Cold is the Void

[Amaterasu]

Expedition, Day 13 - Day 1 of the Ascent

The First Hall: Lust

Warning:

This post contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.


Reference pictures for the TGed characters:

Amaterasu (left)
Oki
Fiara
Urist

"The First Hall of Sin is the Hall of Lust," Senecianus spoke to the group. "The purity of your heart regarding the carnal pleasures is being put to the test... and as you have likely noticed, the effect extends to your bodies."

Indeed... all four of them looked at each other and at themselves with complete bewilderment. They were completely transformed! And because they had promptly stripped off their coats due to the heat in the room, these changes were very appearant now.

Oki had been turned into a white-haired slender girl wearing a flowing kimono and sandals, with his sword Kutone turned into a fine shortsword and dagger that hung by a silken sash around his - her - belt. She looked herself over with a bewildered look in her eyes and glared at Senecianus as if it was the wampa's fault. "Is this seriously how we are going to pass a TRIAL? By having our genders reversed?"

Urist had become a real matron of a dwarfess, with an ample chest and strong arms, but not a single hair in her face, which she was not taking well at all. "Me beard!" she exclaimed, patting her face over as if it was hiding somewhere. "What have ye done to me beard?! Ah swear ta Omni, if ye've taken it away from me...!"

"The transformation isn't permanent, Oki Kurumi and Urist McGlodsson... you can relax", Senecianus said calmly. It seemed unaffected by the magic of the cavern... then again, how were wampa's genders visible? Did they have any at all?

"Aw. I actually kind of like this", Fiara said with a voice that, while clearly a man's, was funnily so soft-spoken that it actually was more so than her usual self. He looked a little like Oki, except as a man - with slender proportions, a finely chiseled face, long black hair and her Phoenix Blasters replaced by metallic arm-guards she looked like quite the lady-killer. He stretched her limbs above his head and sighed with pleasure. "Is that how being a guy feels like? Nice!"

Amaterasu, funnily enough, had changed the least. His clothing was the same except it was adjusted to his current gender, his hair was similarly long and had the unmistakable red markings, his Prayer Beads were still right there around his neck... had it not been for his boyish face, the flat chest and the slightly taller stature one could have thought that it was still Amaterasu in her original self but with different clothes. "If it's not permanent... how is this reversed?"

"To return to your old selves you must brave the challenge", Senecianus explained. "You must cross the cave and reach the other side."

"Tha' doesn' sound too hard", Urist remarked.

"Do not underestimate the challenge laying ahead, Urist McGlodsson... there have been others before you, and many have failed the Halls of Lust." It eyed Amaterasu curiously. "You are the first in a long time to have taken an appearance so close to your own. Perhaps there is some power in you that guards you from the magic of this cave... or perhaps you are a narcissist, as the individual before you was."

"What?!" Amaterasu asked sharply.

"The form you have taken reflects your inner wishes and desires for a partner, though you may not be consciously aware of them. A homosexual individual would not have changed their gender, for instance. The magic may not affect you as it does a Secondary Amaterasu Omikami, so please don't consider my remark mockery."

"I certainly don't wish for a man-Amaterasu as my partner", Amaterasu replied with a piqued tone in his voice.

"It could just as well be that this form reflects that you wish for a Kami to be your partner."

"Wait, how do you- ... ugh." He grunted. These trials were already bringing a headache...

"So... tha' means tha' Oki's wishin' fer a skinny gal with white hair?" Urist asked. "Or tha' I'd be wishin' fer a matron?"

"The magic is not completely accurate, but you can imagine something along those lines."

"Well... ah guess a good wife fer a dwarf would be packin' some meat on 'er ribs, and some muscles on 'er arms", the dwarfess admitted with the slightest blush. Senecianus simply shrugged and turned away.

"That is all the guidance that I can provide... I shall await you at the exit, if you can make it there." He stepped into the jungle and vanished amongst the trees. The group then moved together.

