Elysium's Multiverse

Chapter 303

Chapter 303

Despite his girlfriends just teasing him about it, Riven had been feeling a bit guilty having not taken them out recently. But when did he ever have time!?

He had to prioritize them more whenever he left this damnable descent. Maybe get them some flowers and take them to a scenic vacation spot somewhere on the coast. That’d be nice.

But it was time to go, and he could dwell on such things regarding his relationships later. Athela and Fay were already ready to leave and telling bad jokes nearby, helping Genua pick up her various garments, different dyes she’d been staining the baby clothes with, and balls of thread. Azmoth was standing in his smaller form - which was still larger than Riven by quite a bit - with arms folded and in a wide stance as his wings blazed with cinder at a low glow. Retesh had finished creating dozens of large skeletal wyrms built to travel through almost any environment that he’d crafted out of dirt - with the help of his new bone-creation trait. The wyrms were each two feet in width and twenty feet long, with serrated spikes, spines, and rows of teeth imbued with death mana in a circular mouth. With Lillith trapped on floor 50, Nora in Chalgathi’s trials hunting down cultists, and Allie having left alongside Fimrindle back to Panu - It only left Riven, his core minions, and the lich Retesh from their original group. Then there was Kara Blackbow, the dark elf archer who was acting unusually embarrassed whenever she was around Riven ever since Allie’s accusations about Kara; and she very quickly averted her eyes or turned her hood down whenever Riven caught her looking. Lastly there was Riven’s newest minion - the beholder demon Narg who’d only just woke up after passing out due to the insights he’d received.

“Doing ok, buddy?” Riven called out to the drunk-looking beholder, and the large collection of eyeballs grunted an affirmation before floating upwards in his direction.

“Yes master! I am ready to go!” Narg replied, wobbling in the air and promptly faceplanting into the ground after a quick lurch forward.

Riven frowned down at the demon, and snapped his fingers. “I’m not mad at all, but you need to rest man. Go back to your nether realm and only come back once you’re in top shape. Ok?”

The beholder once again grunted, this time muffled by the ground he was laying on, and ripped open a portal to disappear in a flash of light. Riven and the other vampiric prince standing nearby exchanged glances.

“Welp. That’s Narg, Athela, Fay, and Kara now who have received insights yet won’t tell me what they are.” Riven muttered under his breath.

Prince Rantali grinned, and shot a look Kara’s way. “I can at least understand why she doesn’t want to say it.”

“Oh so she told you and not me!? I didn’t realize you two were friends before this like that other Zafima enchantress bitch.”

“We are not, though she did tell me for reasons that are her own to disclose. Can you blame her after what your sister, the new Incarnation of Wrath, said?” Prince Rantali gave Riven a knowing look with folded arms. “If I had been called out like that by a primordial entity’s reincarnation, I’d want to crawl into a hole and never come out.”

Riven chuckled and shoved his hands into his pockets with a nod. “Touche.”

“But she doesn’t want to leave your good graces yet either.” Prince Rantali continued. “It’d truly be a fool's choice to leave now when she was offered a spot on yet another reincarnation’s team. A once in a trillion years opportunity. If she can get on your good side and stay there, it’s a ticket to the very top.”

“You put too much faith in me. Is that why you’re still around?”

“Of course it is! My mother simply won’t believe it when I tell her that I befriended a high ranking prince of the Blood Moon Requiem, who just happens to be Gluttony’s Reincarnation!” Prince Rantali wore a brilliant, genuine fanged smile - blonde hair slicked back more than usual after having recently applied a thin gel. “I have a hard time as it is making friends at all! Being the prince of a kingdom means that most people only want to talk to me for my connections and politics. I hope I don’t come off as rude, but I’m rather glad that you’re not someone who looks up to me! It’s rather refreshing!”

The two men laughed.

“At least you’re honest. So tell us a bit more about the next level of the descent.” Riven eventually said, clasping Prince Rantali’s hand in a firm grip as everyone finished gathering their things. He pulled up the old floor notification.

