As I said, forty days after we got trapped in the spider’s lair, a kissborn explorer team found us, destroyed the spider and freed us. We dropped exhausted from our cocoons. We were malnourished, hurting, and barely conscious.
The team didn’t trust Xeelee: they put her in full restraints: not just handcuffs, but they cuffed her legs as well, put a gag in her mouth and a blindfold on her eyes, and wrapped her around with sturdy ropes so that she could do nothing: not flee, not attack, not cast spells, not even speak.
I and Ciel were treated with much more friendliness, and all three of us got transported into the closest kissborn hospital. It took us two days to recover. We told the kissborn soldiers everything. We also told them that Xeelee was our friend but they wouldn’t hear of it. Girls passing by her bed looked at Xeelee with disgust. Some spat in her face.
Xeelee cried a lot during these two days. I attempted to comfort her and she appeared to find some solace in that. We got to know each other a little better. Xeelee seemed to just be a slimeborn explorer. She didn’t know anything about the treachery at the kissslime competition. She was part of a clan in Oozehome, the slimeborn capital, but spent most of her time on missions. She was very young, with only a couple of months of combat experience, and she had yet to bear children or take a mate.
From the soldiers, we learned the full extent of the dirties’ treachery. The initial skirmish at the competition turned into a world war pretty quickly, and the dirties had been winning. Both our territory and that of the waterborn was diminishing, albeit slowly.
Worse still, all three princesses of the non-dirties nations had been captured and kept in the Stinking Cave, a dungeon in the heart of slimeborn territory. We also learned that the slimies took not just the princesses but also an Ancient, one of the respected and untouchable leaders of the land, and imprisoned her in the Stinking Cave as well.
A great expedition was being prepared by the kissborn to rescue the Princesses. Ciel volunteered but I did not. I am known as a hero now but back then I was happy that my part in the story seemed done.
So the expedition left without me — and it failed utterly. Of the hundred kissborn who crossed the border, thirty were captured, and thirty broken or hurt so badly that they quit the military. None even entered the Cave.
Ciel, fortunately, was among those who came back more or less unharmed. But the mission failed.
It was then that Xeelee spoke to us, that she could help us.
“There is a second entrance to the Cave,” said Xeelee, when she was alone with me and Ciel, “it is secret, and it is disgusting to use, but it bypasses most of the guards.”
“Can we use it to get back, too?” I asked.
“Yes, in much the same way.”
“Then let’s tell the soldiers about it!”
“No,” Xeelee shook her head, “I won’t tell the kissborn about it.”
She wasn’t gagged or cuffed anymore, but she still lived in a prison cell. Not even the pleading of both of us was enough to get her freed. No wonder she didn’t want to share intel.
(“So much animosity,” muttered Daina.
“Yes,” said Astra, “it was because the nations each kept more to themselves back then, I think.”)
“You wouldn’t be able to cast the spell yourselves anyway, since you’re not slimeborn,” she continued, “but I’d be willing to go with the two of you.”
“No!” I shuddered, “I’m not going into this war again!”
I refused. I really refused.
But that was not the end of it. There were now two of them and one of me. Ciel joined Xeelee and together they kept talking me into going, that we’d have more of a chance to win if there were three of us, that I owed it to my nation, that I could be a hero. Their arguments didn’t do much to convince me, but their will did.
During our time together, I had bonded with not just Ciel but Xeelee as well. I liked them. And I think, I think part of the reason they wanted me to go was not that they could be more successful (after all, why should Xeelee care), but that they wanted the three of us to go on an adventure, as friends.
And so, after a week, I agreed to it.
Right then, Xeelee explained the ritual, and I started having second thoughts again.
(Content warning: The following text, up until the end of the chapter, includes references to human urine and feces. You may choose to skip it: there’ll be a summary of what happened at the beginning of the next chapter, and theme won’t come up again for the rest of the story.)
There is no gentle way to say it so I’ll just do so: the transportation ritual that could move us into the Stinking Cave required each of us to excrete and then eat up our poo.
And with that, my agreement was gone and it took another week to convince me again.
(“And you actually did it?” asked Jouette.
“But it’s disgusting!” said Daina.
“Yes,” I acknowledged, “though you can get used it. The actual smell and taste aren’t that much of a problem. Darkmud smells worse, and some stuff that passes for food tastes worse. You just have to get over the revulsion of knowing that you’re eating shit.”
They shuddered and I took that moment to cast another generation spell. Four soft balls of packed shit appeared in the air in front of me and homed in on each of the girls’ heads. The poo exploded in Jouette’s, Daina’s and Alrae’s face, splattering on their cheeks and faces.
“Ewww!” They shouted in horror.
Luna’s Barrier protected her, but I saw her wince and stare at the skygirls in sympathy and commiseration. She was obviously regretting something. I wonder what she would have preferred — that I not fire the poo at all or that she’d had lowered the Barrier so that she could share in the humiliation with the skygirls.)
So yes, I did it. I, Ciel and Xeelee met up in a hospital bathroom. We decided to do it together. It was embarrassing, more so even than the kissslime competition. Funny in a way, I guess, too: three girls sitting on the floor, their butts exposed and pushing poo out into small bags.
Xeelee then drew a magic circle on the floor. When its power started to hum in the air, we all entered the circle and then we we were to ingest the poo. I didn’t want to but it was too late to back up. The spell was already in progress. I covered my nose with one hand, grabbed the poo with my other hand and pushed it in my mouth… and ate.
(The girls all shuddered.)
