Sif is the single most strikingly beautiful person I've ever seen. The curvy redhead is almost supernaturally beautiful, and I mentally note that however pretty I ever thought she'd be in real life I was underestimating her. It helps that she is, aesthetically, my exact type; a curvy redhead, but even if she weren't I can see why the Emperor of Etherscape player character is supposed to fall in love, or at least lust, with her. As I notice her attractiveness I also notice something less fun.
With every passing millisecond I can feel my perks stabilizing, growing stronger, and reemerging from deep inside of myself. Normally that'd be a good thing but judging from what Delphi just said my perks beginning to reassert themselves might well be what causes me to be yanked back into Minecraft…
"Lalo, your majesty I am Sif." Sif explains, before shaking her head in annoyance. My eyes widen when she calls me "Your majesty". It sounds like something… unreal. Almost a fantasy.
"I apologize. I forgot you already knew that. I'm so damn nervous. Uhh… Okay we have limited time here, so I'm just gonna, to borrow an Earth saying, 'Rip the bandaid off'. Your majesty, Etherscape is real. And you are simultaneously the heir to Etherscape and the Last Omega Lord. I'd explain what that means but we both know you know." The heart-stoppingly beautiful redhead explains. My eyes go wide when she drops this bomb on me. This is a story-writing idea I've used before, but I never seriously imagined it'd be a thing that genuinely happens to me. Delphi is the next to speak.
"We had to scour the omniverse for you. When we finally found you we weren't the only ones to do so." The artificial spirit oracle; a fusion of technology and esoteric magic first created by ancient Omega Lords, explains. I look at her confusedly as I replay what she just said.
She mentioned the omniverse… My look of confusion must be really obvious because Sif is the next to speak and she immediately addresses what Delphi has said.
"Yes, your majesty. Omniverse. We don't know how, or why, but you weren't in our multiverse. Something took you from your home, Veiled Earth, long ago. The fact that you're a native of our multiverse might explain your striking affinity for the 'Setting' as you've long referred to it internally. We found the multiverse you were tucked away in, a non-descript one of no special distinction, and initiated the process to pull you back to the Ouroboros Multiverse and… We were interrupted." Sif complains, and I can see a faint flicker of truly blood-chilling anger light up her face for perhaps half a second.
"We aren't exactly sure of the specifics but your soul was attacked and injured. As a consequence of that your soul was too weak to survive the voyage to a new multiverse AND to go to a place as alien as Etherscape. Furthermore, it was cut in two but… it endured. In all likelihood the immense power you are destined to wield, after returning home anyway, gave you just enough endurance to survive the attack and the voyage to Veiled Earth. So we sent you to Veiled Earth, knowing it'd only be temporary. In the years since our failed attempt to bring you to claim your birthright, your birthrights, clues have been given to us by someone from beyond our multiverse." Sif tells me, clearly reciting a speech she has prepared and had time to practice, albeit at a pace that is faster than she might like.
"They have been helping us but also hindering us. Whoever they are, they are the figure or figures who taught us how to push you into a jumpchain and it seems like they have some weird grip on a fragment of your soul which they used even when we sent you to Veiled Earth, which itself took place years after our initial attempt to bring you home. Though it appears to have not felt that way to you… Each time you go to a new place we select one jump and they select one jump, and we build one build and they build one build." Sif reveals, allowing me to suddenly realize how it is that I've been able to influence my builds all along. It also brings with it the knowledge that I essentially have multiple benefactors. Multiple competing benefactors.
"The working theory is that this is a game for them. They want to push you and they seem to like watching you grow? If they are hostile towards you they seem to want to be hostile in a way that's sporting. At various points we've been able to see the builds they've devised and have made builds that have helped counteract what they tossed at you. I don't think they are the same being or beings who attacked and sundered your soul, but they certainly could be. I fully believe that whoever attacked your soul was the same person or people who pulled you out of the Ouroboros Multiverse in the first place." Sif admits.