[Floor 21, The Unholy Throne, is now open to you. As promised, by passing Floor 20, you are now permitted insight into one of your paths. You may mentally connect with The Unholy Throne whenever you deem yourself ready, choosing any single sun of those available here for a free insight; and when all of your party members are done - you may pick another team for a joint operation for Floor 22: Ocean of Wrath. Merely notify Elysium when you are ready to proceed to Floor 22. Elysium will protect you while on this floor, and no harm may come to you or your possessions while here - so as to not disturb your meditation. The majority of identification information will continue to be unavailable until Floor 40.]

“Of course! Of course. I am happy to hear you’re ready to go! I’ve been rather excited to proceed!” Prince Rantali shrugged his shoulders to loosen his joints, cracked his neck, and adjusted one of the pauldrons of his gaudy golden armor. The other vampire snapped his fingers at one of the three soldiers accompanying him, and the big red-eyed man drew out a scroll that he unfurled and presented to the two princes with a bow.

“Ahem. To confirm, this floor has nothing to do with the Sin of Wrath - before you ask. Don’t ask me why, I’m not the one that comes up with these naming schemes.” Prince Rantali took the scroll, and began to read. “Floor 22: Ocean of Wrath. This floor is one of the constants throughout the eons of the Abyssal Descent’s existence, and has a number of different obstacles to pass through before entering out the other side. This is primarily a pillar-oriented floor. As vampires we should have an advantage. First and foremost, there is an ocean of blood we must pass through.”

Prince Rantali gave Riven another knowing look, as Riven burst out laughing. “Yes, I thought you’d find that funny. But let me continue with the scroll, ahem… Ah yes, here we are! Secondly, there are three different sacrificial altars to collect gifts from. Each altar has the opportunity to give greater gifts if you sacrifice others of your team through blood ritual magics described on the altars - and we’re talking a value of many times the initial prize.”

The vampire looked over Riven’s shoulder to where Kara had been when Riven last turned his back. “We could always sacrifice the drow girl since she’s not an original member of your team, if you wish… as I said, I didn’t know her before this. Her life may be worth-”

Riven’s face hardened, and Prince Rantali immediately shut up.

“That’s an absolute no.” Riven said coldly, eyes narrowing as a sudden hostility bristled out from his aura - and the floor beneath him started freezing with black sparks radiating off his skin. “Absolutely no harm befalls her. I don’t care what the prize is. Kara may be new to the group, but we all like her and she isn’t going to be some kind of sacrificial nugget just for another grasp at passing power. Understood?”

Azmoth slowly turned his head, gradually beginning to unfurl his wings.

Prince Rantali seemed taken aback by the sudden surge of hostile energy directed his way, but let on a small smile as he once again glanced over Riven’s shoulder. “As you say.”

Riven, for his part, looked confused - but heard a heartbeat behind him rapidly pick up. He turned around and saw that not only had Kara been watching them, but she’d certainly overheard them too.

Had Prince Rantali intentionally done that to get a reaction from Riven while Kara overheard?

Why would he do that?

But that’s the only thing Riven could come up with as he stared down the furiously blushing and oddly smiling young woman at his back. She then averted her eyes once again and pulled her hood down to wander off in the general direction of Fay and Athela - the bow he’d given her grasped tightly in her hands.

“You did that on purpose.” Riven said, his aura evaporating.

“Correct. I wanted to show her what kind of person you were, as she was feeling rather in the way and unwanted after your sister’s display.” The other prince replied with a self-satisfied sigh. “I was just doing her a favor.”

Azmoth’s wings began to retract, and he once again took his guard back down.

Riven let on a small smile of his own, nodding in approval. His opinion of the other prince just went up, by a lot, as it seemed that there was more to the strange man than what appeared on the surface. He had some semblance of compassion, something Riven could appreciate given who they were. As the prince of a kingdom, the man likely didn’t need to be kind at all to get the things he wanted. There was no ulterior motive for it, not to show kindness to people like Kara. She wasn’t even a vampire, and from what Riven understood of vampire societies - most looked down on mortals like Kara as just common cattle to be used for entertainment, drained for blood, and were then used for eating - before being replaced.

It’s why his changes to House Wraithtide concerning his sarak slaves on planet Luteski had such a violent reaction to it by the vampiric nobles and populace there. Treating slaves like they had rights was very… unusual.

Perhaps Riven had found a kindred vampire spirit?

