“I’m bored. Why am I bored? Why is your sex ritual boring?”

“Be quiet,” Aila snapped as she continued to paint lines on the floor that radiated out from Kerr’s body. “If you move and throw me off, I’m going to throw you off of the airship.”

“I might enjoy that,” Kerr grumbled as she sighed heavily. “Sounds more exciting than literally just lying here for a fucking hour.”

“Look, I’m sorry this isn’t as thrilling as you hoped it would be,” the mage said in an aggrieved tone. “But this is what I need to do to get the ritual to work, so stop complaining and just deal with it already.”

Kerr was silent for all of ten seconds before heaving another sigh.

“At least you could let me help with the fun stuff! Jadis could use my mouth while I’m lying here, I can—”

“No.”

“Guastafeste…”

Dys did her best not to laugh as she stood quietly nearby, watching the ritual proceed. She felt sorry for Kerr, as she had no doubt that her current part of the proceedings wasn’t the enjoyable bout of lewd fun that the therion thought it would be, but there wasn’t anything she could do. Aila had designed the ritual the best she could, though from what Jadis understood, the exact actions and details were not all her idea but rather fell into place as she focused on the effect she was looking for. The process seemed to be a mix of Aila’s will and the system guiding her, which was an interesting concept. It was almost like Sorcha’s wand crafting, though there was a little more direction.

Regardless, Aila’s first custom greater ritual had specific parts for everyone involved and unfortunately for Kerr, her part at the moment wasn’t particularly sexy.

“I’m going to need another refill,” Aila called out from where she was kneeling on the cabin floor.

“Should have another for you in just a minute,” Dys replied with a smirk. “I’m just about there.”

“I know, I can hear it,” Kerr groaned in frustration. “I can hear everything you’re doing you bitch. Fuck, you better be ready to pound me raw when this is done.”

“I agree with Kerr,” Eir said with a smile from where she lay nearby. “I will need a great deal of attention from you tonight. I had thought I was too tired to want more than to cuddle, but after hearing you… engaging with yourself for so long, I find myself reenergized.”

“See? This ritual is making our saint frustrated and horny! It’s supposed to make her all gooey and satisfied. You’re doing this wrong.”

“Keep your head down,” Aila pushed Kerr’s forehead, forcing her to lay back. “I swear, I should have asked for Sabina’s help. She would have talked less.”

“These two really do bicker at every opportunity, don’t they?” Maeve faked a whisper as she turned her head towards Thea. “It’s like they’re an old married couple.”

“Mm,” Thea hummed around a suppressed smile. “In a, ah, way, they are, through Jadis.”

“Hear that, Blue?” Kerr smirked at Aila. “We’re married! Since you’re always using that fat cock of yours on me, you’re going to have to give me a litter of pups as soon as—”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Aila slapped her hand over Kerr’s mouth, silencing her even as a blush crept over her freckled face. “One more word, and I’m going to ask Noct to gag you.”

While Kerr waggled her eyebrows suggestively, once the mage pulled her hand away, she kept her silence. At least for a little while.

For the greater ritual, Aila had asked Sabina to clear out the seats and tables that filled the middle of the Leviathan’s cabin to give her an open space. Technically, the ritual could have been performed on the ground, but then Tiernan would have had to have created an elevated space for them to occupy, since the spell needed a certain level of height to work properly. Aila had also wanted privacy from any prying ears and eyes, so the airship made the most sense.

Four participants, in this case Eir, Kerr, Thea, and Maeve, had been arranged on the floor of the airship, each one with their head pointed towards one of the four cardinal directions. They were all nude, which was one of the nice things of the ritual so far in Jadis’ opinion, as she quite enjoyed the view of her unclothed lovers. They were also all required to lay completely still, with her hands held in careful positions at their sides. Otherwise, the four didn’t have to do anything. All of the actual work was being done by Aila.

Well, Jadis wasn’t exactly idle, either.

“Here you go,” Syd breathed out heavily as she walked out of the back area of the airship cabin. “Fresh refill.”

In her hands was a large brass bowl, filled nearly to the brim with a mix of her seed and a watery concoction that contained some alchemical reagents that Aila had borrowed from both Sorcha and Ammy. The mixture had a pungent smell, a mix of the sweetness of Nephilim and some strong herb. As Syd walked over, her wet shaft slapped lewdly between her thighs, the tip dripping on the floor.

“Ah, stop there,” Aila held up her hand to halt Syd’s steps. “No contamination.”

She pointed at Syd’s dripping shaft and Syd laughed, keeping well outside of the circle.

“Sorry, should have wiped myself off before coming out here.”

Syd carefully passed Aila the bowl, making sure that nothing spilled on or within the esoteric runes that the mage had painstakingly painted onto the floor. They reminded Jadis of the runes that Eir had put on the temple floor for her Lustful Restorative Sacrament, though only vaguely. The shapes were different, both on the small and the large scale. Still, it seemed that making big ritual circles was a common theme for wide-ranging spells.