"We've been steadily pulling you closer and closer to the Ouroboros Multiverse since you first left it. We're getting closer to being able to pull you home but it looks like your soul was left in tatters. For us to bring you home you need to grow in power. In the meantime when you visit the Ouroboros Multiverse you'll just be here temporarily, but you'll still grow in power and be able to have a lingering impact. We can only pull you into jumps appropriate for your overall level of power." Delphi tells me.
This shocks me, but the news that I can leave a "Lingering impact" is intriguing. I'm about to speak, about to ask about the little messages I get in my grimoire, when Sif's eyes go wide. I hear a sudden sound from behind me and I feel an enormous, cold hand grip my shoulder. I look at it and frown when I see the familiar arm of the enderman. It begins to pull on me and I try to resist it. Sif looks at me and I watch her composure vanish.
"Your majesty! Delphi and I get snapshots of your adventures. That's how we learn about what you want, which influences the builds we come up with. Just… don't give up. We won't fail you aga-" She says before she vanishes from view and my surroundings instantly change. I am floating on the other side of the portal, atop a crimson tree in the Nether. The enderman is behind me, and I am suddenly pulled into a bone-crushing hug. I try to speak and find that I can't. I'd grunt in annoyance but right now my drawbacks are hitting me extra hard and I can't even do that.
"Lalo! There you are." Amber says, looking at me worriedly. The beginnings of a real structure are visible around us, with tall stone walls around protecting the portal from one side. The enderman lets me go and makes a sound that clearly communicates its relief. If I weren't affected by drawbacks I'd be deeply annoyed.
I turn to Amber and Alex and go and hug them, causing Amber to relax while Alex just smiles at me. I let my grimoire begin to float around me and open it up. As I do I look at its contents and note that more information has been revealed. I study the book even as I begin to help Alex and Amber assemble a small structure around the portal.
When I reach the build section of my book next to each build is a new set of information. Now that I know about part of the underlying nature of my chain it seems that I can determine who built each of my builds.
In jump #1, "A Human of Earth" was the build Sif and Delphi created. In jump #2 Sif and Delphi are responsible for the Out of Context Beholder supplement build. In jump #3 the pair selected the Adult Essences Jump and did the build for it. In jump #4 the duo selected Generic Totally Not Mind Control. In this jump they selected Generic Gamer. The other builds are labeled [???] indicating that I don't know the identity or identities of whoever else is making decisions regarding my chain.
I snap myself back to the present and Amber, Alex, the Enderman and I begin to explore. The crimson forest is an eerie biome and we traverse the treetops until we reach the edge of the biome. When we do we spot a soul sand valley where skeletons idly explore the landscape.
"Shit." I telepathically remark, as I spot the skilled undead. I study the landscape and I can see other biomes miles away.
"Alex, do you know the rough direction of the fortress you died in?" I ask. She winces at my question before nodding. She moves herself in the direction of the boundary between the crimson forest and the soul sand valley and begins to jump when she's oriented properly. I turn in the direction she's facing and I begin to move. As I refocus on the present and take a second to properly assess everything I glance at my mini-map and use it to clear my mind of distractions.
The truths I have just learned are paradigm shifting, the sort of life-changing truths that can unmoor someone from the present. And yet I am also in the nether, an impossibly dangerous place even for me given the drawbacks I've been smacked with by an invisible, unknown foe. I can't afford to slip up, not even once.
The trip to the fortress ends up taking entire days. Along the way we venture through more forests and in one encounter another enderman. I liberate it and the thing also ends up joining our party. When we reach the vast fortress where Alex signals that she was cut down we are positioned over an enormous sea of lava. The dark fortress is built atop gigantic pillars of black nether bricks. We all study the imposing place with thoughtful looks. We are over two hundred blocks away from it, and I can see eerie skeletons walking silently around the place as well as a pair of blaze spawners. The infernal monsters begin to spawn as we move our build closer and closer to the structure. We're several dozen blocks away when the first blazes snap their heads to look at us and attack.
