Nuana's Crucible - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Charles:

Just as the man with the last token cums in Nuana's pussy we hear the roar beyond the crowd and turn around and hundreds of peasants with various farm implements and bows and knives and such are storming into the crowd "let Nuana go!" they scream "Nuana!" is repeated over and over again. I pull my sword and hurry to the high priest's side he hurries to pull the rod of banishment out and points it in her face and she vanishes, leaving the collar and chain and arch of suffering and its cuffs behind. "You will never get Nuana, she is banished and we can't bring her back to you! Now go home before Ka's holy paladins cut you all down." he turns to me "cut them down!" he then starts waddling over to his palankin.

I call upon Ka to give me strength and speed, but all I feel is total emptiness where his holy energy usually should be, I see the panic of the other priests and paladins as they try to use their power as well. "They are just farmers, we are paladins, cut them down!" I shout and wade into combat swinging my sword and I cut several down, then several arrows start hitting me, most of them just shatter, but then one hits a weak spot in my armour near my neck and stabs into my neck and my blood starts gushing out and I panic and try to draw upon Ka's powers to heal me, still no response, why has Ka forsaken me, another arrow hits me in the eye.

The High Priest of Ka:

I see my paladins and priests get cut down and Ka is not giving me his divine power to cast spells, so I turn to using the rod of banishment, pointing and shooting at farmer after farmer, but each time it takes longer before it shoots again a young farmer girl jumps into my palankin and starts stabbing me with two knives.

Emily:

I stab the ugly slug of a high priest repeatedly, he banished not only Nuana but Hans' and Lyssa's father Hans, and several of the other farmers, but we won here and I see the farmers storm towards the church and just to be sure I grab the rod he used to banish people and slam one of my knives into his eyes a few times to be sure, leaving one of them stuck in his empty eye socket as I join the others, running towards the church, I hate them so much for what they did, I saw how hurt she was and the thing Nuana was on is coated in her blood. "Nuana please be alright, please, and Hans too, please help him."

By the time I get to the church all the priests and paladins and guards are dead, the prisoners are freed and the nuns are on their knees begging for mercy. One of the farmers pulls off the veil from one of them and another exclaims "Sarah?" and runs over "my daughter Sarah, they said you were dead!" she starts crying tears of joy "they said you were dead papa!" we free the nuns and they tell of how they were told that if they did not serve the church their surviving families would be killed.

Ka:

I am surrounded by powerful divine magic from many other gods and goddesses and I hear one of the powerful spirits of the old woods speaking from it "you can't keep your followers in check, they captured Nuana and are harming her for things she did not do, we are cutting you away from them now, the few followers you still have."

"You can't do this to me!" I shout, but I know they can, they just did. It is also true that I have had very little control over them, but I have not really desired it, their way of doing things has given me plenty of worship energy, though it has been dwindling as of late it was still good.

All I hear in response is laughter and I turn to watch what they are up to, as that is the only thing I can, and I see them defiling Nuana, and then I see and feel the peasants attacking the priests and paladins, and although they take losses they are winning. The high priest uses the rod of banishment and she vanishes, I watch in horror as each of the remaining loyal followers are cut down and the distant laughter gets louder and then goes silent, and I feel the magic surrounding me fade as they do not need it anymore, I have no way to manifest control in the world anymore. I am a god without true worshippers, no paladins, no priests. I use what little power I have to try to secure my realm.

Nuana:

I slowly regain conciousness, my magic has healed my wounds, water is dripping down on me and I feel like a whole mountain is pressing down on my chest, I can't breathe in fully, the air is just barely breathable for me, burning my lungs a bit, and feeling stale, there must be some connection to the surface or some sort of underground vegetation somewhere though or the air would be completely unbreathable, I use my magic to adapt my lungs to the air, it is still unpleasant though. I fumble around in the confined space around me, it is almost completely dark, but there is some light and heat coming from a crack some distance away, I seem to be in a roughly horizontal crack in stone, very rough rock.

I feel and hear a rumble around me and I am squeezed tighter and the heat and glow grows stronger, as hot as dancing over coals or next to a large bonfire. I extend my senses as far as I can to try to feel a nearby tree or plant to jump to, but I can't feel any such, I feel around with my hands and feet to try to see if I can figure out a path away from this tight spot to somewhere less terrifying. I feel that there is some space in the direction of the light and heat, and start worming my way backwards towards it. I try to angle my head so I can see into the heat and light and it is painfully hot, and I can feel that if I stay this near the heat I will get burned by it, very reddish yellow light reflected many times and air that shimmers from the heat is what I can see as I look at the crack as I pass it, I luckily can't look straight into it though, am I in a volcano?

