a sheperd, some strange land, an abomination

further on, Ambriel encounters a kind of crossroads, a path that goes down a cleft between two giant boulders, or a way around. a sudden vision of the titan tells her that only danger is down the path of the cleft and she decides to go the other way. and surely enough, she enters a small meadow, a clearing, on which she can see a human girl, dressed in pure white, a soft, graceful look on her face. next to the girl on a small rock stands a young goat, equally with pure white fur, and a small collar with a little bell on it. the girl smiles at Ambriel.

"Welcome, weary traveler. Rest here from your ordeals. When you awake tomorrow, you will feel better."

her voice is soft and melodic. Ambriel can hear no falsehood in it either.

Ambriel remembered the old ways of the angelic mission to look upon thoses pure souls. She wonders what this girl was doing down there...

"Hello, girl. I may rest for some moment, but the night is still far and i think i can travel some more. What are you doing here by yourself?"

"I am just resting here as well. I can see you are badly wounded. If you stay i will look after your wounds and help you recover."

her smile is open and radiates pure divinity

"well, i think it could be a good idea. I thank you for that hospitality"

the girl waits for Ambriel to sit down, before she comes closer, her open hands in Ambriels direction

"May I?"

Ambriel sits down and waits but look on what the girl is doing, just to be sure it'll really be healing.

"yes, proceed please"

the girl expertly tends to Ambriels wounds, seemingly without magic, her soft hands put bandages around cuts and she hums gently while caring for the angel.

"There. Now lie down and rest. I'll get some food for you in the meantime. Don't worry. As long as Zedruu is here, no harm can come to you."

she gestures to the goat before she heads off

Ambriel waves at the goat.

"hello there, Zeduru"

Ambriel rests, but she's careful to not doze off yet , she ask Cherub to take watch, and to make noise to wake her if needed. she trues to not sleep, but she has to admit that she's still hurting everywhere.

after a while the girl comes back, with a big leaf in her hand on which she carries a manner of plant based food that she freely offers to Ambriel. Juicy, ripe fruits, nuts, mushrooms and other vegetables are carefully arranged and ready for consumption

"you are a ressourceful girl. I'm Ambriel by the way."

Ambriel doesn"t sense danger in taht food, and accept it. She tries to eat without making too much of a mess.... juicy fruit can make stains hard to get off

the girl just smiles happily

"Thank you. It is nice to meet you, Ambriel."

"Do you have a flock? or is Zeduru your only goat?"

"Zedruu is my only companion."

at some point between them talking, Ambriel falls asleep. She wakes up hours later, a blanket woven of leaves covering her, the leaf woven into a basket with the rest of the fruit in it. Ambriel feels rested and is fully healed, the bandages fall off, revealing the pristine unscarred flesh beneath. The girl smiles at Ambriel again.

"Great. You are much better now. I wish you have save travels and do not get hurt anymore."

then, in the blink of an eye, she and her goat are gone, and Ambriel is alone in the clearing with just the blanket and the basket

"Farewell, little sheperd. It was helpful. Thanks"

Ambriel prays to thanks that girl.

and then resume her journey

Ambriel carries on, and slowly the forest changes around her, the trees become grey, twisted effigies, baring their resemblance to living things. the moss becomes thorny and turns red and the smell of... something fills the air. it is familiar, but Ambriel cannot say what it is. she feels her own divine energies succumb, as if blotted out by something else. looking around she has no idea wher eher path is and how to leave

Ambriel check with Cherub that he's ok, and then, with a defensive posture, chooses to go further on the direction. She should either get out of that sector, or meet the resident.

the ground changes, its getting softer, until it feels as if Ambriel is walking on flesh. the air stinks, she can now make out the smell of sweat, cum, blood and other bodily fluids. the air feels thick. she can hear noises coming from nowhere in particular, guttural sounds, moaning, both in pain and pleasure, the atmosphere is ladden with the digusting feeling of filth.

as the place is starting to get on her own lust, Ambriel doesn't want to stay long in there, she wants to charge forward, to exit this atmosphere. But before doing so, she tell Cherub her intentions so he won't be surprised.