In seconds dozens of fireballs begin to fly towards us. I motion to Alex to keep building and reach out my hand towards Amber. She takes it and we both shut our eyes. A wall-like barrier comes into existence between the fortress and ourselves and the spray of fireballs collides with it, crashing against the thing dramatically. Fireballs explode against the barrier but they are nowhere near strong enough to threaten the integrity of the forcefield. Chorus empowers the forcefield Amber and I create and we follow Alex as she moves us closer and closer to the edge of the fortress.
When Alex jumps to set foot on the fortress I let go of Amber's hand and I open my eyes. Blazes are moving to intercept Alex and I visualize a vast hand coming into being between the Minecraft character and the mobs. Fireballs strike the hand and explode harmlessly against it, confusing the mobs. I move the hand without gestures even as I move and get next to Alex. Our endermen allies roar at the monsters and rush towards them. The blazes look confused as the endermen close the distance and scream in fear when one of the purple monstrosities rams its fist through a blaze's head. I am halfway surprised when the enderman doesn't get set on fire.
"Leave the blazes to them I guess… Where's your stuff?" I ask, telepathically, turning to face Alex. She shrugs and I flash her a half-amused smile. I pull out my diamond pickaxe and flick it at the blaze spawner. The strange box shatters, shrinking into a small block I use telekinesis to pull towards myself. The block vanishes when it reaches me and I turn to look at my friends.
Alex and Amber are already beginning to explore the fortress, walking in the direction of a stairwell leading into the interior of the place. A wither skeleton spawns in front of them and roars at the two living people, before charging at them. Amber doesn't hesitate and she uses a telekinetic wave to knock the monster off the fortress and send it screeching to the lava below. They begin to run towards the stairwell and I move to catch up with them.
I sprint towards them and as I am moving more monsters begin to spawn. The world seems to slow as I unleash my true speed, moving at speeds that would astound anyone watching. Even my friends seem to be almost frozen as I dart towards them and my enemies are stuck in the middle of materializing. I don't hesitate to unleash my telekinesis, dispatching skeletons with ease and sending them careening down to the sea of lava below us. I reach my friends and we set off to explore the fortress.
The rest of the day passes by quickly enough. We find a chest after battling more wither skeletons and defeating them. I attain a skill book that gives me a copy of their eerie wither effect; a powerful poison ability that can affect undead mobs, and that can only be cured through the consumption of milk. This powerful ability is, to date, my most devastating personal-scale ability and I will experiment with it later today and learn I can apply it to arrows which is downright terrifying.
Alex's items, including an enchanted iron sword, are tucked away inside the chest and by attaining them the quest is marked as complete. Once we have our items I look to my friends and grab Alex with telekinesis.
We fly out of the fortress, with me grabbing the endermen as well when we're close to them. I spot my first ghast; a gigantic floating creature that can spit fireballs at foes, as we move away from the fortress and head back to the portal. In minutes we dart through biomes and in an hour we can see the portal. We fly through it and this time I do get greeted by a loading screen. I am disappointed but unsurprised that nothing odd happens. The quest awards me experience as well as a skill book for a skill entitled "Eldritch Explorer"; a skill that gives me skill at exploring eldritch landscapes.
A few nights later we have returned to the manor and I am in the room Alex has taken over for her own use. We're quietly relaxing together as Alex prefers the company of someone quiet like her. I am here in person but not quite in spirit, as I am thinking about what I learned when we ventured to the Nether. She looks at me and I am surprised when she asks me something.
"So Amber and you… What are you?" She asks, privately sending me a 1-on-1 message through the guild system. I appraise her for a second, no abilities or supernatural methods of discernment, just raw empathy. I eventually decide to tell her the truth.
