnight Pool’ from there I had the words ‘The’, ‘Midnight’ and ‘Pool’

From there the message went from being illegible to:

“The bla blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah the blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah the blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah the Midnight Pool blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah the blah blah blah blah blah blah blah midnight blah blah blah the blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah the pool blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.”

So obviously the pictures were of utter importance.

What I could gather after a week of masturbating was that I would have to feed someone nightshade as they entered the pool at the stroke of midnight. The poison would kill them, and they’d emerge again as a vampire.

The priests here had done a good job carving a picture of the plant, and seeing that it was The Raven Lady’s sacred flower it made sense. Midnight made sense too, and they provided a lunar map for my convenience. Just to be safe I’d assume it has to be done on a moonless night seeing as the proper name of these vampires are New Moon Elves.

If this was a magical formula I’d be more worried about the particulars, but this is a divine ritual. Those are mostly about jerking the god in question off. Now our goddess is dead, but you’d be surprised what you pull off when it comes to deceased divinity.

So long story short i sacrificed the priest.

I had some night shade on me, and the new moon was drawing close, so it would have been a waste not to use them.

Looking back it was a bad choice. Usually you get bonus points for sacrificing another God’s priest, because it’s hilarious. Maybe Breya who was a goddess of life protected the poor sod, I dunno.

Suffice it to say at the stroke of midnight, I poisoned the fellow and sent him splashing into the pool.

A few minutes later he bobbed to the surface like a cork. An inglorious **** for a man of the cloth. Ironic then that he died in the name of science I suppose.

“I guess that’s one less mouth to feed.” Cyrus said solemnly. “Rest in Breya’s embrace Daranel.” He bowed his head.

“Clean this up.” I scowled and kicked Cyrus into the pool for his heresy.” Praying to another god? Who raised this boy?

I watched him flail and briefly wondered if he could swim. I couldn’t think of a reason he would know how, but eventually he figured it out, threw himself over the body like a flotation device and paddled to shore.

I watched, soaked in the thick black liquid and realized I really had no idea what it was. Here I was, an alchemist with a strange liquid and i hadn’t even played around with it.

That would not do.

It looked like I had my next project! Who needed vampires anyway? The last one I met was a cunt!

Cyrus dragged the body to the surface and panted. “How do we get rid of the body?”

I looked around, and realized this place wouldn’t have facilities for that like my home dungeon. Those who died here would dissolve into shadows and serve the Raven lady under the rule of her Archon Mox.

Now that he was dead…

“Well shit.”

——-

"Well boys, I have bad news." I said as I entered into the section of the dungeon that'd been converted into a... well... dungeon.

The warrior and ranger we'd capture from forever ago, looked up at me with the hatred I'd grown accustomed to. I didn't blame them. I'd hate me too. No matter how charming your captor is, there'll always be a little resentment towards the situation. However it is important to know I didn't hold any ill will for them.

"Looks like eternal life has slipped out of our grasp." I saunter in front of them, with my satchel full of clanking potions. "So now that, that's off the table I feel compelled to ask you guys one more time if you'll sell your soul to Bellowyn." I smile amicably. "We've been over it all before. I think I've explained the benefits, mainly pussy and ass. Ya know? What can I do to get you guys on board?”

"Let us go." Barked the warrior.

I sighed and started pulling out potions. "See? We're retreading old ground here. I've failed you guys." I say to them. "A real herald would have made you see the light. Oh well." I shrug and struggle with them for a bit to get a gag in each of their mouths. "There." I say both of their mouths are wide open now, eyes no longer quite as hateful, more panicked.

The time of free meals had come to and end. It was now time for these two to start providing services to the dark lady.

I poured a lust potion down the throat of the ranger, and a mutation potion down the throat of the warrior. I hadn't done much of a study on the mutation potion and seeing that it was one of my staples I should know it better. As for the ranger I had some ideas for overdosing on lust that needed to be explored. I made sure to keep him extra secure, so he couldn’t find any release from the coming fire.

With the two of them poisoned, I returned to The Midnight Pool to continue my studies.

I'd given up on the ritual, too much of the language was missing, and beside that the god who powered the ritual.

Instead I turned my attention to the black water within the pool. Magical dark liquid had to have some kind of alchemical property, and indeed over the course of a few days of study I'd discovered something intresting.

The water was alive.

It'd been imbued with some kind of life, divine life I'm sure, but I'd discovered that the liquid in the pool was a unique form of what we'd call a slime.

These are alchemical creatures usually made for disposing of contaminated substances, bodies, or dust. Making one was a little beyond me, though I understood the concept. I an only imgine it was created by The Raven Lady long ago, it’s composition no doubt vital to the creation of The New Moon Elves.

Now it would serve me, and I was already beginning to see how.

While experimenting with the liquid I’d discovered that fruits and vegetables submerged in it did not age. I’m sure we’re all familiar with pickling, but this was different. Not only would fruit not rot, it seemed to be sustained by the liquid.

That made sense right? These were the waters of eternal life, could we expect any less?