"No two ways around it, we have to reach that exit..." said Oki. "But I say that we stick together, and keep our jackets in case that it gets cold again."

"Remember, don' let yer loins get tha better outta ya", Urist added, sounding like a mother lecturing her pubescent children. Oki kept her sword unsheathed as they descended into the jungle and began navigating their way through. Truth be told, Amaterasu had expected more phallic or similar imagery on their way, but all they navigated was a forest with sweet scents and animals all around them. There were pairs everywhere. Colorful parrots and tucans with magnificient beaks, meeting equally colorful females... stags with majestic horns approaching finely built does, even on the leaves of the trees there were tiny insects engaging in mating rituals and the queen bees were attracting strong males to produce more offspring in the air...

A girlish giggle made Amaterasu stop dead in his tracks and reach his hand out, but the others had stopped too. They had heard it as well. It was soon followed by steps... then a man and a woman, both clad in white tunics and with shiny smooth skin stepped out from the foliage, followed by a dwarf with a magnificient ginger beard and a girl looking about Fiara's age who stepped up next to them.

"Welcome, travelers, to the Clearing of the Fairies", the man spoke with a voice that made Amaterasu shudder. Even as a man he could tell that his voice was perfect, just the right amount of manliness in it, yet soft-spoken and well-mannered. Oki blushed a bit and tightened his grip around Kutone, which the man seemed to notice. He stepped up to them and put a hand on Oki's. "There is no need for hostilities. We seek not to harm you. You must be weary of the long voyage through the Fields."

"W-well... a bit, I guess."

"Then come with us, to the Clearing. You are welcome to stay and relax your weary limbs, and you may leave at any time you like." He waved his hand in the direction that he had emerged from and revealed a large clearing around a pond which was fed by a spring of crystal-clear water. Many more men and women, all in the same white tunic and of various races and species, were sitting there, laughing and joking as they enjoyed wine and grapes. A real paradise.

The dwarven man offered his hand to Urist with a friendly smile as she took in the scenery. "It's beautiful, ain't it? 'ere we have trolls an' dwarves aplenty... they cast aside their differences, an' now they live together an' enjoy a life o' harmony an' peace. But, there's foul beasties seekin' ta claim this here paradise, ta rip it from our hands... an' tha's where the warriors among us come in... gettin' outfitted with the finest dwarven crafts an' enjoying the thrill of battle without remorse."

"Not to mention", now the girl that was approaching Fiara added with a chuckle, "sickness and death are not a concern here... even a Secondary is granted eternal life as they eat the grapes of our trees and drink the wine from our distilleries, for they are blessed by Omni himself. We can live on forever without the worries of one day losing someone that we love... or dying ourselves before we are ready to move on."

The girl that was with Amaterasu held out a golden chalice full with a deep red, rich-looking wine, offering it to him. "Though you are a Prime, you are just as welcome among us, brave Amaterasu, as your friends." Amaterasu hesitated for a moment, then took the chalice, and the girl stepped behind her, giggling once more as she began to massage his shoulders. He realized that it was her who had giggled like that before they had seen them. "So tense... why don't you lay down and allow me to... mmm, help you relax?" Her hands wrapped around his neck and she pressed her chest against his back, whilst licking along his earlobe. "Although, mmm... a part of you is definitely not going to be relaxed, I feel like."

That was when Amaterasu threw the chalice to the ground, shattering it on a rock with a sound that rung through the ears of everyone present like an explosion. He shoved the girl away from himself and raised his hands, readying the Yasakani no Magatama to fly in circles around his neck, ready to strike. "Oki! Fiara! Urist! Don't listen to their honeyed words, don't give in to their temptation! They are not offering you wine and grapes, only death!"

Urist chuckled as she produced a kitchen knife from the folds of her dress and impaled the dwarven man straight through the chest, stabbing through his beard and holding him as his eyes widened and he spat blood, nearly falling over. "Tha trolls an' dwarves livin' in peace, an' drinkin' WINE? Hah! Ah'd leave behind anythin' behind ta bash some troll heads in or lop their heads off with me axe. An' then ah'll celebrate with MEAD!"