His eyes then fell to the chained bald man Prince Rantali had brought alone with him through the descent - the only other one in Rantali’s group who wasn’t a vampire and outfitted in golden tacky armor. The slave had been taken after being bought on the second floor - essentially paying off the man’s debts when gambling had gone bad in exchange for the man’s life. The man would have died otherwise. So why was there still a very faint lingering feeling in the back of his mind that this was wrong?

And was this so different from what he’d done with Genua?

“Riven?”

Riven snapped out of his trance, coughing into a fist and waved Prince Rantali’s concern away. “Don’t worry about it, just deep in thought. Sorry.”

“What were you thinking about? You looked lost.”

“Eh… Honestly? I was thinking about whether or not I was becoming something of a monster.”

Prince Rantali blinked, then burst into laughter with both hands clutched over his stomach. “Are you being serious!?”

“Hey man, don’t judge me! Let’s get back on topic. What else goes on in the next floor - aside from swimming through some kind of blood ocean and visiting a few sacrificial altars? Why do we have to pair up for this event?”

Prince Rantali calmed himself down with a few wheezing gasps, wiped tears from his eyes, and shook his head. Rolling up the parchment, he handed it over to the vampire knight who’d originally presented it. “We just survive for 24 hours. Blood-oriented creatures born from the abyss will attempt to eat us, but considering who and what you are… I doubt that you’ll have much of a problem defeating them. As for WHY we’re paired up…”

The prince straightened, smile widening once again. “The reason is twofold. First is that each altar will tempt us to try and kill the other as we work on surviving - and I trust you not to kill me for the same reason you didn’t kill that drow woman Kara. The second reason is that other pairs of teams will have the opportunity to rob us of our gifts should we acquire them from the altars. It’s generally not hard to pass through the next floor, but there is a catch.”

“Is that so? And what’s that?” Riven asked.

“The catch, my friend, is that Elysium allows outside viewers to buy in and see our progress if you allow them to do so. They can communicate with us, buy us bonuses and boons from the altars that we can take into the next floor. Elysium is very particular in who it allows to watch, but it is very likely based on past experiences that family and close friends are those involved. For me? It will likely be broadcasted across the realms my kingdom controls. For you? That remains to be seen.”

***

[You have entered the pocket realm of Floor 22: Ocean of Wrath. You have been designated Team Leader of team DEEZ NUTZ. Your objectives are simple: survive the monster attacks for at least 24 hours while traveling over or through the ocean of blood. Acquire gifts from the sacrificial altars, where opportunities to enhance your gifts will be presented to you should you decide to take them at the last altar, where contact may also be established with outside entities to help to further your goals at a price. You must touch all three altars from Floor 22 in order to proceed to Floor 23. The majority of identification information will continue to be unavailable until Floor 40.]

[You have touched 2 of 3 sacrificial altars, accepting 2 Blood Tokens to be used at the very last sacrificial altar without having taken the opportunity to sacrifice any of your party members. You have 17 mandatory hours left to spend on this floor.]

If this floor was supposed to be a challenge, Riven didn’t agree with the setup. They’d blazed through the entire thing like it was nothing, in large part due to Riven’s Blood Sub-Pillar being fed a nonstop cannon of ambient mana.

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Athela let out an excited scream, up on her tiptoes at the front end of their craft with arms outstretched and a bottle of blood wine she’d stolen from Prince Rantali in her hand. “WHOOOO!!!! FASTER, RIVEN! MAKE THIS THING ZOOM!”

WHOOSH

Excited hooting laughter roared in Riven’s ears as they flashed over the crimson ocean together in a yacht created from similarly crimson ice. He didn’t actually have an engine to propel the boat, but the MASSIVE amount of Blood mana permeating the surroundings was over the top invigorated him like a drug. The sky overhead was laden with quite large, brilliant stars that speckled the darkness, and occasional waves would roll up against the boat from distant battles between groups and other monsters. Though everything stupid enough to get too close to the impromptu yacht was eradicated quite thoroughly with one of Riven’s new Critical Storm Lances, which left long trails of crackling red and black under the illuminating starlight before evaporating whatever it was Riven had been targeting. The swarm of bone wyrms that Retesh had created also acted like watchdogs, spread out in a large perimeter in the ocean beneath where they occasionally battled blood-affinity creatures looking quite similar to squid, and the wyrms informed the team whenever anything came too close or broke past their formation.

