Seeds of Heroism - Chapter 43
Chapter 43 – content: >!general violence, cuntbusting, sph, electricity, castration!<
*[A guide to the world of Bythos!](https://imgur.com/a/poZLPkK)*
They plunged in and out of the shadows, dancing on the edge of light and dark. Their weapons clashed again and again, neither of them wanting to let the other gain too much distance, fearing that they would retreat to the shadows and attack unseen. But both of made use of the supernatural shadow to hide their attacks until the last second or to shift their stance unseen.
Leonia gritted her teeth. He was better than she had expected. Strength, she had seen in many men, but he was quick as well. Good reflexes and solid footwork that she had often missed in her subordinates.
She struck one of his blows to the side and tried for a riposte, but he had already pulled back and out of reach. *Fine, then let’s see you handle this*.
She stepped forward and sent a series of wide, strong slashes at him that left him no choice but to block. His stance was wide to leverage enough power. Then, her back foot accelerated, aiming right for the point between his legs. It was a blow no man could hope to endure. She would simply shatter his stones against her greaves with one kick and that would be it.
He turned at the hips, letting her kick rush past his nuts with no harm done. He brought his own leg forward and smashed his kneecap into her groin.
Pain erupted in her cooch and she stumbled back. Anger flared in her eyes.
Sir William smirked. [“Seems like the ballbusting bitch can dish it out but can’t take it.](https://imgur.com/a/G5Ulhlk) I told you, I’m not going to let you- Woah!”
She had immediately tried to counter with another kick to his nuts. Even turned sideways, thanks to the erection he somehow had, she could still easily see the two fragile targets in his pants. Thankfully, she had no sensitive nuts dangling in her pants, so his knee left her sore but not crumpling to the ground. She thanked Norea for blessing her with a smooth pussy instead of weak balls and tried to take advantage of the opportunity it provided. He managed to twist out of the way of her kick once more, but just barely. She felt her boot graze along the outline of his stones, jostling them around in their sack.
“Grhk!” William grunted and stumbled back, remaining standing on wobbly knees. She smiled at him, ignoring the urge to rub and soothe her own aching womanhood.
“I hope you didn’t think you would be leaving this place with both of your spuds still attached, William.”
---
“Ow ow ow! Stop pulling!”
“Only when you stop whining and start to focus!” Despina said but stopped dragging Jim by his nuts behind her. *Were they always so compact? It’s much easier to grab hold of both. Did Liri bind both his stupid donkey balls together? Goddess, I wish we had time so that I could take him to my tent and really let these stupid massive balls have it.*
Instead, she slapped her knuckles into the soft meat of his gonads. “I won’t rest until I’ve cut off that hairy little rat’s balls and stuffed them down his throat, so you better look alive. He could be-”
“DOWN!” Liriel yelled and grabbed Jim’s plentiful balls as well as Aramis smaller package to pull them to the ground. Despina followed them of her own accord.
An arrow flew over their heads with only inches to spare. With a cackle, Badri’s hairy face hid behind the stalk of a mushroom, no doubt notching another arrow.
“That little…” Despina grumbled and got up. “If he wants a fight, he can have one!” The princess stomped over towards the giant mushroom, completely out in the open.
“What about the knights?” Liriel shouted.
“I’ll leave those to you. Just watch my back,” the redhead said, looking behind herself towards them.
Jim saw the odious face of Badri re-emerge from behind the stalk, another arrow on his short bow, the string drawn back, ready to let it fly. “Despina!”
Her head jolted forward as the bowstring sang. Her hand shot out and her hair was suddenly rustled by an unseen gust of wind. A cloud of dust kicked up and instead of piercing the princess in the chest, the arrow was violently ripped from its path and slammed into the ground in front of her. Jim could just about see the edge of her smile.
“Like I said, you just watch my back. I’ll handle him.”
Jim hesitated and looked towards Liriel. The elf frowned but nodded to him. When he had got to his feet, together they turned towards the guards and knights moving up on them from behind.
“OK, then once more… are you ready, Liri?”
“Nn, let’s show them that they’re not welcome here!”
As they headed for their opponents, Despina was making steady progress towards hers. The contemptible goblin shot arrow after arrow at her, but none reached her. He relocated from one mushroom to the next, trying to stay away, but getting another arrow from his quiver, notching the projectile and aiming at her took time. She was still too far for her own weapons to work, but she made steady progress.
Arrow after arrow was deflected by her wind and sweat shone on her forehead. Never had she cast so many spells in a row, and never had it been so crucial that she get every single one of them right.
“You sold us out back then, didn’t you? Back in Seduttri!” she shouted. A blast of wind sent an arrow sailing over her head and into the shadowy veil. “I had my doubts about you from the start, but then I saw you standing there next to that demoness Malphas when she jumped me.”
With a massive grin, Badri peeked out from behind the mushroom, an arrow in his hand. “Kekeke, you and knight woman dumb as ox!” He notched the arrow and let it fly. She swatted it down without blinking an eye and he drew another projectile from his quiver. “Was good fun, see you get thrashed and beaten!”
“Oh, I can imagine you enjoyed that, considering how often I’ve watched Leonia beat your balls black and blue in my tent for my entertainment!” His smile turned into a snarl and he fired another arrow. It, too, was blown away. “Which one was your favourite, the whip producing welts all over your useless nuts like you caught the pox? Mine was the cane, Lea really liked to focus on your right testicle, didn’t she?” Despite her calm demeanour, she was breathing heavily.
“Whore will pay for what whore did to Badri!” he screamed. He stuck three arrows into the ground next to him, then drew a fourth from his quiver.
“Seems like we have something in common then! I really regret not busting your babymakers myself when I had the chance, but I’m going to make up for that now!”
His first arrow was cut in two by her winds and she broke into a run. Her hand rooted around the bag at her belt. She was getting closer, she could finally retaliate!
His second arrow was poorly aimed, flying over her without Despina needing to blast it away. It gave her the time to form a spell in her hand.
As Badri notched another arrow, a hail of projectiles buzzed through the air around him. He looked up in surprise and saw that her palm was filled with small iron spheres. The princess was saying something and one after the other, the spheres shot out from her hand and towards him.
Most missed him, but the ones that hit *hurt*. One struck him in his chest, and he could already tell it would form a bruise later. More hits followed, striking his leg, arm or stomach.
“Whore-cunt! Die!” He drew the string back to his ear and aimed. He had wondered what was going on, but now that he knew she was a sorceress, he knew how to stop her. There was a rhythm to her casting, most likely the length of the spell’s incantation that limited her.
