Catalyst

Chapter 11

It was a blur. A harsh bloody and visceral blur. Aizik brought the hard stone's most pointed corner down on the back of the head of one of the several spearmen. He was in the rear while the rest charged up and clubbed the others. The one Aizik struck fell to the ground with a wet thud in the mud and Aizik wasted no time dropping to his knees and continuing to pulverize the increasingly liquid skull until it was nothing but pulp of red, gray, and pink pieces of copper smelling mush.

Looking up Aizik saw five other spearmen with cratered heads lying on the ground. Lynn stood over two of them while Malana said a quick prayer of the one she'd hit. He'd been struck in the face no less. The corridor turned to the right ahead of them. There was an odd silence now. Aizik picked up a spear and the rest followed suit. He would be awkward with it trying to wield it with just his non-dominant hand when he clearly needed both arms, but it was better than nothing right now. The silence around the bend was stagnant and ill at ease. Something told him the men who had Grieves were up ahead waiting for them.

"Eh Akit!" came a shout from the hallway. Everyone held fast raising their spears in anticipation. "Cho kit mei Azyei!!!" came a louder shout. Hayen and Lynn moved up to the sides of the wall on the right. Eira stood in front of Aizik and Malana spear ready. Again, it wasn't really her weapon of choice, but it was something. The hallway went quiet again. "Move holy man!" shouted one of the men in a strange accent. Footsteps started again. They'd given up for the time being. Someone tripped and hit the mud and Aizik decided it was now or never.

Nudging Eira he moved forth with a somewhat renewed stride. Hayen and Malana followed his example and they moved forward. The three warriors in the hall looked over to see them approached, but they didn't have time to scream. A spear to the throat will generally quiet the loudest of bellows. Aizik dropped the spear and grabbed a sword from one of the warriors and Eira did the same taking the second of only two swords. Grieves was till lying facedown in the mud with ropes on his wrists that were tied to a rope around his throat so that if he trying to pull down and loop his hands under his feet to bring them in front of him the rope would choke him. Hayen quickly went over and lifted him up while Eira cut the ropes.

Gasping and trying through hard breaths to thank them Grieves slowly recuperate. His front was covered in mud and some blood. As Grieves sat against the wall trying to catch his breath Aizik noticed that he was missing a few small pieces of his tongue. That's a pretty brutal torture method he'd heard of during the old days of the wars on the Edenians. The language they were speaking was far from Edenian though.

"This wasn't a part of my message," Grieves scolded through his labored breathing. Aizik smiled at him,

"Well we needed a guide to get out of this place. You're the only one who's seen any of it." he answered. Grieves smirked and shook his head pointing down the dim barely torch-lit corridor. On the other end was a massive room with a giant hole in the middle of the floor. A winding ramp descended deeper into the earth.

"Easy, don't go that way." Grieves advised, "Now help me up so we can get the hell out of this hell."

They moved quickly through the tunnels the other way. The winding paths were extensive and dim. Grieves lead although his left leg seemed a little stiff. No doubt his captors had attacked it recently. He explained their interest in his Speaker abilities. They wanted him to teach them how to do it. This of course didn't go as they wanted it to.

They occasionally heard the foreign language of their captors in the distance and moved a little faster. Aizik seemed to gradually pick up his stride instead of wearing down as expected. It was the strangest thing.

"We're nearing where I believe we must have come into this place." Grieves said quietly. They could hear their captors up ahead which meant there may be an encounter soon.
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Cavan lie in the back of the wagon sweating. He must have had a fever. Something was seriously wrong in his body at the moment and it wasn't getting any better. There were periods of reprieve which told him this wasn't a typical illness. The driver kept going on to the destination rarely checking in on him, but that made sense. It wasn't his job to worry about his passenger, just to cover the miles between pickup and destination.

Forced to wonder how Seiru had poisoned him and why, Cavan sank back into unconsciousness as he began to hear bells ringing.