This was more like a vacation than anything else.

It was even kind of nice.

“You sure?” Riven asked Gluttony one more time with an internal side-eye. “What about Greed’s assassins?”

The original sin once again gave the affirmative. “There is nothing to fear on this floor. They are not here, I am certain - and I will continue to keep watch. Take some time to relax and spend it with your friends. Your demons are growing on me, and it is rather nice to have companions such as these that don’t see me in a religious light. It very much reminds me of how Lillith and I often were in our younger days, back before the fifth universe came to be.”

Riven could tell, for the very first time since bonding with the Great Maw, that Gluttony felt a tinge of remorse at those words. “Is it something you want to talk about?”

There was a pause, their internal silence in stark contrast to the laughter, dancing and even the music that two of the vampires from Prince Rantali’s Kingdom of Garth were playing on strange silver flutes.

“Not yet.” Was all Gluttony said.

“Fine. Let me know when you’re ready, bud. I’m here if you need me.”

There was no response.

“RIVEN! RIVEN GO THERE!” Athela jabbed a finger in the direction of a large sandy island, one of many that they’d passed but with a long alcove on one end where red ferns and trees grew. “THE LAST ALTAR ISN’T FAR, WE ALREADY FOUND IT, AND WE HAVE TIME TO BURN! LET’S GO HAVE SOME FUN!!!”

“A picnic!” Fay yelled over the commotion, large breasts jiggling as she jumped up and down. “But with lots of drinking!”

“DRINKINGGGGG!” Azmoth bellowed, already tipsy after having chugged an entire five gallons of hard liquor from Riven’s storage space. He reached up with massive, muscular arms and clawed at the sky. “I WISHHHH TO PLAY PONG OF BEER!”

“Shit, son, you can’t even say it right you’re so plastered!” Riven cackled, but turned the yacht in the direction of the island anyways. “Fine! Let’s go have some fun - but I’m staying sober while you guys do it. I’ll be the designated driver of this group.”

“Nooo!!!” Fay moaned, pushing past Athela on the front of the ship and hiccuping before tripping and falling face first into Riven’s chest. She pushed off, cheeks bright pink, and giggled before falling over to the right. “No you’ve got to have fun with us Rivennnn…. Palheeze!?”

“Jesus Christ!” Riven said. “Maybe I’ll drink just a little bit - but here, let me help you up. And ATHELA! PUT YOUR SHIRT BACK ON!”

“NO! LET ME FLY FREEEEEE LIKE A FLAMINGO!”

“HOW DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT A FLAMINGO IS!?” A bra smacked Riven in the face to shut him up, and another gleeful giggle from the front of the ship saw Athela spinning around rapidly while chugging another bottle. Looking at her go, as happy as she was with her long black hair flowing in the wind - Riven couldn’t even be mad. Plus it was certainly a good look on her in his opinion, even if he did get slightly jealous from the way the other vampires were staring at her or shooting quick glances.

Ten minutes later, and the boat was parked. Azmoth was lighting a bonfire and slabs of meat were being stacked alongside dead squid they’d killed on the ride over for cooking. Genua was getting out spices and preparing various breads. A large perimeter of Retesh’s undead, Fay’s illusions and traps, and defensive wards provided by Prince Rantali were all set up too as chairs, tables, and more alcohol was produced for the lot of them.

“Alright Rantali, welcome to beer pong! These are the rules…” Riven said, shirtless, defined pale musculature riddled with occasional strange black tattoos that glistened in the firelight. “We have to get these little balls into one of those red solo cups filled with wine on the opposite side of the table, and THEY have to do the same with theirs - but we take turns!”

He gestured to the two giggling women across from them - who’d obliged Riven’s requests to put SOME clothes on, but remained half naked in their white bikinis that Riven didn’t even know they owned. Fay and Athela had apparently gone shopping together while back on Panu and hadn’t even told him, but the uncomfortably tight spandex swim gear he now wore was a testament to their thoughtfulness when it concerned him too. They’d bought it all as a set.