His breath slowed. Her projectiles slammed into the ground, his chest. *THUM – THUM – THUM.* He adjusted to the rhythm. *THUM – THUM.* His fingers lifted off the arrow’s shaft, this one would hit for sur-
*THUM*
An iron sphere struck his balls, the projectile drilling into his right testicle. It felt like she had just slammed a running kick into his nuts.
“Hargh!” He involuntarily sank to one knee and his bow followed, his aim thrown off by the shot to his manhood. The arrow merely grazing her side. It opened up a nasty tear on her hip, but it wasn’t enough to stop her.
She had finally found her aim. Despina shot out more projectiles, and most of them found his testicles with unerring instinct.
Each hit drew a cry from him as his right testicle in particular was pelted over and over with shots. The closer she got, the more centre her shots landed, each pellet pushing deeper into the core of his hairy nut, the rapid pace of their impacts not even letting the bombarded testicle regain its shape. Instead, the iron spheres slammed so hard into the right ball that it started to warp around the impact crater.
Meanwhile, Liriel, Jim and Aramis were fighting back to back against the onslaught of guards and knights. They rigorously kept to their formations and Jim and his friends scrambled to find a strategy that worked against them.
“Fall back! You’re going to get surrounded!” Aramis shouted as he dodged a sword slash.
“Augh! This is so annoying!” the elf groaned. The sheer number of her opponents ensured she couldn’t attack any of them without risking that she get struck in turn.
Jim rammed his shoulder into a man that had sneaked up on Liriel. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I just can’t find a way to get through them when I’m busy defending!”
Suddenly, Aramis appeared from a blind spot next to a knight and struck him down. “Then don’t!” he said and quickly jumped back before he could get run through by the four guards that retaliated.
“What?”
Jim’s mouth twisted into a grim smile. “I think I get it. Get behind me!”
She carefully retreated, letting Jim take over as vanguard of their groups.
*If there is one thing Leonia taught me, it’s defending against her strikes. They may be more but way slower and less tricky than her. I can do this.*
Liriel quickly caught on.
He acted as vanguard of their group, breaking up the attacks and focusing on parrying incoming strikes, while Liriel struck from his shadow. Aramis drifted around them, always keeping one of their attackers between him and the rest of the group, threatening to stab them in the back should they ignore him and try to flank Jim and Liriel.
Slowly, methodically, they dispatched the large group, leaving a pile of injured men around them.
“What are these idiots doing? They’re just three people, why can’t they beat them already? Kasper, do something!”
“I-I’m not s-sure what I’m supposed to do here,” a meek voice answered.
Jim’s head was on a swivel, spotting the lord and lady further back, only two Cillian city guards acting as their bodyguards. *This is our chance!*
“Follow me!” he said and trusted that Liriel and Aramis were right behind him as he went on the offensive. He fought his way forward, inching towards the two nobles who were unaware of his plan.
They got within ten metres before the guards drew their weapons and stood in front of their charges. They stood no chances.
With a quick combination of strikes, Jim overwhelmed the right guard’s defences and sent him to the ground with a slash that made his helmet ring like a bell.
On the left, Liriel feinted once, twice, then punished the guard when he overextended in a riposte with a brutal knee strike to his groin. The attack crushed his will as well as his balls. The impact of Liriel’s knee sent shockwaves through his sack and it was not the initial impact that ruptured his testicles but the aftershocks reverberating through the nutmeat. Her knee had put sudden pressure on the two small organs they were never designed to take, but the vibrations rippling through them shattered their shell and broke the nuts apart into chunks. The guard was lifted into the air before he slammed back, crying in pain and disbelief that a small elf girl hadn't even needed a second to take his manhood from him.
Aramis pushed the two nobles to their knees and placed his dagger against Kasper’s throat.
“It seems that the tables have turned, wouldn’t you say?” the foxkin said with a smug expression.
“P-please d-don't hurt me!” Kasper cried.
Yohanna, on the other hand, screeched like a fury. “These dull, dim-witted, useless, dung-brained idiots! I’m going to smack them all! Graagh!”
“Ow, hey, stop! You crazy bimbo, stop scratching my groin!” Aramis struggled to get Yohanna’s long nails off of the bulge in his pants, while taking care not to accidentally cut Kasper.
Jim was hunched over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Next to him, Liriel was equally tired from the fight but her smile was warm and hopeful.
*Clap, clap, clap* “Very good, very good!”
They all froze as they heard someone in the dark sarcastically applaud. “Truly impressive, a feat for the ages!” a smoky female voice said.
“Who’s there?” Jim asked, forcing himself to stand straight, weapon at the ready. Beside him, Liriel shuddered.
Slowly, the tall shape of a woman with crimson skin emerged into the light. She was taller than even Leonia, he estimated. Black horns twisted out of her head in tight spirals, protruding to the sides, not unlike an elf’s ears. Her hair shone like silver, cascading from her shoulders to her hips like an icy waterfall. Red irises glowed atop black sclera, unblinking.
“Such a delight to see you again, Jim. How I longed for our reunion,” she said. Her chest was only covered by a black stole, the fabric resting on top of her shoulders and flowing down and over her breasts in two wide strips. He couldn’t see anything that held the thin piece of clothing in place and given the lack of support, her tits swayed with each step.
Wrapped around her midriff was a similar cloth, cut into a rough V shape that met below her navel. From there, it fell as one over her loins, stopping at the length of a miniskirt. Jim felt that if he just crouched down a bit, he could easily see beneath it, see her-
“I told you this would be your fate. If only you had listened the first time,” she said and grinned wickedly.
“I have no recollection of ever meeting you,” he said and hoped that she didn’t hear his voice crack.
She moved a hand over her face, and for just a second, he could glimpse the weathered face of an old woman before wiping it away like a mask. “Bring back any memories?”
“Helene!” Jim, Kasper and Yohanna screamed in equal shock and confusion.
“That’s the person I pretended to be, yes. But you may call me Raum instead, now that this farce is behind us.”
The first one among them to pull himself together was Kasper, of all people. He seemed to have completely forgotten about Aramis dagger at his throat. “You… you foul creature, have you come to betray us? Betray her majesty the queen?”
Raum chuckled, holding her sides with her talon-like claws. “Oh, I’m sure the little girl playing at queen had some inkling as to my true nature, but I was too useful for her to challenge me. Not that she could have.”
“I knew it,” Jim said through clenched teeth. “When you came to my room, you tried to abduct me, didn’t you? You damn monster!”
The demoness gasped facetiously. “You hurt my feelings, Jim! I mean, yes, I would have dragged you down to hell, but I wanted to enjoy you before that. Can you really blame little old me for being eager to feel you inside of me? I *am* the desire of the seven ravens, after all, and I haven’t had a good fuck in so long. Look, even now I’m dripping for you.”
