DemonRose

Hey! Hey!

So, here's Jonathan's first chapter. Very minor warning in this one for some sexual thoughts that are a bit graphic. But it's brief and nothing really happens, so I'm giving the warning but not suggesting anyone skip it.

I have to admit, I was a little worried kneeling down in front of the idol. I mean, I was never that religious, but being raised Catholic did make this feel blasphemous. There was also the fact the goddess looked a little demonic. The statue was carved from obsidian and gleamed glassy black. She stood tall and straight like a pillar, her naked body all sinew and muscle with large teardrop breasts hanging freely. Her expression could best be described as pissed-off, and her red eyes seemed to glow and smolder. Her hair rose up from her head like a mess resembling horns or tentacles.

I took a deep breath and muttered under my breath, "Dear Garotha, your worshipfulness."

Hey, look, you try thinking of a decent prayer to make to some god fabricated by an AI.

"Please hear me and grant me your blessing. Heal me and my friend. I offer you my devotion. Amen."

The rooms grew very still, and I started feeling ridiculous. Had Sulin been making this up to make us look foolish? But then I got an alert.

I felt myself thrust back from the altar.

"Well, that was refreshing," Ellie said. "I feel great!" Then she saw me and must have noticed my startled expression and wild eyes. "What's a matter, Crystal. Didn't she heal you?"

My mind didn't know what to freak out about first. The fact I'd have to burn someone alive or that my new game name was "Crystal." 

And then an even worse realization hit me. "I can't remember my name!"

"Whoa, buddy, what happened?" Rick crouched next to me and held me by the shoulders in a gesture of support. "What did it do to you?"

"It granted me patronage, but now I can't remember my own fucking name!" My voice rose up, shrill and panicked, and echoed off the vaulted ceiling. 

"It's okay. It's okay. Take a deep breath. Your name is Crystal. Do you remember now?"

"No. My real name. The name I had before coming into the game. I try to remember but it just ... isn't there."

"Seriously, you're name has always been Crystal. Hasn't it?" A bit of doubt tinged his last question.

"I was a guy working at a bike repair shop. Crystal is a stripper's name. How the hell was that my name? I don't even have a last name anymore. This is so fucked up!"

Tanner approached us. "Somehow Katie can get in our heads. I'm guessing it's because everything is filtered through her processors. Feronia could always make you feel things like hot and cold, wind and rain, and pain. But now it can make you think things. It's kind of scary. Well, terrifying really, but everything should go back to normal when we're taken out of our game-pods.

"Should! Should! What if it doesn't? What then? What then?!?"

Everyone was looking at me. They must have thought I'd gone insane, and maybe I had. Ever since I'd been given this character I've felt myself slipping away. I'd always be this quiet stocky guy, but I was good with my hands and had been strong even though I'd never been athletic. I guess that was why I identified with dwarves when playing these games. The whole gnome thing hadn't been a real change (at least in this game they didn't look stupid like garden gnomes), but becoming a woman had been weird. Very weird. My large breasts sagged without any support, and I could feel them sway with every movement. They got terrible sweaty under my chain-mail and stuck to my chest. Then, there was the strange business between my legs. It had been more noticeable lately, getting hot and moist and needy—hungry almost.

I'd never been so horny playing an RPG before.

I often found myself fantasized about my girlfriend who I'd left for a week to play Feronia. The first two weeks in the game, it was tame stuff. Me going straight from the mall where the game-center was to her place, and sweeping her smaller body up in my arms. She'd say something like, "You act like you haven't seen me in months." And I'd say, "I haven't." Then, we'd laugh about how we'd experienced time differently and kiss.

But when the yearning started. These fantasies went lewd fast. I'd go to her place and she'd barely say hello before I was bending her over the couch and entering her, my cock throbbing and anxious, almost in pain with the need of it.