“Come on now, boys!” Fay said, licking her lips suggestively and taunting them with the ping pong ball in her hand. “Don’t keep us waiting!”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“WE DUN GONNA WIN!” Athela screamed, absolutely drunk off her ass as she jumped up and down, and dodged invisible enemies side to side. “We were BORN champions of the PONG!”

“We next!” Azmoth yelled back with a hand patting Genua’s head.

The elf thrall swatted the clawed hand away with a scowl. “I can’t drink while pregnant! That’d be irresponsible!”

“Then I get KARA!” Azmoth declared, not dismayed at the rebuttal as he pointed two of his other clawed hands in the dark elf’s direction.

Kara, who’d been absentmindedly sipping on a glass of her own while listening in to Retesh talk death magic theory to one of the guards who’d taken an interest in the pillar, perked up. “Me!?”

“YES YOU!” Azmoth roared, slapping a large squid on the billowing flames. ‘WE DOMINATE IN THE GAME OF PONG AND BEAT THE OTHERS!”

Kara gave him a half smile and nervously laughed.

“Uhm…. If you’re sure…” She replied uncertainly, but smiled up at the large demon with a friendly nod of thanks. “I’ll do my best.”

Athela gasped and pointed at the drow a second later. “KARA! WHY AREN’T YOU DRESSED FOR SWIMMING!?”

“W-What? These are the only clothes I-”

“CHANGE!” Athela demanded, stomping over to her own bag of holding and pulling out a spare white swimsuit - an exact replica of the bikini she currently wore. “You’re literally the ONLY person that isn’t outfitted right! Come on girl, don’t be a buzzkill! Azmoth doesn’t have clothes on, the slave doesn’t have clothes on, even GENUA is outfitted properly!”

Kara caught the two piece bikini with a furious flush and wide eyes. She took a look around. Azmoth looked like he usually did, and technically despite his plated body - he wasn’t really wearing any clothes. Genua was in something more modest than the other two demonic minions Riven had, but was still in a swimsuit nonetheless with a full display of the Blood God’s tattooed crimson runes all over her otherwise tanned skin. Riven, Prince Rantali, and the other vampiric knights were all shirtless in variations of boxer short swimsuits, and the slave that Prince Rantali had taken down through the descent still had his rags and energy-suppressing shackles on - though he was chained to a stake in the ground nearby.

“W-Well, what about Retesh!?” Kara tried to argue, stuttering her words and fumbling with the quite revealing pieces of clothing in her hands. “He isn’t swimming either!”

The lich eyed her for a moment from underneath his robes, and scoffed. “I am above such things as swimming… child.”

He went back to discussing magical theory a second later.

Athela gave her a bland look as Riven continued to explain the rules of beer pong with Prince Rantali. She stomped over to Kara, pushed her to the ground, and began forcefully tearing off clothes over high pitched screeching. Minutes later the quite shy and completely unharmed drow woman had her hands wrapped around her chest and her knees crossed in a poor attempt to hide her gray-brown skin.

“There! You look absolutely STUNNING!” Athela cooed, planting a long, drunk kiss on Kara’s cheek before sweeping the drow off her feet. “NOW SWIM!”

The stunned, and once-again shrieking drow was flung through the air and into the nearby alcove with a splash. Spluttering and coming up to the surface to wipe away the white hair plastered to her face with blood, she gasped and began swimming back to the edge where the others were laughing good naturedly.

When she reached the edge of the sandy shore and saw them all clapping or smiling, she couldn’t help but take in the mood and pointed a challenging finger in Athela’s direction. “I’ll get you back for that!”

“OH will you?!” Athela replied slyly with a confident folding of her arms. “And just how do you intend to do that? You’re far too weak to throw ME!”

“I’ll get my teammate AZMOTH to help me throw you in! Right Azmoth!?” Kara called out, and Azmoth quickly spun on his heel from where he’d been cooking alongside Genua.

The hellscape brutalisk gave off a savage, predatory grin. “YESSSSS!!!”

“WAIT!” Athela shrieked, sprinting away from the larger demon and hiding behind the drow. “WAIT WAIT WAIT! How about a deal!?”

“What deal!?” Kara replied skeptically, but enjoyed the laughter of the others as Azmoth continued to stalk around her with claws and wings extended.