I continue shoving myself slowly past the crack of light and heat and along the very narrow crack deep underground that I am trapped in, or I assume deep underground since I can't sense any plants, and the stone is very old, powerful and untouched by tools ever. The crack is too narrow for me to turn around, several places I have to keep my head sideways and squeeze my breasts and the rest of my flesh hard against my ribcage and bones to get past, and the rough stone scratches me. I think I feel a wider space, beyond a narrower space, but this is crazy narrow, I am not sure I can get past this I can't have my arms next to my sides if I want to pass through this opening, slowly I work myself back and forth till my arms are above my head and I push with my legs to propel myself into the very narrow opening it scrapes against my arms and armpits and ribcage I whimper as my breasts are once again raked by the rough stone, I try to get my ribcage past this opening and in so doing I get myself stuck, I can't find a way to push myself back with my arms and my legs can't get into position to pull, I see only one way out of here and that is to continue forward so I do the only thing I can think of, I exhale all the air I can and push with my legs and slowly slide more into the passage, I can now see the wider chamber and I really want to get into it so I can feel slightly less cramped, I get stuck again, and try to find handholds and footholds to force myself the last bit of the way, my lungs burn and I try and fail to draw air into them, I am too squeezed, my vision starts to narrow and blur and I panic, I kick and shake all the parts of me I can and try to worm myself in any direction I can.

I arch my back and shove my butt tight against the ground and just then I find purchase for my feet on sharp stone outcroppings and shove with my fading strength and I feel the stone cut into me as I force myself through this narrow hole and then I fall into this larger chamber and gasp for air, slowly I pull the rest of me through and the chamber I find myself in is just wide enough for me to slowly rotate myself inside while being in a foetal position, the chamber is very wet, water dripping at a rather high speed through many small cracks in it and slowly out of it below me as well, I find myself half submerged in the water and it is icy cold compared to the heat of the air, this water tastes of stone and ice and I manage to slake my thirst with it and use some magic to heal all my cuts, I feel around this chamber I am in and there is an even more narrow exit above the water surface, I can't fit down it, it would cut my ears off just to stick my head in there. There is a larger opening under the water, but I really do not want to be under water and in confined spaces, this is already challenging my sanity as is, I get frozen in indecision, fear and it is then that the horror of the past few days events hit me and I start crying, not that anyone could tell from just looking at me, with the water flowing over me, drowning my tears, but I cry and I hear the pitiful echoes of my own crying and from exhaustion I pass out into sleep, while hugging my own legs tight to me.

Emily:

Reports are coming in, all the people cured by the church of Ka are now getting sick again with the red blight, and it is spreading much faster, I got an idea and I asked Hans and Lyssa and a few others that had gotten Nuana's help to go to our wells and bring water to those affected by the red blight, and I feel so very happy when I see it working and I tell them that this cure was made by Nuana and the spirits of the old woods and nature, and the stories Nuana told me about how to help them help us.

I head out into the woods with Lyssa to take some of the path finding amulets with us, hoping they can help show the way to where Nuana went. As we return from that trip we see shrines to Nuana, some very accurate some very crude, but people are thanking her and begging her to return to us, I ask them to help me with the amulets and they do seem to direct us somewhere, slowly along dirt roads until we reach the old blue mountains where the dwarves used to live, before Theodore V the dwarf bane invaded their halls with his knights, the paladins and clerics of Ka, and the mages calling themselves the guardians of purity and killed them all, now that I know how the church of Ka treat good people, I wonder if the stories about the dwarves were false, did they really raid our villages and steal women and children and rape the women and cook the children, or was that lies we were told to feel Theodore and the church of Ka and guardians of purity were doing a good thing?

We follow the directions the amulets show us and we end up next to a scary deep ravine and at the bottom the red glow of flowing magma can be seen, the air smells wrong and is hot even from this great distance, and the amulets point down from here and we can not see a way to go down "Nuana!" I scream down there and soon the others join me in screaming that.

I am really worried for her, it has been a week now, that she has been gone, she must be really hungry, I really hope she can get back to us, as I really can't see a way to her from here even with the amulets help.

Nuana:

I have been frozen in indecision, in the chamber of water, focusing my mind, meditating and holding myself in a trance to preserve my energy while maintaining the magic I have on my lungs already. The problem I have is that I only have enough energy for one more weak spell, any further magic I do after that will harm my own body, consuming my muscles and bones and such for its energy, so I can either start breathing water and head down the larger opening in the water, or I could shrink down so I can travel through the tiny passage above the water surface, I can't tell what of those options may lead out of here if any, maybe the way out is back the way I came and I just missed it since I could not look past my body in the narrow passage and the angles I could put my legs in might not have allowed me to feel the way out. I do not usually stay so frozen, paralysed with a decision, but I am genuinely terrified of dying down here, alone, away from all that I love.

I really dislike how my skin is loose now, as what little fat I had filling out my curves is almost gone, I see my ribs and muscles against my baggy skin, I really need food.

I do start noticing something weird, a feeling I have not quite felt before, it helps sustain me, it feels almost like love or lust or something like that, but it is arriving from another place, a weak trickle of energy, but that trickle is growing stronger, some parts of its energy feels very familiar, as if I have touched its source before, while other parts are unfamiliar, I soak it up though and it is almost enough to sustain me, but even if it could sustain me I do not want to spend the rest of my life here, it hurts to be so far away from any plants, not being able to feel the sun, moon or star light on my skin.