It had to be seven o'clock. The lack of an eighth chime told him so. The rain was really pouring down, but he'd just finished a job and it was time to give Ralus his don't-turn-Aizik-into-a-mercenary money. The old man was late which was uncommon. Cavan got the increasing sense that today would not be a normal day. He got the sense that something was about to change in a big way. A shiver ran down his spine as he waited outside the tavern. Finally the door opened revealing an approaching Ralus. Straightening, Cavan held out the bag of money he'd collected. It was slightly above average.

Ralus smiled seeing the payout and snatched it up sifting through the pouch.

"It's more than enough." Cavan stated clearly hiding the shiver from the rain and the cold sense he was getting. Something familiar approached. Eye widening, Cavan recognized it instantly. "Ai..." he whispered whipping around instantly to see Aizik panting at the entrance to the alley leading to the back door. His eyes were furious.

"I can never forgive him..."

Aizik's words from two years ago rang in his mind as he saw those eyes. His teeth were clenched as he looked at Ralus with money in hand almost foaming at the mouth in anger. Ralus looked up at him and furrowed his brow.

"Boy..." he growled.

"Ralus!" Aizik thundered his voice echoing off the walls of Cavan's spine. "I get it now. I know what you've been doing to Cavan! I smell it on him, and on that money! How could you!?" he cried. His face and his speech was all fury and spit. Aizik had lost it.

"Ai, calm down you can't act like this." Cavan said softly trying to settle his friend even a little bit. Ralus glared his own eyes turning a burning red as well.

"You shut your mouth immediately." he rumbled putting his hand on his sword handle.

"Fuck you!" Aizik shouted moving forward. Cavan stood in front of him pushing him back.

"Ai no." he begged. This was bad. If they fought Aizik would surely...

"This is unforgivable Ralus! UNFORGIVABLE!!!" he screamed. Ralus approached and Cavan felt a sudden grip on the back of his collar before he was suddenly airborne and hitting the gravel at the entrance to the alley. Furious words bounced off walls like flying ammunition behind him as he scrambled to regain his balance and his wits upon hitting the floor.

He spun around to see the two locked in combat already. Three blows in and Cavan was just barely keeping track. Aizik swung to take off Ralus's head, but the old man was still quick and there was a flurry of movement behind their jackets and blades flashing before Cavan heard Aizik grunt loudly and with alarm. A streak of red spattered across the wall. Aizik's knees hit the ground and Cavan shot up without thought.

Arms wrapping around Ralus's chest from behind he screamed with all the breath he could let out.

"AIZIK!!!" Another shout came from his friend and for an instant he remembered some blurry event soup. Ralus's elbow smashing into his face and seeing the blade cut through the old man's torso. Had he been struck away successfully? Somehow, he managed to see down. Further than expected. Something was dreadfully wrong. A torrent of blood was cascading from him. His eyes fell on the chest he was pretty sure belonged to him aside from the deep fatal gash carved across its span.

Cavan shot up as he hit the ground. A dream. He was gasping for breath, but he felt relieved in a sense. No longer sick, but still exhausted. What the fuck was that dream? The carriage stopped. They'd arrived.
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It was just ahead. The entrance was light and salvation and they'd made it! Aizik jogged along with the rest with hands raw and bloody from the last encounter near the entrance. They didn't have all their equipment, but at least they were alive. Sentimental value was not worth their lives. It was closer and closer and the nearer they drew the faster they made for it. Aizik was so relieved at escape that his full stride didn't surprise him. The aches in his leg were almost completely gone and his ribs that had been broken since his imprisonment were nowhere nearly as tight as they had been. His chest wasn't constantly hindering his breathing anymore and it had only recently been impaled.

The rushing waves of anxiety for escape drowned the curiosity of how Aizik was able to keep stride so easily. The bodies behind them meant nothing, the hard ground beneath their bare feet was an afterthought, the lack of a vehicle once out was of no consequence. Right now all that mattered was passing through that threshold.