Athela paused, put both hands on Kara’s shoulders from behind, and leaned forward to speak into her ear. “We can make a bet! If Fay and I win at beer pong against you and Azmoth, you don’t tell Azmoth to attack me and I get to use you as a chair for the remainder of the descent!”

“A chair!?” Kara exclaimed. “No! Why would I do that!?”

Athela snickered and began to whisper. “Because if you and Azmoth win, I’ll do you a solid.”

The next whispers were so low that no one but Kara could hear, but her eyes widened and the gray-brown skin of her face went a bright shade of embarrassed red.

She turned around. “Are you being serious, Athela?”

“Absolutely. But you have to win first, and I’m not going to go easy. I’ve been wanting a good chair for a while now!”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m positive! Would I lie?”

“But… But what about-”

“I said I’m sure! And no, the plethora of possible problems you’re thinking about won’t actually be a problem.” Athela winked. “I’ve already thought long and hard about it.”

Kara extended her hand without a moment’s hesitation. “Shake on it.”

“Hah! So eager!” Athela cackled, took her hand, and the two women vigorously shook. “I look forward to beating your ass, bitch!”

“Not a chance.” Kara said, excitedly skipping off over the sands to where Azmoth was now waiting. Pulling the large demon aside, the dark elf began to make battle plans - and began drying herself off near the fire.

Riven watched the whole thing unfold with more than a mild amount of curiosity, and being buzzed - he had a hard time ripping his gaze away from Kara’s rather muscular and very exposed rear end.

“Eyes up here!” Fay yelled, snapping her fingers and then grabbing at her barely covered blue breasts “I’m the succubus here and I demand attention!”

Riven laughed and blushed slightly at being caught, but didn’t disobey and let his eyes linger a while. “Sorry. I’m a little drunk.”

“No need to apologize! We get it!” Athela retorted, almost tripping over Fay’s tail on the way to the table and smacking the succubus in the back before standing at attention and saluting. “Do we have permission to proceed with the game, master-sir Riven!?”

“Got any last second questions?” Riven asked the other prince, feeling a rumble in his stomach as a surge of hunger started to sputter in the core of his soul.

Prince Rantali quickly dragged his gaze off of Fay and nodded with abandon. “I think I have the rules down! And was that your stomach I heard? We’d better get that food going fast! I’d say you can have some blood from my slave, but there’s an entire ocean of it right here!”

Riven spit on the ground to his right and got into a throwing position. “Nah I’m good on the blood. It’s a side effect of Gluttony… I actually need to eat people once in a while to keep me going.”

“Really? Like actually consume them whole? We do that in my kingdom too, and I’d offer you the man I’ve taken so you can eat - but I wouldn’t have much left for myself.”

“Something like that. And don’t worry about it, I just get… debuffs, if I don’t feast. I’ll figure it out, don’t think on it much.”

“Debuffs even if you’ve drank blood recently? Fascinating! But I can’t say I’ll be very good at this game. You ladies across the table will have to go easy on me!”

Athela snorted in derision, her eyes scanning Riven’s defined body rather hungrily - but unlike Riven, she wasn’t hungry for food. “Yeah, yeah, I don’t think so blondie. Fay and I are pro’s! There aint NO way we’re going to lose this time around!”

Riven grinned, fangs on full display. “We’ll see about that!”

***

Two hours passed.

“WE WON!!! WE WON!!!” Kara slammed into Azmoth like a battering ram and wrapped him in a hug as the large wing demon howled to the skies in victory. “THAT WAS SO CLOSE! I WAS ALMOST A CHAIR!”

Athela for her part groaned in disappointment, kneeling in the sand with her head between her hands, as Fay loudly sighed and strutted off with a seductive sway to her hips and a smile in Riven’s direction. “Find me in the shrubbery after you’re done eating, hun! We haven’t tangled in a while, but give me a few minutes first! I’ll even do that thing you like with my tongue!”

Riven immediately coughed up the drink he was downing and followed the succubus’s outline into the red trees beyond the firelight, and was having a very hard time containing his lower half’s excitement. “Did I just hear her right?”