She held the broad loincloth to the side, revealing a pussy as dark as a moonless night. Her juices pooled on her puffy lips, dripping steadily to the ground or running down her crimson thighs like a needy maiden.
“We both know what awaits you when her empress Lilith gets her hands on you… Oh, how good it would feel to rub that dick along my folds. So why not use what you have one last time? Well, maybe not one last time. I’m sure you have the juice for at least three or four rounds in those big balls,” she said and winked.
The sight of her infernal womanhood drew him in like a beautiful poisonous flower and he remembered that the same had happened back in Seduttri.
A twinge of pain shot through his loins. Was it the cage, or did Liriel’s nut brace just tighten further?
“Ugh, I’d never do it with you! I’ll send you back to hell where you belong!”
“A shame, but not unexpected,” she said with a shrug. Keeping her loincloth lifted away, she sneaked a finger between her legs and started rubbing her dripping sex. “I figured I’d have to take what I want. It’s fine, the chase before I get to taste your cock is part of the fun as well. Killing your friends will really get me going.”
He started walking towards her, sword in hand. “My steel is the only thing you will taste!”
She cooed in excitement, still petting her pussy. “I like a man who plays hard to get! But, are you so sure about that?”
[Raum snapped the fingers currently not pleasuring herself and as one, a wall of people stepped out from behind her.](https://imgur.com/a/5PtqhNe) They were guards from Cillia and knights from Calvino, but most of them were adventurers that were led to this strange place by Despina. And all the men among them were sporting rock hard erections.
He flinched. “What’s going on?”
“I took the liberty of collecting a few strays. My pets are adorable, aren’t they? They’re so obedient.”
“N-no, that’s…” He retreated in horror.
“Release them from your grasp or I will kill these two!” Aramis shouted, pressing his dagger against Kasper’s throat for emphasis.
The demoness tilted her head. “Mhm… yeah, he’s too small. Go ahead and kill him. I don’t have any use for limp dicks like his.”
“I’m not bluffing!” the foxkin yelled and angled the blade. Kasper gasped and a trickle of blood bloomed on his neck.
“Neither am I. Forward.” At her word, the mass of people walked towards Jim and the others, stretching out their arms as if to grab them.
---
“Just a bit further, girl. It looks like a grove of these strange mushrooms is up ahead, we can rest there.”
“What is up with them anyway? I don’t understand how they can survive down here anyway, there’s no water, nothing to nourish them,” Ina said, her left arm slung around Zenobia and her right hand pressed to the wound in her side.
“That’s not important right now, we just need you- Oh.”
“What?”
“There are… steps here? Hey, sit down, it’ll be better than sitting on the ground.”
The auf followed her suggestion, scooting over to the side of what looked like overgrown stairs, resting her back against a smaller stalk growing on top of it. Huffing in pain, she looked up at the glowing lights above them.
“Did someone build this place? Did they plant these giant mushrooms as well, or did they get in here from outside?”
Zenobia chuckled. “I’m not one to stifle curiosity, but settle down, girl. When all of this is over, we’ll have time enough to inspect this place.”
“Tcheh, alright, but I’ll hold you to it.” She grinned, then looked back up at the lights above. “They look much closer here. I wonder if…”
With a twist of her hand, a quivering drop of sunlight appeared in her hands. With a surprised yell, Zenobia fell on her butt.
“Oof, I didn’t think it would be so heavy!” Ina said, straining to hold the glowing orb.
Zenobia struggled to her feet, then took the heavy drop from her. “What did I just say! Really, you’re almost as childish as Liriel.” The sorceress weighed the beachball-sized sphere in her hands. “It could be poisonous!”
“Something that looks as beautiful as that? No way!”
“Especially something that is so flashy! If these are the spores, they might very well be unhealthy.” But she couldn’t deny that it looked kind of beautiful.
[It spread a warm orange glow around them.](https://imgur.com/a/wdetZMi) Wiggling her fingers, she noticed it was a bit sticky and roughly the consistency of… She took one hand off the spore ball and grabbed a breast. The sorceress huffed and nodded.
“It’s like a balloon filled with water, or honey, or…”
Ina gave her a flat stare. “Don’t say what you’re about to say.”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you mean.”
“No, no, no, you definitely do, you were about to say something like ‘Oh, it feels like it’s filled with spunk’, I know that look, it’s the same with the perverted old patrons back at my inn before they make a bawdy joke or slap my ass.”
“Well, if you think *that* is what this feels like, who am I to argue,” Zenobia said and grinned at Ina’s groans. Just to be sure, though, she gave the orb a little sniff. *A bit like warm bread and the sea… it's probably for the best. It wouldn't do to get excited right now because of some strange glob that smells like cum.*
Having had her fun, she placed the spore sphere next to Ina and held out her hand. “Teleport another one down, maybe a slightly smaller one. They make for good lanterns.”
“I thought you said they might be dangerous?”
“That’s when I thought you wouldn’t just grope them to see what they feel like. A hypothetical, if you will.”
Ina rolled her eyes but obliged, handing her a football-sized glowing orb.
“Thanks! If you don’t mind, I’m going to see where these steps lead.”
“Be careful!”
The steps themselves were nowhere to be seen. Blueish-white roots – or would it be mycelium? – covered all of their entirety, forming a snaggy, gnarled imitation of a stairway.
Zenobia ascended the steps, surprised how long it took her. There had to have been at least fifty before they levelled out, expelling her out onto a platform.
The mushrooms were growing right next to each other here, forming almost a blue wall around the platform. But most striking was the statue in the middle of it.
It was entirely black, likely made of onyx. Portrayed was a man, kneeling in front of Zenobia in a supplicating mien. He had his hands cupped in front of him, as if receiving a blessing from his lord.
The statue’s hands swam with inky blackness, a liquid so dark, it seemed to suck up the light of the glowing spores. But even though it was entirely black, bursts of shadow and fog danced in it, like the negatives of stars at the moment of their explosion. Zenobia had no idea *how* she could see them, given that the liquid was of a deeper, more profound blackness than any she had seen before, but she definitely saw them. Or did she just *know* them to be there?
“Marvellous,” she said and knelt beside the wondrous liquid, placing the spores next to her. For a good minute, she was occupied with observing the onyx abreuvoir, at one point even being startled by a black drop falling from somewhere into the fluid, as if it had materialized right above it. What few implements of study she carried with her were taken from her bag and carefully applied to the inky liquor.
Zenobia didn’t even hear the footsteps until they were almost right behind her. When she did, she grabbed the glowing spore sphere and turned, standing back up.
Harald von Haller’s face was lit from below, drawing long shadows over his eyes from his glasses. Only a glint in the middle revealed his eyes.
