Chapter 19
“This will be our last morning like this in the rectory,” Purity said, her head on Solara’s bare stomach, her feet in Queen Ashley’s hands. Ashley pressed her thumbs into Purity’s soles and pushed up through the arches, lulling my archpriestess’ eyes closed.
“What do you mean?” Invia asked. She lay on her chest on top of the sheets next to a sleepy Podni.
“After the wedding today, we’ll all be moving into Sanctuary South,” Purity answered. “It’s a new chapter in our lives. I’m excited to see where the story goes, but it’s bittersweet to know it won’t be exactly the same.”
“You and Solara are about to become immortal. You have an eternity of new chapters ahead.”
Purity thought for a moment and nodded. “That’s true. We’ll be surrounded by change with each other as the only constants in the world.”
“I love how that sounds,” Solara added, idly stroking Purity’s hair.
My archpriestess smiled warmly and tilted her head to look up at her future wife.
“Today is a big day,” I said. “We should accept that it's starting.”
“Unlocks first!” Invia interjected. “Listen to mine.”
She read from her system menus:
Bloody Little Princess
When you trigger Rage or its equivalent, your enemies see the illusion that the blood of all the people you have killed follows behind you like a wave.
Any enemy seeing the wave has a chance to be afflicted with Stun, Fear, and Clumsy.
Enemy's ability to resist is based on their intelligence or their constitution, whichever is higher, but their chances of resisting go down as you accumulate more murders.
Prerequisite: Sovereign’s Blood Harvest, 25 Murders
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: The chance for your target to resist the effect of Bloody Little Princess is reduced by 50%.)
(Bonus Pledge: For 1 minute, any target affected by Bloody Little Princess will receive the Bleed effect when they are struck by a weapon. If the sovereign wills it, anyone sucking on your nipples will taste a beverage of the sovereign’s choice as if you were lactating.)
Hungry Mistress
For every 10,000 Will points you harvest on behalf of your sovereign, gain a 0.05% bonus to an attribute of your choice. Once a target attribute is chosen, the choice cannot be undone.
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: Bonus increases by an additional 0.05%.)
(Bonus Pledge: Every 50,000 Will points, gain a 0.2% bonus to an attribute of your choice. If the sovereign wills it, anyone sucking on your nipples will taste a beverage of the sovereign’s choice as if you were lactating.)
Barbarian Queen
Your firstborn will receive a copy of your Rage and Rage-related abilities, buffs included, when they turn 13. This ability must be selected prior to conception to apply.
Prerequisite: Sovereign's Hand of the Viceroy, Recognized Queen
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: Your firstborn receives 3 bonus stat points when they turn 13.)
(Bonus Pledge: Your firstborn receives one of their father’s abilities, selected at random. If the sovereign wills it, anyone sucking on your nipples will taste a beverage of the sovereign’s choice as if you were lactating.)
The Bonus Pledge conditions were always a bit absurd, but now that we were 14 levels in, the system had to go to twisted extremes to keep the difficulty moving upward.
Even more fucked up: I loved the idea of this one.
I immediately decided that this was a great way to deliver distilled debauchery, and how convenient too.
“You’d look hot pregnant,” Podni mumbled, her eyes still closed.
“Shut up!” Invia shouted, pushing a giggling Podni toward the edge of the bed.
They all knew I was infertile, but in a fucked-up way, I agreed with Podni. Picturing Invia with a baby bump was kind of a turn-on.
“Bloody Little Princess is worth remembering for a future level, but Hungry Mistress has the best long-term return for how long we’ll all live,” I said.
+1 Loyalty Pledge.
+1 Unallocated stat point.
Podni wiggled her head under Invia, her hair tickling the templar. When Invia rolled back, confused by Podni’s sudden attack, the saboteur closed her lips on one of Invia’s nipples and sucked.
I could choose whatever beverage I wanted, right?
Invia writhed as soon as I activated the Bonus Pledge. “Fuuuck, I didn’t know it would feel good too.”
Podni sat up, swallowed, and started to laugh hysterically as she licked her lips.
“What was it?” Invia asked.
“See if you can guess,” Podni said. She dropped her head and sucked so hard on Invia’s breast that the skin tensed and stretched, painfully so.
With her mouth full, Podni crawled up and pressed her lips into Invia’s, passing the drink with her mouth.
Invia coughed and started to laugh as well. “Your first idea was to shoot your own cum out of my nipples?” she glared playfully.
Solara, Purity, and Ashley laughed along as well. And no, it was technically my second idea, but I didn’t see the need to explain myself.
“Let me taste,” Ashley said, not giving Invia a chance to respond before sucking.