After my last gulp, Xeelee completed the spell and we soundlessly vanished from the hospital and appeared in deep shit.
Literally: the spell plopped us down into an enormous underground cavern filled knee-high with all manner of excrements. The cavern was so high we could not see the ceiling and so wide we could not see the other side. It was also completely dark except for an island on a boulder in the middle. That island was slightly raised from the ground and illuminated by torches. There were two lime-skinned girls dressed in tight-fitting full body swimsuits, the slimeborn guards. And in the middle of the island, our targets: Estell, Lily, Cantana and Espoir, all tightly bound and securely tied to torture-poles.
Xeelee had explained to us the layout of the Stinking Cave so we all knew what we had to do.
All three of us dropped down on our knees and crawled forwards.
The shit stuck to our clothes, and drops of pee fell down on us from above. I knew that in advance but it was still disgusting. Disgusting and incomprehensible. I looked up to see where they were coming from and right then another splash of pee struck in my face.
We advanced, without light, without sound, approaching the central island.
As we closed in on the island, the tentacles started to appear.
(“Tentacles?”)
Tentacle-bearing star monsters, yes. Xeelee had said that they spontaneously arise from the filth of the Stinking Cave. They are large slick octupus-like monsters. They’re more akin to plants than animals, though, and they’re rooted to the ground. But they were everywhere, hiding under the layers of poo.
When I encountered the first one, it wrapped one tentacle around my neck and pulled me down into the shit. Its second tentacle wrapped around my chest. The third and fourth tentacles wrapped my legs. Then they all constricted.
I couldn’t breathe or move and I felt my consciousness slipping.
Fortunately, Ciel was right behind me and struck the monster so hard that it withdrew from me completely.
But I could only make a few more steps until I happened upon another monster. This one had a different strategy. It puffed a cloud of smoke that confused me and slowed me down. Then it burned a hole in my clothes and its tentacles slithered within. They moved slowly, almost gently, wrapping themselves around my breasts and crotch.
And when they constricted, it was not pain that I felt but rather arousal. I felt a sticky liquid burst from the tentacles on my skin and I felt an exciting tingling wherever it spilt. It conquered me almost immediately. I was ready to drop into the poo and let myself be climaxed by the star monster, but again Ciel was here to strike the monster. And so we moved on.
But I must say that we were exhausted, hurt, stinking and ready to climax at the slightest touch when we reached the island. But we reached it undetected.
We nodded to each other and sprang into action as planned.
Xeelee jumped up on the island and shouted, “Sisters! Help me!”
Her bodysuit had completely broken down and her bright green skin shone despite the poo all over her body. The guards recognized one of their own.
“What are you doing here?” one of them said. “Are you hurt?”
“Yes!” bluffed Xeelee, “please come! Help!”
They both ran to her.
Now it was our time. I jumped up on the platform as well and quickly moved towards the torture poles. The Princesses were awake and noticed me immediately but had the good sense to stay silent. Cantana appeared the least hurt and the most alert so I came to here first and started untying her knots.
The guardians were already helping Xeelee on her feet. I saw Ciel creep up on them from behind.
“Xanielle,” said one of the guardians. “Something’s wrong.”
I looked at them and saw the guardian started to turn her head. As she did so, Ciel kicked her in the butt from behind and pushed her down from the island into the sea of shit. Xeelee sprang into action as well, but the other guardian was faster and jumped on her and pinned her on the ground. “Who are you?!”
I untied the last knot on Cantana’s handcuffs and got to work on her feet. But while I was doing that, she was already casting foodborn spells. A wheel of cupcakes appeared in front of her and speed towards the guardian and smacked on her hair and back. As soon as they did, new cupcakes started appearing in the air.
The guardian reversed her position with Xeelee so that she was on the bottom and Xeelee on top of her, so that any further cupcakes would fall on our friend. Then she spun her leg and struck with it into Xeelee’s defenseless crotch. The poor girl moaned and climaxed and, fortunately, fell off the guardian and onto the island floor. Now Cantana’s cupcakes fell down on the guardian’s face and blinded her. Ciel made use of that and pushed her into the shit with her colleague.
Then together we all generated as much mess as we could and fired it volley after volley on the two girls. They tried to get up and back on the island but they couldn’t get through our fire.
And then they ran out of time. Three tentacle star monsters grappled them and threw them down into the shit. They dissolved their clothing and wrapped around them.
When we heard the girls start to moan, we knew we had won.
Together, we liberated the rest of the prisoners.
“Well done, soldiers,” said Estell to us. I blushed, though I’m sure the Princess couldn’t see that under the layer of poo. “I’m really really happy you’ve come. And the fight: you are really good warriors.”
“You are a strong team,” said Espoir éternelle, “I dare not ask this of you, but you might be able to defeat the Dungeon of Eternal Restraint.”
“The Dungeon of what?” I said.
“If Espoir says that you might be able to do it, then you must,” said Estell.
“And even if I can’t command you, my Slimeborn friend,” she said to Xeelee, “it would be really nice of you to help, too.If you win in the Dungeon of Eternal Restraint, it could change everything. We would be in a lot of debt to you.”
I looked at Xeelee and Ciel and I saw that they had already accepted it in their hearts. And at that moment, I did as well. I’m not sure if it was the will to be with my friends or the thrill of victory or the desire to be anywhere but this shit-filled dump, but I nodded as well.
“So, would you happen to have a way out of here as well?” said Lily.
“We do,” said Xeelee.
I looked at the young waterborn princess. “But you’re not going to like it.”