“Remarkable, truly. It feels almost surreal to witness the real deal after months of trying to recreate it in a laboratory, doesn’t it?”
She was at a loss for words. Vile but soft-spoken Harald was the last man she had expected to see here. “I knew I would find you here, of course. Great minds think alike, and I commend your curiosity, just as I did when we first met.”
“You…” she growled, reaching for her dagger. A movement behind Harald stopped her. The stone-faced maid he always had with him stepped into her view, pointing a crossbow at Zenobia. Her hand went back to the glowing orb she was holding.
“What did you do to Inacea?” she asked.
“Hm? Oh, the woman on the stairs. It seems her exhaustion and wounds have caught up with her. I thought it best to let her sleep, I’m not a cruel man, after all.”
“Hah, right!” she said with as much bitterness as she could muster.
“I assume you’re referring to my sister?”
“Among others. You are the reason Cillia has been able to wage this war, after all.”
He nodded. “I am, and I thank you for acknowledging my contributions, even if that was not your intention. We have already discussed all of this, I will not bore you with my reply. It does pain me that we have ended up opposed to each other, but I have accepted it.” His eyes turned from her back to the statue. “It is ironic in so many aspects, isn’t it? To resume my research that I began in the arcane laboratories years ago, before a catastrophic breakout of our specimen forced us to abandon this location. Only to discover that right next to it was a wellspring of the mythical material we sought to synthesize.”
“So this truly is…”
“Ambrosia, yes. The wondrous substance capable of healing any affliction bar death. You are standing next to one of the legendary mana springs, and I’m sure the affinity of this one is no mystery to you.”
She regarded the all-encompassing shadow around them. “Darkness… but then what about these glowing spheres?” The sorceress couldn’t help herself. She hated the man in front of her with a passion she had never felt for anyone else before, but her curiosity still demanded to be sated.
“You are familiar with the phrase ‘where there is light, there must also be shadow’ of course. A droll phrase meant to remind us that happiness must be earned through strife. Taken at face value, it seems like a truism. To observe light, someone must be there to witness it, inevitably casting a shadow. But assume for a moment that the phrase goes beyond platitudes. What if light inevitably necessitates shadow, even if we hypothesize it to exist in an empty space, with nothing to cast a shadow?”
“It would follow that shadow also necessitates the existence of light…” she muttered.
“Just so. Those are my thoughts on the matter, at least.” He licked his lips. “I only thought to witness your end as a former colleague, to think that I would reap such rewards as well…”
Zenobia gritted her teeth when she was reminded of the situation at hand. “Having a little ouchie you hope to heal, lord von Haller?”
“Not at all, I am perfectly well. But it seems you are unaware of the further rumours floating about concerning ambrosia.” She gave him no answer. “It is said to ‘free a man’s soul’, as it were. Or, less poetically, to enable him to cast magic. Just imagine what I would be able to accomplish wielding the arcane arts. *Especially* magic of a dark affinity. A researcher with the ability to control the minds of others, it almost makes me laugh how well it fits. I was *meant* to be here.”
Her eyes flicked to the black liquid and back to Harald. To his maid, who had a crossbow trained on Zenobia, ready to impale her the moment she dared to move.
A man that was ruthless enough to poison and murder his own sister, just so he could gain some pitiful insight into the workings of a flawed panacea… If he was given the ability to rob others of their free will, to command them as he saw fit. It made her shudder. But what could she do? He stood mere steps away from her, entirely unarmed, but she was still powerless to stop him.
“No sense in wasting any more time. I shall drink now, look out for any disturbances,” Harald said to his maid.
She nodded, scowling at Zenobia. Then, they all heard steps approaching. Someone was coming up the stairs. For just a fraction of a second, the maid’s eyes flicked away from Zenobia.
The sorceress moved without thinking. She tossed the glowing orb towards Harald and both his and his maid’s eyes followed the slight arc of the light. He reflexively caught it with both hands, the weight of the spore orb making him bend slightly forward, his elbows bracing against his stomach.
Before he had even caught the spore orb, the ring she used to produce light with was already spraying sparks, angrily crackling at the murderer. The moment her fist impacted the spores was also the moment the maid raised the crossbow.
Once more, she threw open the gates of her soul to access her dwindling mana. She let it rush out of her in its raw form, not bothering to press it into the intricate matrices of a spell.
*I can’t allow him to drink the ambrosia. He must be stopped at all costs*, she thought.
Lightning burst from her ring, embedded in the sticky sap of the orange sphere. It overloaded the gob of light in an instant, looking for a way out.
It found the path of least resistance to exist within lord von Haller’s lap. Resting against his hips, the sticky orb touched not just his arms and thighs, but also the metallic and very conductive chastity cage that had turned his once impressive dick into a small and shrunken nub, incapable of even achieving an erection.
The equivalent of a lightning strike struck his crotch as Zenobia poured every ounce of mana into the attack. Electricity arced through the miniscule cage, frying his useless penis to a crisp. The current didn’t stop there, making its way through the loop that secured the cage to his body by grasping the base of his nutsack.
From the skin of his scrotum, lightning penetrated into his reproductive organs. The spermatic cords it found within made for an excellent wire to conduct the energy further. Via the epididymis, lightning filled his testicles with boundless energy that the fragile ovals were never meant to withstand.
As the lightning arced through his gonads, it melted deep furrows into the nutmeat where tiny imperfections and tears within the testicles had been cut and maimed from months and months of constant abuse at the hands, knees and feet of Harald’s maid. The nutmeat was just a little bit weaker, a little bit less resistant where these tiny wounds existed and the electricity found these paths and tore them wide open.
But more and more energy poured into his balls when it had no other way to go. It overloaded his sack. Already, his chastity cage as a whole was glowing white-hot and his balls stood no chance.
The attack reached a tipping point where something had to give. That something were Harald’s nuts.
The testicles exploded in his sack, detonating down- and outward in a mess of blue and white arcs of electricity, as well as white chunks of flash-fried nutmeat. The gonads detonated just below the epididymis, ripping a hole into the bottom of his scrotum and even blasting a hole in his pants.
For just a moment, Zenobia could see the blackened cords that used to hold his nuts dangle in empty air. With a wet splash, the remains of his manhood that hadn’t simply evaporated splattered the ground between his legs.
Then she heard the twang of a crossbow’s string.