However, recently, in these imaginings I'm still in a gnome body. And I dream of her sucking on my swollen nipples and penetrating me with her fingers. I try and change positions, but she's bigger than me and holds me down, powerless. She whispers the filthy things she's going to do to me. Even now, when I picture it, she's cooing in my ear: "Oh, Crystal! My beautiful little Crystal! Do you like it when I do that?"

What was this game doing to me? 

I still had more than half my stay in Feronia to complete. What more was going to happen to me? Who would I be when I finally left here?

* * *

Ellie and Rick convinced me to get some sleep. Everyone decided to rest for two hours before continuing the crawl. Enough to restore some Life Balance and everyone's Mystic Energy, but not long enough to be caught lingering here by boggles coming to pray. The time of blankness helped. I felt less fixated on my problems, more aware we were in a game and this wasn't real. I just had to play it and get out.

Speaking of playing it. I brought up my character sheet.

I noticed my Vigor was still sitting at 17 despite the new bonus. It turns out the Natural Strength restriction I was given actually negated any magical modifiers from applying to me. So, the only thing that changed was my Presence, which I didn't really give a shit about. But now that I was thinking about it, I realized something had changed about the way I looked.

I felt my beard and found it braided instead of hanging matted and lose. The coil of red hair now stayed above my collar bone and no longer covered the V-neck of my armor. It may have been my imagination but that V seemed to plunge a bit more, and the breasts underneath looked perkier than before. But the real noticeable thing was the tattoo sitting between them. It must be the mark of Garotha and showed a flaming runic symbol. The symbol was thick and drawn in three dimensional to make it look carved out of stone. The mark made my cleavage a lot more prominent. 

Just fucking wonderful!

Then, I realized there might be a way out of this. If I didn't fulfill the holy mission the goddess sent me on, she'd probably take it all away. To confirm this I checked the archive. I was right about the blessing being taken away, but it mentioned that failure to fulfill the quest would result in the curse of Garotha. If this was the result of the blessing, what the fuck would the curse do? Maybe ignoring it wasn't the answer.

Ellie noticed me staring at myself and must have realized what the sour expression on my face meant. She said, "It's not so bad. The mark is a bit much but it looks bad-ass. And your beard is really cute now." 

I blushed and turned away, secretly pleased with the compliment.

We were getting ready to go on, and the only thing left to settle was distributing the three magic items we'd taken from the priestess. There was the Robe of Mental Clarity (Intellect +3), Rod of Focus (+3 Spell-casting), and an the Amulet of Garotha (Defense +4). Everyone agreed that Ellie should take it all. They seemed made for her in a way. A few of the others might have liked getting the bonus to defense. but couldn't wear the pendant because of the whole stone affinity thing.

"But I don't want to wear the robe." 

"Why not?" I said. "It gives you a great bonus and it doesn't conflict with any of your restrictions." I knew she had this strange one that penalized her for every body part she covered, but the robe didn't count as a covering for some reason.

"Because it's see-through," she hissed. "It shows everything."

Eventually, we were able to convince her that she'd want the better gear considering our opponents were getting tougher. But when I saw her after she'd changed, I felt pretty guilty for my role in goading her into it. It was very revealing. It hung down nearly to her knees, but it was low cut and made from a fine mesh fabric that resembled something between material of silk and fishnet stockings. I could see her nipples prominently through it, and even her pussy could be made out when the light was right.

That unsettling needful itch came on me looking at her. And I forced myself to turn away and remind myself this was my friend Matthew from high school. I forced my self to remember his strange awkward body with its too many angles and crane-like gate. But it wasn't easy.

We left the temple and rode the metal contraption up to the next doorway. It wasn't as tall or wide as the entrance to the temple, but the wooden door was polished and carved with figures of boggles fighting a vast battle. Aaron checked it for traps and gave it an all clear. It opened onto an antechamber with six well-armed boggles. 

Instead of the usual fear I felt going into a fight, I found myself looking forward to kicking some ass. I felt like this stupid game had beaten me down, and now was the time for pay back. I waded into them, my ax thirsty for blood.