Chapter 65: Penetrating the High Tower

As soon as the four adventurers turned towards the gothic tower that loomed heavily over the slave market turned orgy, they spied at least another dozen goblins come pouring out of the tower’s enormous and ornate double-doors. Unlike the goblins who had been the original flesh shoppers at the market, and who had been largely unarmed, this contingent appeared to be some sort of organized guard unit. Each goblin wore a matching uniform consisting of a bright red tabard emblazoned with a black sunburst design, underneath which they wore long hauberks of blackened chain mail. Each goblin guard also wore a light open-faced helm with a nosepiece, and carried a spear — all of which appeared matched in design.

One of the goblins came out in front of the group, his uniform differing from the others by virtue of a black tassel of some kind of animal hair sticking out of the top of his helm. Apparently the leader of this squadron of guards, he turned briefly to face his troops, and began shouting something in the greenskin language. Not wanting to miss out, Lexi quickly subvocally activated the game system’s subtitle feature so she could see whether whatever was being said was going to directly impact her team.

“Alright now boys,” the goblin captain said. “You all know what the high priestess told us, so watch out for magic users. Somehow, they managed to kill off the whole gang of merchants as well as some of ours, not to mention the fact that our lot has been magicked into being females. That said, our task is simple — kill every piece of meat that isn’t green!”

The goblin troops lifted their spears in unison, aping their commander’s gesture, lustily cheering in response to his orders.

“Heads up, gals!” Lexi said sharply, catching the attention of her three trusty followers. “We’ve got incoming goblins. These ones are armed, and on a mission to kill everything that isn’t a greenskin — which’ll include us if we don’t get a move on.” Nestled as they were within the crowd of copulating humans, elves, halflings and goblins, Lexi did not think that the freshly arrived guards had directly spotted them. However, there was certainly no time to waste.

“Guess that means I’m up,” Gretel said, cracking her knuckles dramatically. Reaching into one of her belt pouches, the mage withdrew a piece of long silvery thread, so fine that it was almost imperceptible. She handed the end to Lexi, who in turn passed it down the line until all four girls had the silver cord wrapped tightly around one hand.

“This way,” Gretel had explained when they formulated the plan. “We can all be invisible but can still stay grouped together tightly.”

“Yep,” Lexi had agreed, nodding. “The last thing we need is to get separated from each other while we’re fucking invisible.”

The tether distributed, one by one, the mage cast Invisibility charms on each of her three companions, and finished up with one on herself — rendering the entire team perfectly translucent.

Meanwhile, the arrival of the contingent of goblin guards had not gone unnoticed by the freed slaves. Men and women alike — human, elf, and halfling — disentangled their cocks and pussies from the largely prone and broken goblin girls whom they had been busy hatefucking into mindlessness. Grasping hold of whatever weapons or tools they could scavenge from the bodies of the dead greenskins or those clothes that they themselves had ripped off of the little green lolis, the legion of naked prisoners clashed furiously with the goblins.

This transition from a largely sexual battle into one of more conventional methods provided the perfect cover for the now invisible party of adventurers to sneak through the gothic tower’s enormous arched entryway — their presence already forgotten by the humanoids they had worked to free, and completely unnoticed by the goblin squad. Once inside, Lexi was once again strongly reminded of a towering gothic cathedral in many ways. The building’s ceiling soared high above the floor, rib-vaulted arches supported by towering columns of black marble on every side of the nave into which the exterior doors opened.

As their gazes wander upwards, lost in the crumbling intricacies of the arched ceiling’s ornamentation, the party became aware of the echoed sound of voices chanting coming from somewhere above.

At the head of the invisible caravan, Lexi pushed ahead, spotting a spiral stairwell beside one of the massive pillars. The goblin guards outside had mentioned something about a high priestess, so if the Starseed was here, Lexi’s experience with innumerable J-RPGs told her that there was a one hundred percent chance that she was its guardian. One after the other, each girl still grasping a fistful of Gretel’s silvery cord to keep them clumped tightly together while invisible, the four adventurers ascended up the narrow spiral staircase — the sounds of chanting growing louder and louder with each passing step.

Coming around to the top of the stair, the tight spiral corridor opened up into a long and wide hallway. At the end, there used to be a door. However, in the tower’s ruinous state, all that remained there now was a crumbling arched doorway. There was no doubt in Lexi’s mind that the chanting was coming directly from whatever room was on the other side of that arch.

Taking care to step as lightly as possible, the four adventurers continued forward, advancing towards the ruined arch. As they approached, Lexi, still leading the column, was the first to see two figures within. The room itself was an octagonal chamber currently devoid of any furniture, but ornamented with the same gothic stone flourishes as the large nave below. In the very center stood an ancient looking goblin woman, her green skin wrinkled beyond belief and looking to Lexi’s eye to be as thin as rice paper. She wore a hugely ornate tiara and black robes embroidered with a rich brocade on the front depicting some kind of sunburst design. Though in her head, Lexi had known that goblins — like any creatures — would age, there was something surreal about coming face to face with a little old loli.