I triggered the Bonus Pledge that gave Invia’s nipples the sensitivity of a clitoris on top of making my semen the beverage of choice.
“Holy shit,” Invia groaned.
“We’re getting off track,” I declared. “Podni, your unlocks.”
“Yes, Father,” Podni replied and read from her options:
Hungry Mistress
For every 10,000 Will points you harvest on behalf of your sovereign, gain a 0.05% bonus to an attribute of your choice. Once a target attribute is chosen, it cannot be changed or modified.
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: Bonus increases by an additional 0.05%.)
(Bonus Pledge: Every 50,000 Will points, gain a 0.2% bonus to an attribute of your choice. If your sovereign wills it, your nipples are as sensitive and produce as much pleasure as your clitoris.)
Silk Artificer
Your deep knowledge of traps enabled you to craft a unique hand cannon and accompanying ammunition.
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: Automatically learn how to turn any of your explosive or magic-based traps into cannon ammunition.)
(Bonus Pledge: In addition to traditional ammunition, gain the ability to add the effects Delayed Activation, Piercing, or Fear to the ammunition you craft. If your sovereign wills it, your nipples are as sensitive and produce as much pleasure as your clitoris.)
Amateur Poisoner
Gain the intuitive knowledge for crafting and applying basic poisons. Basic poisons can apply the debuffs Fear, Slow, Dark, and Confusion or deal damage. At this tier, your poison is deadly to anyone with 5 or fewer constitution.
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: Increase the duration of your poisons by 30 seconds.
(Bonus Pledge: Anyone with a level lower than yours has a 20% chance for their Cure spell to fail to nullify your poison. If your sovereign wills it, your nipples are as sensitive and produce as much pleasure as your clitoris.)
Hungry Mistress still seemed the winner here for the same reasons it was a smart choice for Invia: when Podni became undead, she would have decades to collect bonuses to her stats.
“Could we use poison to eliminate our enemy?” Podni asked, meaning Abaddon, of course.
And that was a good question. Sending Abaddon a poisoned bottle of wine and that being the end of our war would be spectacular, but you likely wouldn't live and rule for centuries if you were dumb enough to drink whatever you found lying around.
“From what I understand, their immunity to disease and poison is a material plane distinction,” I said. “There are diseases and poisons that can hurt demons, but I’m pretty sure we don’t have access to any of them.”
“If this is Amateur Poisoner, then it stands to reason there will be upgrades,” Podni pointed out. “Maybe one of those upgrades would be strong enough to do the job?”
“Also a fair point,” I conceded. “How about this: if we can come up with a plausible means of delivering the poison, we can come back for this unlock later. The strongest poison in the universe wouldn’t help if we had no way to actually put it to use.”
“May I take Silk Artificer, then?” Podni asked. “I know Hungry Mistress is the smarter choice, but Silk Artificer sounds-”
“Take it.”
+1 Loyalty Pledge.
+1 Unallocated stat point.
I used Silkmancer to send a silk ribbon under the bed. It popped up from below and wrapped Podni’s ankle. I reached out and grabbed one of her wrists with a bare hand. She yanked and flailed, but her strength stat was so far below mine that it was pointless to fight.
But Podni knew what was about to happen, so she had to try.
I triggered her new Bonus Pledge, making her nipples as sensitive as her clitoris, and then tugged on the silk thread tied to her piercings.
Stretch, stretch.
Stretch, stretch.
“Fuck you, Byron!” Podni cursed between yelps and squeals. The fire within her blazed, the cracks around her abyssal scales going dark, venting abyssal fog.
I smiled back at her. When I nodded at Invia, Podni went into full-blown panic. The templar rolled one of the saboteur's nipples between her thumb and pointer finger and brought her mouth down on the other pointy tip of pink.
That was when I realized I could still Silkmancer her piercings even when they were in Invia’s mouth, so I could continue my little tug-tug game even as Invia’s cheeks collapsed inward from how hard she sucked.
“Solara? Purity? Who wants to go next?”
In my mind, Purity said, “Make Solara go.”
“Solara, you go,” I commanded aloud.
“Yes, Father. I’m curious if your thoughts will be the same as mine,” Solara replied.
Her options:
Spell Forgemaster
Active Ability
Spend good-aligned levels to design new spells.
Prerequisite: Sovereign’s Corpse Builder
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: Hold a blank book with at least 50 pages and spend 10 good-aligned levels to instantly transfer your intuitive knowledge into a spell manual.)
(Bonus Pledge: Hold a blank spell scroll and spend 10 good-aligned levels to create a spell scroll usable by other mages. If your sovereign wills it, your nipples are as sensitive and produce as much pleasure as your clitoris.)
Stormborn
Passive Ability