With the guidance of a god these waters could convey immortality onto a man. Yet I had found that even absent of a god if a being were to reside within the water they too could be sustained with unnatural life spans. I didn't have enough data to know if this life span would last into eternity or what it entailed, but it did give me an idea.

I imagined painting a person with this liquid, from head to toe. They'd be covered with this compound, it'd have to be thicker, heck it'd have to harden into some kind of solid. But! If I could encase a person entirely in the midnight waters as if they were in a suit of armor I'd have a minion who wouldn't age, or have a need for food or water.

Imagine an army like that.

It was just a theory, and would need extensive testing, but I was making progress.

I'd already found an agent to add to the cultures I'd taken, which thickened them. Like corn starch in a soup. I now had several jars that were closer to what we would recognize as a slime, than what we had in the pool.

I'd also gone too far with it in some samples. The culture thickened and dried now so thoroughly I was left with a chuck of charcoal.

Still it was fascinating work, and much more rewarding than the translation attempts from earlier.

I couldn't help but be bitter at my own **** as I worked through the problem. I should have had an assistant helping me. Daliah, loyal and excited to learn the craft. I would have spoke my formulations out loud, and there she'd be jotting them down, she herself learning from what I had to offer. A beautiful relationship ruined, by someone or something.

I could hardly remember what happened. Just a splash in the cauldron and then an explosion...

I heard screaming from the dungeon. I couldn't tell which of the experiments it was from, but I kept working.

I applied several successful samples to fruit samples, so I could easily check for oxidation. Unfortunately once applied the samples would just slowly melt off the object, or... melt and digest the object. I would have to find a way for the midnight water to cohere to what I applied it to.

"Uh boss?" Cyrus poked his head into the room, after a long day of work.

"Yeah?" My head was spinning with chemical fumes.

"The prisoner's are um..."

"Oh yes!" I stood up. "I'm excited to see the results." We head back down to the dungeon, where my prisoners were waiting for us.

I've warned before that a person who overdoses on the Lust Elixir will have their mind broken. Well this is what it looks like. The Ranger had been restrained so he couldn't satisfy his needs. It was deeply shameful work on my part. He'd clearly hurt himself in the struggle, his wrists and ankles were torn up from where he'd tried to get lose, not for freedom's sake but so he could slake his lust. I made sure to give him a healing potion to close the wounds up. His body would recover, but his mind would not. I didn't think so at least. He was laying there comatose, his stare distant and bleary. The synapses of his brains had fired up, and were now burnt out.

"Stand." I commanded the husk, hoping things would be easy, but he sat there numb and distant. "He'll still respond to stimuli." I told Cyrus. "A good whipping or cock stroke."

Cyrus looks up at me, clearly disturbed. "Why are you telling me that?"

I unshackle the ranger, who makes no moves to get up, escape, or attack me once free. "I'm going to put you in charge of training him. Teach him a few basic commands, see if we can make a useful servant out of him." If we could, we'd try dipping him in Midnight Water once I had the wrinkles ironed out.

"This is kind of disturbing boss." Cyrus said, looking at the mindless man that sat before him.

"I couldn't keep him prisoner forever." I said, turning my attention to the warrior, who was conscious and snarling.

"What did you do to him, you bastard?" It had to be horrible for him, hearing his team mate go bad besides him.

It was what I did to him, that had my interest now. The mutation potion I'd given to the warrior had **** his body to grow a lair of green scales over the skin of his body. They seemed quite sturdy, and didn't appear to hamper his range of movement, though he was chained up so who could tell.

"I made him useful to Bellowyn." I explained clamly, taking a knife to his scales. "As I will do to you." I’d rate that hide as leather armor, maybe better. It seemed to stop at his neck, allowing the soft tissue of his head to still resemble a human.

"I'll never serve your blasted god." The warrior snarled again, and spit on me.

"Not willingly obviously, you've made that clear." I said wiping my face clean. "But slaves do have their place." I gave him a look. "Tomorrow I'll give you another mutation potion. Together you and I will see just how many a human can take before their body breaks. And through that valuable contribution to science you'll serve Bellowyn."

And me, I think. Steelowyn’s chill is still inside me. A mutation to call my own. I needed to know how many I could sustain before I was too damaged to continue. Perhaps my next resurrection would go better but I doubted it. There would always be displeased princes who’d want their pound of flesh. Literally for some of them.

He looked horrified at this, and indeed he should. It sounded like an awful fate.

"You wouldn't!" He started struggling in his bonds all over again.

I sigh, and turn away. "I'd prefer not to, but I'm afraid I will." I nod to Cyrus. "Feed them."

I leave the chamber, feeling shaky and sick. It was their fault, I tell myself. I gave the every opportunity to avoid this fate, and they'd still chosen to defy me. To Defy Bellowyn. I wished that I could have afforded to be merciful, but I couldn't. I was weak and Bellowyn was dead. If I died her chance to revival would vanish, and all the souls in the flesh fields would drop into hell for eternal torment.

When you think of the enormity of my responsibility... almost anything in justifiable.

I throw up regardless, and find myself **** for help.