“I believe you did, you lucky bastard.” Prince Rantali replied with a grin. “A few minutes, she said? What do you think she’s doing back there?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Riven jammed an elbow into Rantali’s side. “That’s for staring!”

“Certainly you can’t blame me!”

“I don’t!”

“So why’d you elbow me!?”

“Because you deserved it.”

Despite Riven’s claims of trying to stay sober, Gluttony twice over informed him that they were still safe and that he was keeping watch. At the Sin’s approval - Riven let himself continue to slip further and further into a drunken haze, became much louder, and began to lose himself to the merriment.

It was genuinely a fun time.

They went swimming more than once, played beer pong a few more times, had a game of cards going and were eating a lot of meat from their storage and the numerous blood squid they’d killed. The aquatic monsters were actually quite tasty, though that may just be Riven’s hunger growing by the second.

Unfortunately the monster meat wasn’t cutting it. He needed to eat mortal meat.

Perhaps he should ask Prince Rantali if he could eat the enslaved man chained up nearby, just like the other prince had offered?

No, he was Rantali’s property. He was to be Rantali’s thrall. He couldn’t just steal the man’s food… that was Rantali’s prey.

Riven’s hunger became palpable.

His eyes darted to Kara, who was occasionally shooting him nervous glances now while talking to Athela in hushed whispers, and he felt himself starting to drool as he drunkenly considered eating her instead of the squid currently in his hands. She was very pretty, with long brown legs and defined abdominal muscles - and he wondered if dark elf would taste as good as the human necromancer he’d hunted down, killed, and eaten back on Floor 2. That was the last time he’d eaten someone, and Gluttony’s hunger - his own hunger - was rapidly expanding like a flower in full bloom.

Perhaps that muscular rear end of hers would make for a literally tasty snack after he killed her. He’d do it quickly and painlessly so she wouldn’t feel it, he did like her after all. Maybe the other vampires would want to share her meat? She was only cattle in their eyes, and right now he agreed. Genua may taste good too, but she was carrying his kid and draining her blood wouldn’t be enough. He’d have to actually kill and eat Genua, and that simply wasn’t an option while she was pregnant. Maybe another time?

Saliva began dripping off his fangs, his eyes dilated while staring at the rather attractive, half naked young woman, and his breathing picked up. He heard his stomach rumble again as he began to have flashbacks to his other kills since bonding with Gluttony, the absolute exotic sensations he got as he murdered and ate his victims while Gluttony sucked in their souls like a soda pop. He began to picture Kara Blackbow in their place, his hands digging into her intestines as he gorged himself on the stunning drow woman.

What would Allie say if she knew?

What would his minions say?

His dark thoughts were forced back as he smacked himself upside the forehead with a strike far more powerful than what was probably necessary. Catching his breath, his eyes undilated and his hungry smile settled down. His fangs stopped releasing venom, and he hurriedly wiped the drool off his face before Kara noticed that he’d been contemplating murdering her.

Immense amounts of guilt washed over him, and he stood up - quickly looking around to the horizon for signs of distant battle. With other teams still present in the vicinity, he quickly found what he was looking for and redirected his hunger towards them. The hunger flared as his Snipe ability homed in on a distant set of orcs - both of which were completely unaware they were even being observed. His eyes dilated again, his fangs sprouted, and his smile stretched to unnatural proportions as he slowly began to wrap himself in Blessing of the Crow.

“Riven what are you doing?” Athela asked, coming up and groping his pectoral muscles with a coy grin. “God you are so fucking hot. I don’t tell you that enough, but you’re a hunk! Aren’t you going to join Fay? She’s been wanting you for quite some time now, and she’s always complaining about how she doesn’t get enough!”

“I’ll help her out in a little while… tell her I’ll be just slightly late.” Riven whispered, pushing Athela aside as he began to pick up speed. “I’ll be right back. Give me ten minutes.”

“Huh? You never turn down sex! RIVEN!?” Athela yelled - but her voice was lost to the sound of a sonic boom - as Riven’s body exploded with power.

In an instant he was gone, flashing forward and creating tidal waves of energy in his wake as he traveled like a missile across the red ocean towards the other team less than a mile off. He was hungry. He was starving. And he absolutely, without a doubt, needed to feed…

Lest he hurt Kara or Genua instead.