The girl and man that were with Fiara and Oki rushed backwards, away from their respective attacks, with shocked faces, before putting on grins that were far too big for any normal face. "What a pity... your souls seemed delicious", the girl spoke as her voice distorted and was eventually drowned by what sounded like slime dripping into her mouth. Their shapes melted into purple jelly, then reformed into ice demons with curved horns and sharp claws, completely made out of ice. The scenery around them rotted and melted into a similar purple goop, revealing the facade behind which was a large cave covered in ice. The temperature plummeted and Oki, Urist, Fiara and Amaterasu hurriedly put their coats back on as the demons completed the transformation to their true forms.

"Mmmh, Saito, it looks like they got Zali and Ingur", the male demon said with a still strangely enticing voice.

"Oh, that just means that we have less to share, Mikel", the female demon, Saito, replied. They cackled evily as they leapt forward, with Amaterasu's barrage of beads only slowing their advance.

"Finally a good fight!" Fiara shouted with a laugh as he slammed her arm down on Saito as she came too close. The reformed Phoenix Blaster didn't fire a round, but the brute force of his arm sent her crashing into the ground, where Urist stabbed her clean through the head with her kitchen knife. At the same time Mikel leapt close and slashed his claws at Amaterasu, but Oki blocked them with her dagger, then did a brutal slash upwards that sliced cleanly through Mikel's icy torso and cleaved him diagonally in half. The surprised look on his face remained plastered on as his halves fell to the ground and a blue liquid spreaded on the ground into a puddle. But Amaterasu had a looming feeling. They were not dead yet.

"Run while they're down!" he shouted and rapidly painted a Cherry Bomb into existence on top of the demon's bodies, to slow their regeneration. The three others rushed away from the bodies and over the frozen surface, towards the exit. Behind them they could hear a loud roar, followed by the explosion of the bomb and yet another roar, this time full of pain. They dared not look back. But as Amaterasu ran through the hall and the exit came ever closer, he saw that the stalactites around them had skulls inside the frozen water... the skulls of trolls, dwarves, wampas, massive ones like those of a Fur-Selkie... and there were more, encased in ice in the ground beneath them. The succubi and incubi must have claimed hundreds, if not thousands of victims and brought their remains here.


As they came close to the exit Senecianus came into view, sitting with its back against a stalagmite and combing its fur with its claws. As the group came close, the screams behind them suddenly ceased, and as they looked back they saw nothing but an empty cave.

"Hmm... I congratulate you, adventurers, for having made it past the Hall of Lust", it said and led them towards the exit. As they traversed the darkness Amaterasu could feel a weird tingling feeling pass her body and felt that she was returning to her female self. Judging from Fiara's disappointed sigh, the same was the case at least for her. Senecianus stopped in a comparatively small cave, maybe eight by eight meters and with a stone ground, and walked towards the next exit. "Do you wish to take the next trial on?" it asked.

"No," replied Amaterasu. "Not yet... there is no rush, no time limit, is there?"

"No, there is not. You can take as long as you like."

"Then we are going to stay here for the night, and take on the next trial tomorrow." She turned towards the rest of the group and held her hand out, blushing a bit. "I might not have made it without you... their words were tailored to sound good to my ears, but I heard what they told you... I felt that their words were magically enchanted, that they offered you things that your real selves would not want."

"Aye... ah, though ah felt reminded of me quest... of findin' out the truth 'bout the Void Gate... that helped", Urist replied as he high-fived Amaterasu, and Oki and Fiara happily joined in. "Now, eh... ah guess that ah speak for everyone when ah say 'Let's never speak o' this again', yes?"

And with that concluded the first trial, and the first day of the ascent. Although the memories of their transformed selves would stay with them all their lives.

9075 + 2394 = 11.469 / 20.000 words.