I am snapped out of my deep trance by a feeling of several people shouting my name, desiring me to come to them, because they love, no lust... no not that either, so weird... worship? Why would anyone worship me? That is the correct concept though. As the idea clicks into my mind I see them, their shrines to me, the rituals they perform, not quite the rituals I would like, but I can sense the energy from them better now, it has been building and a trickle that was more compatible with me has been flowing into me, the other energy is a bit too dark for me to feel comfortable drawing from it though, why would they sacrifice creatures for me and not eat them, stupid...

I sense Emily being the closest to me, though she is not quite worshipping me, but she wants me back, she is several miles above me though, if she had been a plant I could have teleported to her. I focus my mind and draw on the darker energy to form a message to her it hurts to use this energy, so much pain and death.

"Emily, bring living plants, tell worshippers to stop sacrificing to me and make love in my name instead, or must masturbate while thinking of me. Sacrifices hurt me." I send and I see her stand up and talk with those who are with her and they run away, I sink back into myself and hope that she got the message and understood it. I sink back into my trance.

The dark energy remains stagnant and slowly I feel a flow of life affirming magic from the love making and lust energy from the masturbation flowing in and drowning that darker death energy. It becomes enough to not only sustain me indefinitely but also to give me a slow trickle of building energy. I feel I can safely modify my lung spell to adapt to any conditions, including water breathing and I decide to slip down the underwater passage.

The water has worn the rocks smooth here, so it is easier to slip my way along, but there are some very tight spaces, I get stuck a few times, then I end up sliding along the water at crazy high speed slamming past bends and it feels like several giants are beating me up I slam my head into the tunnel a few times and then hard enough that I fall into total darkness.

Emily:

I told all the worshippers of Nuana what she told me and we are bringing potted plants and several of them are making love in her name or masturbating in her name, and I do that too, the journey is a bit longer with so many plants with us, I do not know why she wants plants, but she asked for that specifically so I will bring them. Also I convinced everyone that since she does not like sacrifices we need to bring plants that have roots still, not just cut flowers that some of the men wanted to bring, I think a few of them hope to woo her, I want to make love to her again too, but I want her back much more and I need to focus on that. Though I bring back to my memory when she was licking and kissing me down there when I masturbate before sleep. Also I watch the men masturbate and I love their faces as they cum and also some of their cocks I almost want to play with, but I am not supposed to do that. We reach where we left the amulets and they seem to have moved a bit, we take them with us to find the new spot they point at and we find a wall that has a hollow sound to it and after some searching we figure out that one has to caress the sparkling vein of minerals on it for it to slide out of the way we follow the narrow tunnel down, it seems to go on forever, and we are dragging the plants in their pots with us, we reach a balcony cut into the ravine, it looks like a workshop, it is uncomfortably hot and we can see the flow of magma through some sort of glass tube feeding into the forge and water pouring in past a gilded grate to cool the machinery. The amulets point at the grate, so we start prying it off with the tools we find. With a loud clang it falls to the floor and the natural smooth tunnel it was blocking is laid bare "Nuana?!" I shout into it and I hear my voice echoing weakly from deep inside the tunnel.

Nuana:

"Nuana?!" I hear Emily cry and slowly I open my eyes, ow everything hurts, my right arm is broken and my right knee is turned the wrong way, I whimper in intense pain and nearly crush my teeth against each other, my head feels badly hurt as well and my vision is blurry. I am half submerged in an overflowing pool of water. I hear Emily and several others crying out "Nuana!" from one of the places the water is flowing to.

"I... I am here" I say weakly and feel like throwing up, then I see two strong men and Emily emerge from the opening and despite the insane pain I laugh in relief and I pass out, I lay my life at their hands and focus all my energy inward to heal myself, if they wanted to they could easily kill me, I am utterly helpless, but I know they will not.

When I come to I am laying in a comfortable bed, the room is filled with potted plants, the sun is shining in from the window and I can smell some sort of spicy food cooking, it smells delicious and I toss the sheet away from my body and I can see that someone has put my arm and leg in bandages I undo those since I can tell I am already healed, and then I slip out of the bed and walk out into the sun and I see the whole market square below with several shrines to me and people look up at me and I hear them chant my name "Nuana! Nuana! Nuana!"

I am really not sure about this whole being elevated to a goddess thing, and I spot the arch of suffering and my eyes flash with violet energy and twin bolts of energy flash out of them and impact the arch disintegrating it into small violet glowing motes of ashes. The chanting stops and everyone stares up at me in fear and I look into each of their eyes in turn and I feel the intense built up energy from their worshipping, I channel all of it and I say "I bless all of you with fertility, prosperity and love." and I blast out all that gathered energy in a wave of healing, rejuvenating and inspiring fertility magic. Filling everyone with hope as well, then I feel woozy as have not eaten anything "now go live your lives, be happy!" I say and walk back inside and I hear cheers and my name chanted several times.

Emily enters the room with a large bowl of stew, perhaps not the most pretty thing ever, but right now it smells like just what I need, meat, spices, herbs, eggs and vegetables in a colourful very thick stew. I shine my happiness up at Emily and say "thank you" and I start to devour the food with not another word, despite it being too hot to comfortably eat it I soon finish the first bowl and Emily keeps bowls coming till I am finally sated.

To Be Continued?