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*The bad times are coming, friends.*
*Not entirely happy with how Leonia’s image turned out but it was either this or a blond anime girl’s head on a male bodybuilder’s body, as in prime Schwarzenegger but kawaii. Totally unusable but I laughed my ass off. In contrast, I liked multiple for Zenobia holding the glowing spore ball. Mostly settled on this one because I feel like she would chose the one that shows the most cleavage.*
*[A guide to the world of Bythos!](https://imgur.com/a/poZLPkK)*
They plunged in and out of the shadows, dancing on the edge of light and dark. Their weapons clashed again and again, neither of them wanting to let the other gain too much distance, fearing that they would retreat to the shadows and attack unseen. But both of made use of the supernatural shadow to hide their attacks until the last second or to shift their stance unseen.
Leonia gritted her teeth. He was better than she had expected. Strength, she had seen in many men, but he was quick as well. Good reflexes and solid footwork that she had often missed in her subordinates.
She struck one of his blows to the side and tried for a riposte, but he had already pulled back and out of reach. *Fine, then let’s see you handle this*.
She stepped forward and sent a series of wide, strong slashes at him that left him no choice but to block. His stance was wide to leverage enough power. Then, her back foot accelerated, aiming right for the point between his legs. It was a blow no man could hope to endure. She would simply shatter his stones against her greaves with one kick and that would be it.
He turned at the hips, letting her kick rush past his nuts with no harm done. He brought his own leg forward and smashed his kneecap into her groin.
Pain erupted in her cooch and she stumbled back. Anger flared in her eyes.
Sir William smirked. [“Seems like the ballbusting bitch can dish it out but can’t take it.](https://imgur.com/a/G5Ulhlk) I told you, I’m not going to let you- Woah!”
She had immediately tried to counter with another kick to his nuts. Even turned sideways, thanks to the erection he somehow had, she could still easily see the two fragile targets in his pants. Thankfully, she had no sensitive nuts dangling in her pants, so his knee left her sore but not crumpling to the ground. She thanked Norea for blessing her with a smooth pussy instead of weak balls and tried to take advantage of the opportunity it provided. He managed to twist out of the way of her kick once more, but just barely. She felt her boot graze along the outline of his stones, jostling them around in their sack.
“Grhk!” William grunted and stumbled back, remaining standing on wobbly knees. She smiled at him, ignoring the urge to rub and soothe her own aching womanhood.
“I hope you didn’t think you would be leaving this place with both of your spuds still attached, William.”
---
“Ow ow ow! Stop pulling!”
“Only when you stop whining and start to focus!” Despina said but stopped dragging Jim by his nuts behind her. *Were they always so compact? It’s much easier to grab hold of both. Did Liri bind both his stupid donkey balls together? Goddess, I wish we had time so that I could take him to my tent and really let these stupid massive balls have it.*
Instead, she slapped her knuckles into the soft meat of his gonads. “I won’t rest until I’ve cut off that hairy little rat’s balls and stuffed them down his throat, so you better look alive. He could be-”
“DOWN!” Liriel yelled and grabbed Jim’s plentiful balls as well as Aramis smaller package to pull them to the ground. Despina followed them of her own accord.
An arrow flew over their heads with only inches to spare. With a cackle, Badri’s hairy face hid behind the stalk of a mushroom, no doubt notching another arrow.
“That little…” Despina grumbled and got up. “If he wants a fight, he can have one!” The princess stomped over towards the giant mushroom, completely out in the open.
“What about the knights?” Liriel shouted.
“I’ll leave those to you. Just watch my back,” the redhead said, looking behind herself towards them.
Jim saw the odious face of Badri re-emerge from behind the stalk, another arrow on his short bow, the string drawn back, ready to let it fly. “Despina!”
Her head jolted forward as the bowstring sang. Her hand shot out and her hair was suddenly rustled by an unseen gust of wind. A cloud of dust kicked up and instead of piercing the princess in the chest, the arrow was violently ripped from its path and slammed into the ground in front of her. Jim could just about see the edge of her smile.
“Like I said, you just watch my back. I’ll handle him.”
Jim hesitated and looked towards Liriel. The elf frowned but nodded to him. When he had got to his feet, together they turned towards the guards and knights moving up on them from behind.
“OK, then once more… are you ready, Liri?”
“Nn, let’s show them that they’re not welcome here!”
As they headed for their opponents, Despina was making steady progress towards hers. The contemptible goblin shot arrow after arrow at her, but none reached her. He relocated from one mushroom to the next, trying to stay away, but getting another arrow from his quiver, notching the projectile and aiming at her took time. She was still too far for her own weapons to work, but she made steady progress.
Arrow after arrow was deflected by her wind and sweat shone on her forehead. Never had she cast so many spells in a row, and never had it been so crucial that she get every single one of them right.
“You sold us out back then, didn’t you? Back in Seduttri!” she shouted. A blast of wind sent an arrow sailing over her head and into the shadowy veil. “I had my doubts about you from the start, but then I saw you standing there next to that demoness Malphas when she jumped me.”
With a massive grin, Badri peeked out from behind the mushroom, an arrow in his hand. “Kekeke, you and knight woman dumb as ox!” He notched the arrow and let it fly. She swatted it down without blinking an eye and he drew another projectile from his quiver. “Was good fun, see you get thrashed and beaten!”
“Oh, I can imagine you enjoyed that, considering how often I’ve watched Leonia beat your balls black and blue in my tent for my entertainment!” His smile turned into a snarl and he fired another arrow. It, too, was blown away. “Which one was your favourite, the whip producing welts all over your useless nuts like you caught the pox? Mine was the cane, Lea really liked to focus on your right testicle, didn’t she?” Despite her calm demeanour, she was breathing heavily.
“Whore will pay for what whore did to Badri!” he screamed. He stuck three arrows into the ground next to him, then drew a fourth from his quiver.
“Seems like we have something in common then! I really regret not busting your babymakers myself when I had the chance, but I’m going to make up for that now!”
His first arrow was cut in two by her winds and she broke into a run. Her hand rooted around the bag at her belt. She was getting closer, she could finally retaliate!
His second arrow was poorly aimed, flying over her without Despina needing to blast it away. It gave her the time to form a spell in her hand.
As Badri notched another arrow, a hail of projectiles buzzed through the air around him. He looked up in surprise and saw that her palm was filled with small iron spheres. The princess was saying something and one after the other, the spheres shot out from her hand and towards him.
Most missed him, but the ones that hit *hurt*. One struck him in his chest, and he could already tell it would form a bruise later. More hits followed, striking his leg, arm or stomach.
“Whore-cunt! Die!” He drew the string back to his ear and aimed. He had wondered what was going on, but now that he knew she was a sorceress, he knew how to stop her. There was a rhythm to her casting, most likely the length of the spell’s incantation that limited her.
His breath slowed. Her projectiles slammed into the ground, his chest. *THUM – THUM – THUM.* He adjusted to the rhythm. *THUM – THUM.* His fingers lifted off the arrow’s shaft, this one would hit for sur-
*THUM*
An iron sphere struck his balls, the projectile drilling into his right testicle. It felt like she had just slammed a running kick into his nuts.