The sight beyond the light of outside was far beyond disappointing. They were in the woods far from the road it seemed. There was no wind to cut the stagnant air full of humidity.

"There must be a body of water nearby," Hayen rasped looking around. Grieves smiled,

"Lets just keep heading this way for now. How you holding up Aizik?" he asked dropping the bloody stone he was still carrying. Aizik looked out through the darkened trees. It seemed to be the wee hours of the morning, but telling time had been more than difficult in that cave and they'd traveled a good distance inside not to mention their moving slow to keep quiet.

"Yes, let's put as much distance as we can between ourselves and this place." Aizik agreed. Eira nodded in accord as did Malana and Lynn who was quiet as usual.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" came a familiar sultry voice. All eyes of the party shot to the top of the cave they'd just exited. A familiar redhead stood on top of it with a large leather bag over her shoulder.

"Miasala..." Aizik called. Eira glared at her. "Was it you? Did you give them explosives?" A man crested the top of the cave as well standing with her. He was wearing a strange white mask. An outlandish power was pouring off of his body.

"Are you kidding me? Of course not. I robbed a group that was trailing behind with your equipment. We tailed them here to this cave and were thinking about raiding it ourselves after some scouting. Who would've thought you'd pop right out here?" she teased tossing the large bag down to them. It landed with all the heft that swords and armor should.

"You know this woman?" Grieves asked as Hayen and Lynn glanced at Aizik as well.

"She tried to hijack our wagon before we reached the first checkpoint, but Eira defeated her." Aizik explained as Eira opened the bag and began sorting through it. Mia just chuckled,

"Yeah well, since you showed up I guess I'll give you your shit back and not sell it in the next town. Maybe this will count as my good deed for this lifetime." she mused chuckling and walking away. The masked man followed close behind.

"So, you're telling me that bandit just helped us?" Hayen asked in confusion. Aizik just nodded.

"Yes." he answered. There was a rather long silence following his answer.

"Okay, why?" Hayen pushed. Aizik looked at him seriously before shrugging. Eira couldn't help but think that no one else could pull off shrugging with a serious face like that since it was usually accompanied by raised eyebrows and a protruding lower lip for most. Aizik wasted no time digging through the bag to find his sword and gauntlets. The rest followed suit. As much as they wanted to get out of that place, being equipped would help out if they ran into trouble on the way back to the exploded carriage.
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How far had they taken him into this godforsaken tunnel? Raising his sagging head, Grieves stared ahead woozily. There was some iniquitous energy that stung the edges of his mind with dark malice somehow blocking his from speaking the words of his Father. Ahead was an orange light at the end of the tunnel. The soldiers who carried him were large and muscled with more armor than the rest. It was all hide and embedded stone, but it looked sturdy and well crafted. They're fists had been hard enough on his face without the crafted knuckles made out of whatever hard bloodletting material they used.

Grieves spit out a wad of blood that he could swear had a tooth in it, but the inside of his cheeks were so swollen that it could have been a piece of one of them. Lips bitten and cut raw and red he still managed to smirk.

"I think I know who you work for. It's her isn't it?" he rasped. The soldiers were stoic. Grieves laughed through throbbing lungs and a sore throat as they passed through the orange glow at the end of the tunnel. "Lilith."

Six pillars of black obsidian stone connected the ground to the ceiling of the expansive room in the cave. Each of them had a large brazier outside of their circle. At the other end of the circle was a large throne made of obsidian skulls and bones. Around the pillars and at the entrance were black hooded men and women carrying torches, hammers, spears, and axes. In the throne itself sat a woman with billowing long black hair covering one of her eyes. Her skin was pale and her eyes were a bright carmine red color. She wore what looked like a dress made out of silk-like thickets of black hair. It was slender around her voluptuous build presenting her breasts out of the top only scarcely containing them. Her lips were ruby red and she smiled seeing Grieves enter her chamber showing two sharp fangs for canines.

