Chapter 17: rise and shine

Days passed as Caelun's body adapted to a foreign power it was never meant for, schemes and intrigue spreading through both mortal and divine with the past day's events, all the while the laws of the world shifted and altered slightly around this new existence, once only a guest hovering around the natural order now firmly and undeniably planted into it, warping the laws of the universe around it like space around a planet, the gravity of his existence bending laws to allow for his existence to even be a possibility. all the while, he slept...

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The world returned slowly- like a fire smoldering back to life after a storm.

Caelun's eyes opened to stillness, the dim chamber bathed in the soft glow of filtered lantern light. For a moment, he didn't move. He felt it before he could even truly think:, something was different.

His breathing was deeper, easier. His limbs heavier, but not with fatigue- with power, a new ethereal weight born by his form. The world around him felt as though it moved slower, as if for him, time had slowed by a small fraction, not truly though, but to his senses it might as well have. He could hear the lantern flame flicker. He could feel the minute pull of the world on his dense frame. The gentle beat of a heart- not his- close.

A pulse of awareness swept through his body.

Sharper. Stronger. Faster.

Everything.

He shifted slightly- and that's when he knew. There was something… on his back. Or rather, in it. A shape, carved or seared into his flesh. A silhouette he didn't need to see to recognize. It was familiar in a way that made his stomach turn- not in fear, but in weight. The shape of his past. Of power. Of everything he'd left behind. Of the final goal of all those spurned by the grace of gold...

But before his thoughts could spiral, he felt it.

A soft warmth. Pressed against him.

A small gasp escaped him as he looked down.

Carmine.

Tucked into his chest, her tall, powerful, voluptuous, body seeming small next to his monstrous frame. Her face was mere inches from his own, her breath soft against his collarbone, her palm resting over his heart as if to hold it still.

Caelun jolted.

His eyes went wide. Heat surged through him, not from pain or exertion- but from the sudden closeness, the contact, the intimacy.

A blush- dark as coal, deep with his blood- rushed across his normally ashen face, a color like burnt wood now glowing faintly with his pitch-black-cursed lifeblood rising to the surface.

Carmine stirred from his movement, her amber eyes drearily blinking open. She looked up at him with gentle confusion, then… concern.

"Hey… you awake?" she whispered.

She cupped his face with both hands- his whole face, her fingers small against his blunted yet handsome features- ran softly and slowly along his strong jaw, a slow and gentle caress, and stared deeply into his eyes. her shining amethyst eyes and beautifully gentle face looking to him in genuine concern, her lush lips in a slight pout which sent his mind into a haze. 

"Are you okay?"

Her touch was steady, grounding- but it only made his heart pound louder in his chest. The blood in his veins surged downward. His towering form tensed as he realized with horror and disbelief that his body was 'responding'. He couldn't stop it.

Arousal surged through him like a thunderclap, uncontrolled and utterly betraying. His stature, as always, made such things impossible to hide.

Carmine felt it.

She blinked, once, then slowly turned bright red- her olive skin deepening into a flustered bronze. The realization washed over her face as her eyes widened just slightly- before she did something that shocked them both.

She leaned up and kissed him.

A soft, swift peck on his lips.

Then she recoiled slightly, blushing harder than ever, muttering something like, "S-sorry, I just… I thought…"

Before she could finish, Caelun surged forward and kissed her back- fully, deeply. one gargantuan hand cupped the back of her head, like a carpenter holding an egg, thick callused hands wrapped gently round her long flowing crimson hair, not enough to hold her there despite the difference in stature, just a gentle yet possessive, protective caress, the other massive forearm drew in her waist gently, afraid to crush, but yearning.

She gasped into him, then melted against him, her arms sliding around his shoulders as she returned the kiss just as deeply. Their breathing became ragged, heat rising between them like an unseen fire. Her strong hands ran over his back- thick with musculature which could bear a siege that would shatter most bastions- she felt the carved shape there and shivered.

After half a minute, they pulled back for breath, their foreheads resting together.

"I… y-you-" she started.

And then…

"Well, well~" a familiar voice crooned, sultry and sweet with the smugness of a cat watching two mice trip over each other.

"Looks like the new recruit's already breaking in the bed, mind if I join in the fun~?" Ishtar teased from the doorway, her violet eyes gleaming.

Carmine whimpered, a sound Caelun didn't know could come from her, as she immediately curled deeper into his chest, the entirety of her body blushing as though heat had overtaken her.

Caelun's face didn't grow more shy- but darker, flustered for multiple different reasons which may or may not have to do with the totem pole in his pants. He clicked his tongue and muttered, "Tch… figures you'd show up now."

He looked up at the goddess, eyes narrowing with mild irritation.

"well no shit its me- you passed out in my temple, who did you expect? Aphrodite? I'm by fore more enticing than that imp~" she flaunts with a swing in her posture accentuated by the shaking of he wide, thick, hips.

...

"…What the hell happened to me?"

Ishtar smiles, struts behind the pair as her gaze shifted toward his back- toward the shape she had seen form on his skin, the one that still burned in her mind like an unending brand. It's strange esoteric form, the lower half glowing in a flaking gold which tapered off in a softer sicker yellow as it traveled up the rune eventually vanishing at the halfway point to the top

"That's the question of the hour, my warrior," she said, striding closer with the gait of a predator.

Caelun's mind was still buzzing- not just from the kiss, or the woman in his arms, or the goddess before him.

But from the weight on his back.

From the rune that should not be here.

From the feeling that the world had just changed- invisible mechanisms like clock work which held together the world began to shift and churn like never before- and that it had started with him.