“Hargh!” He involuntarily sank to one knee and his bow followed, his aim thrown off by the shot to his manhood. The arrow merely grazing her side. It opened up a nasty tear on her hip, but it wasn’t enough to stop her.
She had finally found her aim. Despina shot out more projectiles, and most of them found his testicles with unerring instinct.
Each hit drew a cry from him as his right testicle in particular was pelted over and over with shots. The closer she got, the more centre her shots landed, each pellet pushing deeper into the core of his hairy nut, the rapid pace of their impacts not even letting the bombarded testicle regain its shape. Instead, the iron spheres slammed so hard into the right ball that it started to warp around the impact crater.
Meanwhile, Liriel, Jim and Aramis were fighting back to back against the onslaught of guards and knights. They rigorously kept to their formations and Jim and his friends scrambled to find a strategy that worked against them.
“Fall back! You’re going to get surrounded!” Aramis shouted as he dodged a sword slash.
“Augh! This is so annoying!” the elf groaned. The sheer number of her opponents ensured she couldn’t attack any of them without risking that she get struck in turn.
Jim rammed his shoulder into a man that had sneaked up on Liriel. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I just can’t find a way to get through them when I’m busy defending!”
Suddenly, Aramis appeared from a blind spot next to a knight and struck him down. “Then don’t!” he said and quickly jumped back before he could get run through by the four guards that retaliated.
“What?”
Jim’s mouth twisted into a grim smile. “I think I get it. Get behind me!”
She carefully retreated, letting Jim take over as vanguard of their groups.
*If there is one thing Leonia taught me, it’s defending against her strikes. They may be more but way slower and less tricky than her. I can do this.*
Liriel quickly caught on.
He acted as vanguard of their group, breaking up the attacks and focusing on parrying incoming strikes, while Liriel struck from his shadow. Aramis drifted around them, always keeping one of their attackers between him and the rest of the group, threatening to stab them in the back should they ignore him and try to flank Jim and Liriel.
Slowly, methodically, they dispatched the large group, leaving a pile of injured men around them.
“What are these idiots doing? They’re just three people, why can’t they beat them already? Kasper, do something!”
“I-I’m not s-sure what I’m supposed to do here,” a meek voice answered.
Jim’s head was on a swivel, spotting the lord and lady further back, only two Cillian city guards acting as their bodyguards. *This is our chance!*
“Follow me!” he said and trusted that Liriel and Aramis were right behind him as he went on the offensive. He fought his way forward, inching towards the two nobles who were unaware of his plan.
They got within ten metres before the guards drew their weapons and stood in front of their charges. They stood no chances.
With a quick combination of strikes, Jim overwhelmed the right guard’s defences and sent him to the ground with a slash that made his helmet ring like a bell.
On the left, Liriel feinted once, twice, then punished the guard when he overextended in a riposte with a brutal knee strike to his groin. The attack crushed his will as well as his balls. The impact of Liriel’s knee sent shockwaves through his sack and it was not the initial impact that ruptured his testicles but the aftershocks reverberating through the nutmeat. Her knee had put sudden pressure on the two small organs they were never designed to take, but the vibrations rippling through them shattered their shell and broke the nuts apart into chunks. The guard was lifted into the air before he slammed back, crying in pain and disbelief that a small elf girl hadn't even needed a second to take his manhood from him.
Aramis pushed the two nobles to their knees and placed his dagger against Kasper’s throat.
“It seems that the tables have turned, wouldn’t you say?” the foxkin said with a smug expression.
“P-please d-don't hurt me!” Kasper cried.
Yohanna, on the other hand, screeched like a fury. “These dull, dim-witted, useless, dung-brained idiots! I’m going to smack them all! Graagh!”
“Ow, hey, stop! You crazy bimbo, stop scratching my groin!” Aramis struggled to get Yohanna’s long nails off of the bulge in his pants, while taking care not to accidentally cut Kasper.
Jim was hunched over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Next to him, Liriel was equally tired from the fight but her smile was warm and hopeful.
*Clap, clap, clap* “Very good, very good!”
They all froze as they heard someone in the dark sarcastically applaud. “Truly impressive, a feat for the ages!” a smoky female voice said.
“Who’s there?” Jim asked, forcing himself to stand straight, weapon at the ready. Beside him, Liriel shuddered.
Slowly, the tall shape of a woman with crimson skin emerged into the light. She was taller than even Leonia, he estimated. Black horns twisted out of her head in tight spirals, protruding to the sides, not unlike an elf’s ears. Her hair shone like silver, cascading from her shoulders to her hips like an icy waterfall. Red irises glowed atop black sclera, unblinking.
“Such a delight to see you again, Jim. How I longed for our reunion,” she said. Her chest was only covered by a black stole, the fabric resting on top of her shoulders and flowing down and over her breasts in two wide strips. He couldn’t see anything that held the thin piece of clothing in place and given the lack of support, her tits swayed with each step.
Wrapped around her midriff was a similar cloth, cut into a rough V shape that met below her navel. From there, it fell as one over her loins, stopping at the length of a miniskirt. Jim felt that if he just crouched down a bit, he could easily see beneath it, see her-
“I told you this would be your fate. If only you had listened the first time,” she said and grinned wickedly.
“I have no recollection of ever meeting you,” he said and hoped that she didn’t hear his voice crack.
She moved a hand over her face, and for just a second, he could glimpse the weathered face of an old woman before wiping it away like a mask. “Bring back any memories?”
“Helene!” Jim, Kasper and Yohanna screamed in equal shock and confusion.
“That’s the person I pretended to be, yes. But you may call me Raum instead, now that this farce is behind us.”
The first one among them to pull himself together was Kasper, of all people. He seemed to have completely forgotten about Aramis dagger at his throat. “You… you foul creature, have you come to betray us? Betray her majesty the queen?”
Raum chuckled, holding her sides with her talon-like claws. “Oh, I’m sure the little girl playing at queen had some inkling as to my true nature, but I was too useful for her to challenge me. Not that she could have.”
“I knew it,” Jim said through clenched teeth. “When you came to my room, you tried to abduct me, didn’t you? You damn monster!”
The demoness gasped facetiously. “You hurt my feelings, Jim! I mean, yes, I would have dragged you down to hell, but I wanted to enjoy you before that. Can you really blame little old me for being eager to feel you inside of me? I *am* the desire of the seven ravens, after all, and I haven’t had a good fuck in so long. Look, even now I’m dripping for you.”