"Of course it's Lilith. Who else would got through so much trouble to catch me." he scoffed. Lilith just giggled coyly covering her mouth before sitting up straight in the throne.

"To catch you?" she asked dragging her finger through the hair pushing it from her right eye over her left. This eye was purely gold in color and shining like treasured riches. As it appeared her form shifted drastically. The large bosom flattened and widened turning into a muscular male chest. Her curved hips straightened and her whole form hardened into that of a man in black. The strange outfit wound up over his shoulders and his hair shrank down tying itself into a ponytail. Grieves's eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and diluted panic.

"Gaies!" he barked. The man formerly confused with Lilith laughed heartily leaning forward.

"Of course it's me you traitorous fool! You thought Lady Lilith herself was going to come out here just for you? Hell, I'm not even here for YOU!" he shouted.

"But how can you stop me from Speaking? You don't have nearly enough power to do something like that!" Grieves shouted. Gaies shook his head.

"I'm, I'm sorry your meet suit is distracting from your good looks. Why don't you clean yourself up Eregel?" he asked with the last word in his sentence echoing threateningly through the room as if he wasn't the only one to say it.

My name!? Grieves thought in exclamation just as a harrowing force thundered into his chest electrifying every inch of his body. He threw his head back in agony screaming into the hollows of this cave. Bloody rage and horror shocked his system and bled into the room through his screams as his own body writhed and shifted underneath his flesh. The gray in his hair turned white as his beard and mustache shrank away into nothing. The hair on his head grew longer and longer until reaching his back. The clothes on his body burned away in a sudden erupting flame causing the soldiers to let him go. When the flames stopped his skin was darker as if he'd worked in the sun for years. His body was young and toned flexing as he fell on his knees throwing his head back again and grabbing the sides of his throbbing head. The scream wailed out of human sounding tones with a second resonance underneath of a roaring beast. Grieves's violet eyes bulged as flames shot from his mouth in a pillar of heat and immolation.

Finally it stopped and he was quiet staring at the ceiling as stiff as stone. His arms dropped quietly to his sides while a slow breath let out from his throat.

"How?" he rasped. Gaies stood walking over to him.

"Ah Eregel, so naive. Lilith finally found your name. Your true name. Now I have it, and it seems to work just fine." he boasted. Eregel fell forward on his hands, naked and panting with exhaustion. This was bad. If Gaies had his name, there was no telling who else Lilith had managed to tell it to.

"What did you mean you weren't even here for me?" Eregel barely managed to spit out.

"I guess that's not entirely true," Gaies admitted lifting Eregel's chin and staring into his eyes. "You see, a traitorous child of Lilith such as yourself is not without its threat to our plans. We had to get you away from HIM. The Catalyst."

Eregel's eyes widened yet again as he felt his chest tighten. It couldn't be. Was that the power he'd felt before in that boy?"

"Aizik..."

"Bingo!" Gaies sang, "And we needed Michael to make his move to save the boy's life. No doubt he has. We need to be very careful about how this all plays out or everything will be ruined and Lilith's master plan will not be realized."

"Fuck Lilith's master plan!" Eregel spat. "It won't work, whatever it is it won't work. The Catalyst is strong."

"Oh come off it! He's already fractured into so many pieces you'd have to be stupid to think that. This Aizik is the weakest possible choice there could have been for a Catalyst. He was ruined before he was even appointed. Your Light Father as you call him is a fool and this usurping will prove it. Between myself, Ma'alaghrata, Siel, and all the rest who are a part of this how can you hope Michael will succeed?" Gaies laughed right in Eregel's face.

"Siel? Where is that bastard?" he growled.

"Walking around in that skin of yours with your beloved Catalyst as we speak."

"No!"