charging forward Ambriel stumbles upon a den of miscreatures. these monster seems mutated, changed, much like the landscape. their limbs might once have beens arms or legs, now they are stumps, tentacles and other extremities Ambriel has no name for. their faces are deformed, showing not not once the right number or place of any organs. their bodies have bloated into grotesque stature. they screech and his at the intruding angel, but none dare attack her and they quickly, far too quickly for their build, flee and scatter into this crimson hellscape

not really understanding what she saw, even after all this time in this cursed lands, Ambriel is distressed. She need to calm down and breath, but she also want to get out of this obscene scene.

shortly after the monsters skittered away, Ambriel can hear some ungodly abomination howl. by its sound it is coming her way. and it sounds bigger than the others. when it comes into sight, Ambriel sees a mount of flesh with various depraved looking extremities. she is clear that some of these are meant for the sole purpose of rape and breeding. and by now she is fairly sure her only way of leaving this flesh infested biome is to defeat its current lord.

"Cherub, battle formation! I don't feel this one as friendly... "

Ambriels silent partner gets into postion, the blade coming out of his arm, glowing with elemental heat

the creature, getting wind of a female roars .....

Ambriel and cherub go first

Ambriel attacks the abomination, hoping to strike on a sensible spot.

Ambriel misses the creature but the opening created by her is used be cherub who sinks his blistering blade into the creature

the creature screams in anger andagony before she lashes out at cherub

cherub simply blocks the weak attack

"let's try that again Cherub!"

Ambriel tries a new combi with Cherub

Ambriel hacks part of the creature and it screams in agony

the creature tries to regenerate the damage

only a bit of the flesh closes, before it lunges at Ambriel

the barb is thankfully only partially effective and doesn't penetrate Ambriel too deep

Ambriel did get hit, but that didn't reduce her anger against tha abomination.

She shout and thrusts again with her longsword

Ambriel drives her sword throug a body part that look like an entire female body without a head, but it seems that a vital organ was behind/inside. and the abomination spasms a while before droping dead on the ground.

Ambriel get her sword out of that pile of flesh, and tries to clean it, but everything around is filthy, she still manage to get most of the blood out.

"Good fight Cherub! You sure are a good warrior when repaired.

Now, we shouldn't stay any longer here, the filth is disturbing."

as she speaks, the creature begins to rot before Ambriels eyes, and within moments turns into blood, bile and semen, before that dissipates and the surrounding area slowly turns, the flesh seemingly melting away to reveal a dead, barren land, not unlike bone. in visible distance the angel can make out what could be a shrine or other ritual place. in it is a bone of pure white, radiating a power that although tainted, could be claimed by whoever chooses it.

Ambriel examibes the bone, trying to know to wich deity/entity/domain it's linked to

the bone was most likely part of an old god that was slain millenia ago. on rare occasions slivers of their power surface in the mortal plane. they are dangerous but incredibly powerful

Ambriel choose to take the bone with her, to give it ti the appropriate people who could take care of it respectfuly.

as she reaches for the bone she notices that touching it would fuse it to her permanently. either accept its powers with all that entails or leave it as it is, or try ot destroy it

as Ambriel now understand it, she'll need power to get trhough theses cursed lands, to get back the celestial realm. So she accept this power, as she think she could use it better than the one before

as the bone gets absorbed into her body, the eldritch powers curse through her, changing not only her body but also her mind. she can feel her back hurt before another pair of wings sprout forth from them. she can feel her bust and hip grow as well. with these physical changes come some mental as well, as she learns a new power

"Polymorph: for 10 rounds the caster assumes a different form, boosting physical attributes by +2 (strength, quickness, precision). Doing so also invokes their libido, leaving them aroused for multiple hours afterwards and eager to find release for their lust." (no energy cost, once per day)

after the trouble with the abomination and the bone, Ambriel hopes she could find food and shelter, as there's still daylight.

the bony, dead landscape has no shelter or food. Ambriel will have to leave it to look for anything like that

Ambriel manages to find a spot that is at least sheltered from the wind and some scrubs to eat, but a filling meal is something different. luckily the night is dry and somewhat warm so she can rest acceptably, but it takse some time to getting used to her new body shape