She held the broad loincloth to the side, revealing a pussy as dark as a moonless night. Her juices pooled on her puffy lips, dripping steadily to the ground or running down her crimson thighs like a needy maiden.
“We both know what awaits you when her empress Lilith gets her hands on you… Oh, how good it would feel to rub that dick along my folds. So why not use what you have one last time? Well, maybe not one last time. I’m sure you have the juice for at least three or four rounds in those big balls,” she said and winked.
The sight of her infernal womanhood drew him in like a beautiful poisonous flower and he remembered that the same had happened back in Seduttri.
A twinge of pain shot through his loins. Was it the cage, or did Liriel’s nut brace just tighten further?
“Ugh, I’d never do it with you! I’ll send you back to hell where you belong!”
“A shame, but not unexpected,” she said with a shrug. Keeping her loincloth lifted away, she sneaked a finger between her legs and started rubbing her dripping sex. “I figured I’d have to take what I want. It’s fine, the chase before I get to taste your cock is part of the fun as well. Killing your friends will really get me going.”
He started walking towards her, sword in hand. “My steel is the only thing you will taste!”
She cooed in excitement, still petting her pussy. “I like a man who plays hard to get! But, are you so sure about that?”
[Raum snapped the fingers currently not pleasuring herself and as one, a wall of people stepped out from behind her.](https://imgur.com/a/5PtqhNe) They were guards from Cillia and knights from Calvino, but most of them were adventurers that were led to this strange place by Despina. And all the men among them were sporting rock hard erections.
He flinched. “What’s going on?”
“I took the liberty of collecting a few strays. My pets are adorable, aren’t they? They’re so obedient.”
“N-no, that’s…” He retreated in horror.
“Release them from your grasp or I will kill these two!” Aramis shouted, pressing his dagger against Kasper’s throat for emphasis.
The demoness tilted her head. “Mhm… yeah, he’s too small. Go ahead and kill him. I don’t have any use for limp dicks like his.”
“I’m not bluffing!” the foxkin yelled and angled the blade. Kasper gasped and a trickle of blood bloomed on his neck.
“Neither am I. Forward.” At her word, the mass of people walked towards Jim and the others, stretching out their arms as if to grab them.
---
“Just a bit further, girl. It looks like a grove of these strange mushrooms is up ahead, we can rest there.”
“What is up with them anyway? I don’t understand how they can survive down here anyway, there’s no water, nothing to nourish them,” Ina said, her left arm slung around Zenobia and her right hand pressed to the wound in her side.
“That’s not important right now, we just need you- Oh.”
“What?”
“There are… steps here? Hey, sit down, it’ll be better than sitting on the ground.”
The auf followed her suggestion, scooting over to the side of what looked like overgrown stairs, resting her back against a smaller stalk growing on top of it. Huffing in pain, she looked up at the glowing lights above them.
“Did someone build this place? Did they plant these giant mushrooms as well, or did they get in here from outside?”
Zenobia chuckled. “I’m not one to stifle curiosity, but settle down, girl. When all of this is over, we’ll have time enough to inspect this place.”
“Tcheh, alright, but I’ll hold you to it.” She grinned, then looked back up at the lights above. “They look much closer here. I wonder if…”
With a twist of her hand, a quivering drop of sunlight appeared in her hands. With a surprised yell, Zenobia fell on her butt.
“Oof, I didn’t think it would be so heavy!” Ina said, straining to hold the glowing orb.
Zenobia struggled to her feet, then took the heavy drop from her. “What did I just say! Really, you’re almost as childish as Liriel.” The sorceress weighed the beachball-sized sphere in her hands. “It could be poisonous!”
“Something that looks as beautiful as that? No way!”
“Especially something that is so flashy! If these are the spores, they might very well be unhealthy.” But she couldn’t deny that it looked kind of beautiful.
[It spread a warm orange glow around them.](https://imgur.com/a/wdetZMi) Wiggling her fingers, she noticed it was a bit sticky and roughly the consistency of… She took one hand off the spore ball and grabbed a breast. The sorceress huffed and nodded.
“It’s like a balloon filled with water, or honey, or…”
Ina gave her a flat stare. “Don’t say what you’re about to say.”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you mean.”
“No, no, no, you definitely do, you were about to say something like ‘Oh, it feels like it’s filled with spunk’, I know that look, it’s the same with the perverted old patrons back at my inn before they make a bawdy joke or slap my ass.”
“Well, if you think *that* is what this feels like, who am I to argue,” Zenobia said and grinned at Ina’s groans. Just to be sure, though, she gave the orb a little sniff. *A bit like warm bread and the sea… it's probably for the best. It wouldn't do to get excited right now because of some strange glob that smells like cum.*
Having had her fun, she placed the spore sphere next to Ina and held out her hand. “Teleport another one down, maybe a slightly smaller one. They make for good lanterns.”
“I thought you said they might be dangerous?”
“That’s when I thought you wouldn’t just grope them to see what they feel like. A hypothetical, if you will.”
Ina rolled her eyes but obliged, handing her a football-sized glowing orb.
“Thanks! If you don’t mind, I’m going to see where these steps lead.”
“Be careful!”
The steps themselves were nowhere to be seen. Blueish-white roots – or would it be mycelium? – covered all of their entirety, forming a snaggy, gnarled imitation of a stairway.
Zenobia ascended the steps, surprised how long it took her. There had to have been at least fifty before they levelled out, expelling her out onto a platform.
The mushrooms were growing right next to each other here, forming almost a blue wall around the platform. But most striking was the statue in the middle of it.
It was entirely black, likely made of onyx. Portrayed was a man, kneeling in front of Zenobia in a supplicating mien. He had his hands cupped in front of him, as if receiving a blessing from his lord.
The statue’s hands swam with inky blackness, a liquid so dark, it seemed to suck up the light of the glowing spores. But even though it was entirely black, bursts of shadow and fog danced in it, like the negatives of stars at the moment of their explosion. Zenobia had no idea *how* she could see them, given that the liquid was of a deeper, more profound blackness than any she had seen before, but she definitely saw them. Or did she just *know* them to be there?
“Marvellous,” she said and knelt beside the wondrous liquid, placing the spores next to her. For a good minute, she was occupied with observing the onyx abreuvoir, at one point even being startled by a black drop falling from somewhere into the fluid, as if it had materialized right above it. What few implements of study she carried with her were taken from her bag and carefully applied to the inky liquor.
Zenobia didn’t even hear the footsteps until they were almost right behind her. When she did, she grabbed the glowing spore sphere and turned, standing back up.
Harald von Haller’s face was lit from below, drawing long shadows over his eyes from his glasses. Only a glint in the middle revealed his eyes.