"Amber and I are aliens. We're human beings, like you, but from another reality." I explain, replying to her the same way she messaged me. She nods as she absorbs this information and I watch a flash of skepticism flicker across her face for a heartbeat before she considers our fully supernatural, even by this world's standards, abilities. I laugh internally when I see her persuade herself that I'm telling the truth.
"If you're aliens, why are you here?" She asks, and I silently consider this question for a good long while. I decide to begin to lay the truth out but I haven't told anyone what I've learned so I'm not gonna say everything.
"I'm determined to grow stronger and return to my native reality. The process that sends Amber and I from world to world is not something I can control. I want to return home." I reveal, and this causes Alex to go quiet for a moment.
"So you plan to leave?" She asks, and I can see a look of sadness on her face.
"I don't plan to leave in the active sense but it is an inevitability I've made peace with. It is controlled by forces beyond my power to affect directly." I admit, causing Alex to look at me quietly.
"Do you… wish to come with me?" I ask, looking at the woman curiously. She looks away, almost shyly.
"There is a way you could join us. But I do want you to know some things first." I reveal, before running Alex through the spiel I have resolved to give my lovers wherein I explain the pros and cons of being my lover. I'm not shocked when Alex is not dissuaded by what I have revealed. We've been adventuring together for months now and she's been exposed to my pheromones, seen me fighting, and has been a student of mine, all of which have built up into something powerful as far as our bond goes.
"I never imagined that going to other worlds could be so fun…" She admits and I flash her a soft smile. I telekinetically pull her to me, gently picking her up and moving her to my lap. She is quite pretty and when she's in my lap she's fully exposed to my power.
I use my book to deequip all of my clothes and allow Alex to see my muscles and feel my naked skin. She eyes me brightly and lustfully and I smile softly at her. When we kiss for the first time it's a chaste, gentle thing, wherein we familiarize ourselves with the skill and taste of each other. Our second kiss is not. It is something altogether more primal, hungry, and passionate. Alex also deequips her clothes, and unlike in the game her clothes can actually come off, allowing me to see her muscular chest and surprisingly large breasts as she coils around me. Her strength is intense and she is an affectionate lover, holding me close and kissing me with surprising strength and molten hot lust.
Like a nervous couple experimenting for the first time at first all we do is kiss. And even that is enough to begin to stir one of my strongest weapons to life. Alex bites my lip, gently, when she feels my manhood subtly begin to press against her skin. This causes me to quietly groan, which excites Alex. She giggles in delight when I playfully wrestle with her until I'm on top of her. The sight of her muscular, though strikingly beautiful, body beneath me makes me feel a flicker of true emotion, and it drives me to delightfully slide into her. She closes her eyes and gasps as I sheath myself inside of her.
Her tight, muscular walls welcome me, kissing my length with slick, pleasurable squeezes and pull me deeper into her even as I feel a new ability settle inside of me. I let out a surprised sound when I realize what I can now do: I can now mimic Alex and go from dimension to dimension with strikingly little effort. I lean down and kiss her even as I telepathically thank her for sharing her ability with me as I begin to rhythmically thrust in and out of her. When I stop kissing her I look and see the succubus-like womb tattoo that marks her. It fills me with something akin to pride, and I laugh as I begin to energetically play with the newest member of my harem. She pleasurably writhes beneath me, delighting in my experience and innate skill, but when she begins to drown in pleasure and starts to lose herself she quickly moves and surprises me by getting on top.
Before I fully realize what's happened I'm underneath Alex. She rides me like a stallion and when I recover from the shock of being manhandled I find it easy to adjust to this and allow her to take the lead. She bounces on top of me, seizing control of the pacing and I enjoy the sight of her essentially becoming possessed by pleasure. Her first orgasm is a messy, loud affair, and it marks the beginning of a long, pleasantly messy night.