"That's right. I'm afraid it's only the beginning and you've already lost." Gaies bragged standing up straight again and staring down at Eregel who only stared at the ground. Suddenly he began to quiver. Gaies raised an eyebrow staring down at Eregel who chuckled louder before laughing out loud. "What you think that's funny?"

Eregel continued to laugh looking up at Gaies and pointing, "You think you've won? You're more foolish than I thought!"

"Excuse me?" Gaies chuckled kneeling down, "Well how about you tell me what you know there Eregel?" he asked no so politely. Grieves felt a twisting in his already pained laughing gut, but it squeezed out no information.

"That's the best part! I don't know a damn thing aside from the fact that this goes much deeper than you have any idea! Not to mention, it's so obvious that you've only got the Breath of my name. My will is my own Gaies. Go fuck yourself." he laughed. Gaies stood up straight glaring for a moment. How dare this beaten traitor laugh at him who held all the cards. Maybe he did only have the weakest for of the Nomen Verus, but it was enough to display his dominance. Suddenly the braziers went out yet Eregel kept laughing. Course thick hair wrapped around his wrists and ankles pulling him up and suspending him between the pillars where another brazier lit below him illuminating the middle area of the room. Gaies stood in front of him smiling.

"How about I fuck you instead? I've always wondered what it would be like if I could play with something more durable than those mortals. I suppose it's time I found out." he teased. Eregel just chuckled,

"Is that the best you can do? You think you're going to break me by fucking me? My my Gaies, you're truly under some serious ill effects of idiocy." he taunted. A fist from nowhere lashed out and struck him in the stomach hard knocking the wind out of him and temporarily stopping his laughter. Gaies approached still smiling and looked Eregel up and down for a moment.

"Alright, I've got it." Suddenly Eregel saw a tendril writhe out from the darkness. It seemed to be made of the shadows itself, but with some sort of sheen to it as if it was wet. Gaies cackled evilly as it drew closer to Eregely who finally saw what it was shaped like.

"A shadow cock? Creative," he sighed full of sarcasm. "Maybe you should just take it and stick it up your-Ugh!"

In the blink of an eye it was in him. It had slithered past wrapping around his left leg and jamming itself inside his asshole. It was slippery and firm, but with a strange warmth to it. The shadow dick pushed in deeper forcing a grunt from Eregel as another tentacle wrapped around his midsection and pulled making him bend over so the tentacle could force it's way in deeper and deeper slithering around and thundering back and forth in his ass. Another tentacle plunged from the darkness forming a hand-like end and grabbing Eregel's penis.

"You know what's odd about this Eregel? We don't have a real gender, you could easily become a female and make this a little less awkward for yourself." Gaies teased even though he was using the Nomen Verus to keep Eregel from doing just that. "How's it feel anyway?" The tentacle around Eregel's penis began to stroke vigorously coaxing it into an erection. Gaies smirked lashing another tentacle around Eregel's throat and forcing yet another into his mouth. The ones on the wrists pulled the arms back hard. Eregel closed his eyes as he was penetrated in every possible place mainly feeling the one in his butt pushing forward further than any normal penis could even make it into the body. It swelled and pumped hard as he was forced to suck on one of the slippery pieces of darkness.

The tentacles wiggled as they did their work and Gaies just stood and watched. Two shadowed tentacle hands came out of the black and grabbed Eregel's ass spreading it to push in even deeper. Unable to speak or fling out any snide comments about Gaies's efforts he could only gag on the shadow dick in his mouth. The wrist tentacles pulled his arms again and forced him upright with the ass fucking tentacle staid lodged in his butt. The one stroking his cock pulled away and slapped him in the face twice before grabbing his long hair and pulling it down again. The anal tentacle fucked even faster now swelling up even more but still slipping in and out easily with its unknown lubricant.

Suddenly it pulled out of him and sprayed a thick white substance all over his back and in his long hair. The one in his mouth exploded the 'cum' into his mouth as well. Eregel tried to pull away chocking on the full mouth of cock and cream as it shot ejaculate down his throat. The blowjob tentacle finally pulled away letting him cough and gasp for air.