Before her, knelt a much younger goblin girl, likely close to Lexi’s own age, her green skin smooth and unblemished, plump face looking serenely pretty with her eyes closed in prayer. Her long, almost elfin, ears bobbed up and down slowly as she chanted along with the elder goblin. The younger of the pair wore nothing nearly as ornate as her counterpart, but was rather clad in a simple black robe without any of the ornate adornments which marked the older goblin’s costume. The disparities in both age and dress appeared to clearly indicate some distinction in rank between the two women.

That old bitch has gotta be the high priestess, no fucking question there. Which probably makes the younger one her acolyte. Neither one looks much like a final boss, but I said the same thing about the last goblin priestess we tangled with, and that turned out to be a goddamn disaster.

The one thing which concerned Lexi was that whatever the two goblins were chanting, it was apparently untranslatable. Her system subtitles were still engaged, but the only thing the paladin observed scrolling across the bottom of her field of vision was the following message in large white letters:

[Untranslatable Magical Incantations]

Whatever consternation Lexi felt over this development was swept free from her mind as her eyes locked on a globing object that dangled from a black chain around the high priestess’ neck. Set into what looked like a frame of black iron, she wore a large blue gem, nearly the size and shape of a hen’s egg, which was struck through the center with a white star. It matched the description given to the party in Xoth’s temple exactly — leaving no doubt in Lexi’s mind that, at long last, the Starseed was within sight.

In her excitement over this realization, Lexi looked back to her team, each member dutifully lined up behind her holding the cord. A wave of pure horror, however, washed over her when she realized that she could see them. Somehow, Gretel’s invisibility spell had come undone. And, if Lexi could see everyone, it stood to reason that the goblins would be able to as well. The paladin whipped her head back around, hoping to high heaven that their eyes were still closed.

“Fuuuck!” she muttered angrily.

The sight that met the paladin struck fear into her heart, well and true. The ancient priestess’ face was a mask of the purest hatred that Lexi had ever seen. It was as if the black depths of her twisted soul were oozing out of the wretched creature’s eyes, seeping into Lexi’s pores and infecting her spirit with despair. She raised both arms up in the air, pointing them towards Lexi and her party, her hands making some sort of sign that looked a lot like the devil-horns sign Lexi would have expected to see flashed at a heavy metal concert. Her eyes still closed and hands clasped in prayer, the young acolyte dropped to her knees before the high priestess.

“Heads on a fucking swivel,” Lexi called out. “I don’t know how, but they can see us!”

Gretel’s eyes were bugging out as she stared at Lexi, her mind coming to the realization that she could see her friend, and the cascading series of problems which that necessarily entailed within the context of their present situation. “We’re so fucked,” the mage said. “I can feel this old hag’s power from here. Lexi…I think we need to get the fuck out of here right now!”

“No,” came a firm response from Samantha. “Do you not see what the priestess wears? I too can feel her power. But, it would be the height of dishonor to abandon our dear friend and leader’s quest when the goal is so close at hand.”

In that moment, Lexi could have ordered them all back. There was the briefest window just then, where a tactical retreat would have still been a viable option. However, in the arrogance of youth, the paladin decided to press ahead – her selfish desires to be rid of the curse outweighing the potential risks to her friends.

“Samantha’s right,” Lexi said. “After everything we’ve been through, there’s no way I can turn back now. Not when the Starseed is literally right there. I have to fucking try at the very least.”

“It’s j—” Gretel started, but whatever she was about to say was cut short as she, and the other three adventurers, all clapped their hands over their ears.

The acolyte let out a piercing wail, so loud and high that Lexi seriously wondered if she would have hearing damage. When she lifted her head to see what had prompted this, the paladin saw that, while still on her knees, the young acolyte was shaking and shivering so violently and fast that her entire body looked like a blur of black and green. Then, at once, the shaking stopped, and the acolyte dropped both hands to the ground. Blood began seeping from every orifice, pouring out of her mouth, ears, and eyes alike — pooling on the ground between her clutching hands.

“This can’t be good,” Lexi said.

“No fucking shit,” Gretel quipped angrily. “I knew we should’ve left.”

“Danica,” Samantha cut in, her level head prevailing. “If you can hit the high priestess, do it now. Something is coming, I can feel it, and I do not think we will have another opportunity to end this before the tide turns against us.”

Wordlessly, Danica nodded. Unslinging her bow and drawing an arrow in a single fluid motion, the elf raised her arm to let loose. But, at the last moment, the bow was knocked from her hands as a long fleshy tentacle burst forth from the acolyte’s wrist, lashing out at Danica to disarm the elf, her bow flying across the room.