When the night ends we enter a stint of jumper time that is filled with me musing on the nature of jumps I'd like to visit. Several come to mind, but one of the big ones is Germanic Norse Mythology.
The jump is filled with staggeringly powerful perks and items, but what I'd really, really like from it is the capstone perk for the trickster origin; a perk I sometimes refer to as AA which is an ability that'd be my first semi-meta power and would give me three of any item purchased with choice points. It helps that I now possess my own mini-worldwalking power and thus could much more easily leave places like Hel or Muspellheim if I were to arrive in that jump with one of those places as my starting location, thus nullifying one of the scarier threats that isn't fiat-backed things like drawbacks in that setting. As far as secondary jumps go both generic clergy and generic barbarian make sense, especially since I've already visited generic bard which is another jump that'd make sense.
One of the big things that occurs during this stint of jumper time is that my forces begin to become much more active liberators. We explore the world, coming across things like small villages and even an ocean and we put in the valuable work needed to liberate more endermen. I experiment wth different ways to do this and find that the free will bombs are supremely effective at liberating endermen from the control of their strange oppressor. Another quiet thing that occurs is that my maids, one by one, join me in bed after they spot Alex's mark. She's rather shameless and likes showing it off and her excitement from her mark is the thing that persuades the maids to join me. They are also quick to gain telekinetic powers of their own.
During my last two months in this world I get one more quest: to go and liberate The End from the tyranny of the Ender Dragon. I quietly opt to accept this quest when I see what the rewards are: a class and a title that are both composed of the single, same word: Hero. A typical Minecraft player character has to undertake a grim task to get to the stronghold where a given world's portal to The End is located, but I have abilities that directly counter this. During my final month in this world my friends and I, including both an undead army and the dozens of endermen that have joined me, make our way to the stronghold. The journey there is uneventful, as we are guided by my minimap. When we reach the structure and venture inside all that's left is a short jaunt, one that is filled with more silverfish than I ever imagined, to the portal room. In the innermost chamber of the stronghold I dispatch silverfish dispensers and walk to the top of the stairs leading to the portal frame.
Endermen watch me quietly as I ascend to the top of the space next to the portal frame. Several eyes of ender are slotted into singular portal frame blocks and the sight is eerily grim. They still look like regular Minecraft objects but seeing them up close is fascinatingly dark. One of my friends asks if I need an eye and I shake my head.
"I can pay for eyes of ender. No one needs to sacrifice themselves to get us where we're going." I exclaim, using telepathy to link us all. I reach into my book and use my store to spend a small fortune in emeralds and actual currency supplied to me by Ultimate Chad item, so that I can purchase the handful of eyes of ender needed for us to go and save the enderpeople. When I'm properly supplied as far as eyes of ender go I place them in the portal frame blocks that are missing them and listen to the sound of a portal forming. This one is the color of the night sky, with star-like dots spread across its inky surface. Alex jumps into it and I move to follow after her, wondering if I'll get a second peek behind the curtain.
The instant I enter the portal I feel my world get reduced to a loading zone. All of my senses other than some abstraction of my sense of sight are shut off. Ahead of me, relatively speaking, I can see a brown loading screen and above it I can see a simple message.
"Not this time." It reads. If I could sigh I would. I am stuck in this loading screen for a few seconds and when my senses recover from this drawback-induced weirdness I find myself standing on top of a platform that Alex is already busy expanding with stone blocks. The platform underneath us is made of end stone and has the vaguely Backrooms-like pattern and colors I have long associated with the stuff. Flying in the distance, over a floating island in the middle of a strange void, is the ender dragon; a monstrous, mighty beast with scales the color of a moonless, starless sky. It is big, but it's smaller than my MOGO minions and it's comparable in size to Beowful. It flies with striking speed for its size and roars when it spots my friends as they begin to step into this world by leaping into the portal. My friends and I begin to speed across the bridge of end stone, eager to free the endermen from the dragon's malevolent, harmful even, influence.