Gaies laughed rising up as if levitating and stopping in front of Eregel.

"Alright, I've got to give this ago. Now change." he commanded. Eregel's body immediately convulsed again writhing with the transformation as his chest swelled round breasts and his erect penis and balls shrank away into female genitals. His body softened and smoothed into feminine curves and a slim waist.

The clothes on Gaies's body slipped away into the shadows as he pressed his dick against Eregel's warm new pussy. A wicked smile took his lips and he grabbed her waist pushing the hard penis inside his adversary.

"Well now, you don't feel too bad on the inside." he taunted. Eregel glared right back into his face.

"Pig," came her new lighter voice. Eregel had been a female before, but didn't have much sex. She'd always seen herself as more of a male persona. Frontal penetration always weirded her out, but right now showing that would allow Gaies to win their little mind game. Nonetheless, he pushed Eregel's legs up against her own chest as tentacles came out and fondles the breasts and nipples. Gaies rammed her furiously digging short claws into the soft thigh flesh as he fucked her, his enemy. His taunting condescending traitor of an enemy, and here he was plowing her like some bar tramp. It felt good to be on top.

Eregel just took it with her arms stretched taught out to the side she suddenly flew backward into a wall courtesy of the hair restraints. Gaies didn't come unglued. The anal tentacle returned flying full speed back into her rectum which was newly tightened. Gaius laughed maniacally as he fucked her, wet cock sliding in and out of the new vagina. Even the blowjob tentacle returned with two friends that whipped the sides of Eregel's legs leaving red skin glowing with heat with each lash. The anal tentacle kept it's tradition of growing exponentially larger with each thrust as it pumped its way deep inside her ass. The fondling tentacles squeezed, bounced, and pulled at her breasts and nipples while she took the humiliation from her enemy.

"What do you think Eregel? Huh? Is it fun being my bitch?!" shouted Gaius as he plunged his thick cock into her wet pussy over and over. The anal tentacle got even bigger becoming easily twice the girth of a normal penis and forcing many invasive grunts from Eregel before it finally blew it's white steamy load into her ass. The goo pumped with the same intensity as the shadow cock, but it was hotter and gooeyer filling her up and dripping in thick drops down to the darkened ground below.
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Eira squinted at Grieves. Something was just weird about him every since they'd reunited with him. They were reequipped now and trying to find their way back to where the carriage had been blown up. Still, when she looked directly at Grieves the longer she stared at him the more something seemed strange like staring at an optical illusion where focusing on one part of the whole makes it appear different. Maybe she was just still a little freaked out about what had gone down in that cave.

Aizik was quiet again and just trudged forward. He really shouldn't be able to move around that easily, but maybe he was running on adrenaline and hiding his pain or something? It would have made sense given his many experiences with pain. Still, he couldn't help but be perplexed about his dream. Was that really all it was?

His mind wandered to Cavan and if he was doing okay. It had been a little while since he'd left him with Seiru and that was bad news in general. He couldn't go dying now, Cavan and all the lives he'd taker were depending on him. Maybe God was lending him a bit of strength in the time of need. That would definitely be out of the ordinary, but totally possible. Eira nudged him and he looked over at her.

"We'll be alright." she comforted. Aizik nodded as if that's what him mind was on. Trying to force a smile to comfort her he ended up cracking his lower lip which was really dry and had just begun to seal up since being split last.

"Ow." he groaned. Three broken ribs, two arrow wounds and countless other extremely uncomfortable ailments, but a split lip still hurt.

"Don't worry Aizik, we'll be to the road soon and maybe we can hitchhike a passing carriage or something. If not, we'll make it to the next checkpoint. Maybe we can take an extra few days or something to get you healed up." Grieves said supportively through labored breaths. Hayen was unusually quiet, but seemed to be keeping a paranoid eye out. They had a long road ahead of them.