“Remarkable, truly. It feels almost surreal to witness the real deal after months of trying to recreate it in a laboratory, doesn’t it?”
She was at a loss for words. Vile but soft-spoken Harald was the last man she had expected to see here. “I knew I would find you here, of course. Great minds think alike, and I commend your curiosity, just as I did when we first met.”
“You…” she growled, reaching for her dagger. A movement behind Harald stopped her. The stone-faced maid he always had with him stepped into her view, pointing a crossbow at Zenobia. Her hand went back to the glowing orb she was holding.
“What did you do to Inacea?” she asked.
“Hm? Oh, the woman on the stairs. It seems her exhaustion and wounds have caught up with her. I thought it best to let her sleep, I’m not a cruel man, after all.”
“Hah, right!” she said with as much bitterness as she could muster.
“I assume you’re referring to my sister?”
“Among others. You are the reason Cillia has been able to wage this war, after all.”
He nodded. “I am, and I thank you for acknowledging my contributions, even if that was not your intention. We have already discussed all of this, I will not bore you with my reply. It does pain me that we have ended up opposed to each other, but I have accepted it.” His eyes turned from her back to the statue. “It is ironic in so many aspects, isn’t it? To resume my research that I began in the arcane laboratories years ago, before a catastrophic breakout of our specimen forced us to abandon this location. Only to discover that right next to it was a wellspring of the mythical material we sought to synthesize.”
“So this truly is…”
“Ambrosia, yes. The wondrous substance capable of healing any affliction bar death. You are standing next to one of the legendary mana springs, and I’m sure the affinity of this one is no mystery to you.”
She regarded the all-encompassing shadow around them. “Darkness… but then what about these glowing spheres?” The sorceress couldn’t help herself. She hated the man in front of her with a passion she had never felt for anyone else before, but her curiosity still demanded to be sated.
“You are familiar with the phrase ‘where there is light, there must also be shadow’ of course. A droll phrase meant to remind us that happiness must be earned through strife. Taken at face value, it seems like a truism. To observe light, someone must be there to witness it, inevitably casting a shadow. But assume for a moment that the phrase goes beyond platitudes. What if light inevitably necessitates shadow, even if we hypothesize it to exist in an empty space, with nothing to cast a shadow?”
“It would follow that shadow also necessitates the existence of light…” she muttered.
“Just so. Those are my thoughts on the matter, at least.” He licked his lips. “I only thought to witness your end as a former colleague, to think that I would reap such rewards as well…”
Zenobia gritted her teeth when she was reminded of the situation at hand. “Having a little ouchie you hope to heal, lord von Haller?”
“Not at all, I am perfectly well. But it seems you are unaware of the further rumours floating about concerning ambrosia.” She gave him no answer. “It is said to ‘free a man’s soul’, as it were. Or, less poetically, to enable him to cast magic. Just imagine what I would be able to accomplish wielding the arcane arts. *Especially* magic of a dark affinity. A researcher with the ability to control the minds of others, it almost makes me laugh how well it fits. I was *meant* to be here.”
Her eyes flicked to the black liquid and back to Harald. To his maid, who had a crossbow trained on Zenobia, ready to impale her the moment she dared to move.
A man that was ruthless enough to poison and murder his own sister, just so he could gain some pitiful insight into the workings of a flawed panacea… If he was given the ability to rob others of their free will, to command them as he saw fit. It made her shudder. But what could she do? He stood mere steps away from her, entirely unarmed, but she was still powerless to stop him.
“No sense in wasting any more time. I shall drink now, look out for any disturbances,” Harald said to his maid.
She nodded, scowling at Zenobia. Then, they all heard steps approaching. Someone was coming up the stairs. For just a fraction of a second, the maid’s eyes flicked away from Zenobia.
The sorceress moved without thinking. She tossed the glowing orb towards Harald and both his and his maid’s eyes followed the slight arc of the light. He reflexively caught it with both hands, the weight of the spore orb making him bend slightly forward, his elbows bracing against his stomach.
Before he had even caught the spore orb, the ring she used to produce light with was already spraying sparks, angrily crackling at the murderer. The moment her fist impacted the spores was also the moment the maid raised the crossbow.
Once more, she threw open the gates of her soul to access her dwindling mana. She let it rush out of her in its raw form, not bothering to press it into the intricate matrices of a spell.
*I can’t allow him to drink the ambrosia. He must be stopped at all costs*, she thought.
Lightning burst from her ring, embedded in the sticky sap of the orange sphere. It overloaded the gob of light in an instant, looking for a way out.
It found the path of least resistance to exist within lord von Haller’s lap. Resting against his hips, the sticky orb touched not just his arms and thighs, but also the metallic and very conductive chastity cage that had turned his once impressive dick into a small and shrunken nub, incapable of even achieving an erection.
The equivalent of a lightning strike struck his crotch as Zenobia poured every ounce of mana into the attack. Electricity arced through the miniscule cage, frying his useless penis to a crisp. The current didn’t stop there, making its way through the loop that secured the cage to his body by grasping the base of his nutsack.
From the skin of his scrotum, lightning penetrated into his reproductive organs. The spermatic cords it found within made for an excellent wire to conduct the energy further. Via the epididymis, lightning filled his testicles with boundless energy that the fragile ovals were never meant to withstand.
As the lightning arced through his gonads, it melted deep furrows into the nutmeat where tiny imperfections and tears within the testicles had been cut and maimed from months and months of constant abuse at the hands, knees and feet of Harald’s maid. The nutmeat was just a little bit weaker, a little bit less resistant where these tiny wounds existed and the electricity found these paths and tore them wide open.
But more and more energy poured into his balls when it had no other way to go. It overloaded his sack. Already, his chastity cage as a whole was glowing white-hot and his balls stood no chance.
The attack reached a tipping point where something had to give. That something were Harald’s nuts.
The testicles exploded in his sack, detonating down- and outward in a mess of blue and white arcs of electricity, as well as white chunks of flash-fried nutmeat. The gonads detonated just below the epididymis, ripping a hole into the bottom of his scrotum and even blasting a hole in his pants.
For just a moment, Zenobia could see the blackened cords that used to hold his nuts dangle in empty air. With a wet splash, the remains of his manhood that hadn’t simply evaporated splattered the ground between his legs.
Then she heard the twang of a crossbow’s string.
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*The bad times are coming, friends.*
*Not entirely happy with how Leonia’s image turned out but it was either this or a blond anime girl’s head on a male bodybuilder’s body, as in prime Schwarzenegger but kawaii. Totally unusable but I laughed my ass off. In contrast, I liked multiple for Zenobia holding the glowing spore ball. Mostly settled on this one because I feel like she would chose the one that shows the most cleavage.*