“We should need just one more,” Aila said as she passed the empty bowl she had just finished with to Syd in exchange for the full one. “Then we can do the activation.”

“Already on it,” Syd winked, motioning to the empty space where Dys had once stood.

“Fucking lucky,” Kerr grumbled under her breath, though she pressed her lips firmly together when Aila gave her a look.

“Make sure you review those symbols,” Aila advised absently as she turned back to finishing the runes that radiated out from Kerr’s right hip. “They have to be exact. Any drawn the wrong way won’t work.”

“No problem,” Syd said as she picked up the page that lay on one of the relocated tables. “These aren’t too hard. I don’t have much artistic talent, but I’m confident I can handle these squiggles.”

“I think you are wonderfully artistic,” Eir giggled from her spot on the floor. “Just in a far more physical way than most artists.”

“Mm, good point,” Syd murmured in a low and throaty voice as she eyed Eir’s nude form. “And what lovely canvases I am blessed to work with.”

While Aila finished the last of the symbols that needed to be painted around the four supine women, Syd half-studied the symbols on the page, half wandered around the cabin. She really was confident that she would be able to paint the six different styles of circle with strange marks in the middle. She had practiced several times already, and the designs were not complicated. Each one was meant to represent a different form of Aila’s arcanist spells, and while the connection between symbol and spell seemed random to her, she had memorized what each one was quickly enough.

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Circling to the front of the airship, Syd looked through the window in the cockpit door to check on the two pilots. Sorcha and Meli were inside, sitting at the controls and quietly conversing with each other. Syd couldn’t hear what they were discussing, but they seemed engrossed in their conversation, so she assumed it probably had something to do with plants, herbs, and similar topics. There wasn’t much for them to do, since the Leviathan was anchored to the ground by several long guidelines that prevented it from drifting too far, but they were still watching the controls, just in case. Speaking of precautions, as she watched the two chat, Syd saw Severina pass by the front of the airship, her armor shining in the camp light. There had not been any aerial Demon attacks thus far, but no one discounted the possibility, so Sev and Noct were both patrolling around the airship, while other Seraphim ranged further out.

Having satisfied her desire to check up on the two pilots, Syd quietly left them to their talk, not wanting to interrupt them or distract herself from her own purpose. Especially not when Aila looked like she was just about ready for the next part of the ritual.

“Jadis, are you do—oh, you are done,” Aila said, looking up from her rune work to see Jay and Dys walking up from the back of the cabin. “Good timing.”

“I try,” Jay said, her voice rough from recent harsh treatment. Wiping a bit of spittle and other fluids from her chin, she nodded towards the bowl that Dys carried. “Is this going to be enough?”

“With what I have here, yes,” Aila said as she indicated the quarter-filled bowl she had from Syd’s efforts. “Take a brush and let’s begin. Make sure you paint the symbols clearly. Get them as close to each other as you can, but don’t let them touch or those two won’t work. We need to fit as many on as possible.”

Jadis acted as Aila spoke, taking a small, fine-tipped brush for each of her selves. Stepping inside of the circle, careful not to touch any of the lines or runes that Aila had drawn on the floor, she divided her bodies up so that one took each of the three available women. Aila was already starting on Kerr, a circumstance that the therion was already quietly teasing the mage about, so Jadis was left with the others. Jay set to work on Eir, Dys on Thea, and Syd on Maeve. Sharing the bowl of thick Nephilim seed, she began to paint.

“Oh my,” Eir breathed out, her toes twitching and her breath hitching in her chest as Jay carefully drew a tiny symbol on the sole of the elf’s foot. “I did not realize this would tickle so much!”

“Sorry,” Jay grinned as she did her best not to purposefully tease her beautiful saint. “I’ll try to be quick.”

“Though I don’t know how quick I can be,” Dys mumbled as she painted on Thea’s foot. “I don’t want to make any mistakes.”

“I hate to give him credit, but thank D I can turn my sense of touch off,” Maeve said as she calmly let Syd draw tiny circles on her instep. “Makes this a lot easier.”

“You—you can do that?” Thea asked, her voice showing some strain as she tried not to giggle.

“Well, mostly,” the Fetch said as she lightly shrugged her shoulders. “I can still feel it, can’t turn my senses completely off. But it doesn’t tickle or feel good. Just sort of a pressure.”

“That’s hardly fair,” Syd raised an eyebrow at Maeve. “Kerr, Eir, and Thea have to struggle to not laugh while you get to breeze on through this without a problem?”

“Hey, sucks to be made of meat,” the orange woman stuck her tongue out at Syd. “Being made of jelly has to come with some advantages.”

Once Jadis got into a rhythm, the painting went smooth and quick and she soon had the majority of the symbols drawn. Every exposed part of her lovers was painted with the tiny circles, covering them in shining, slowly drying seed. Jadis was careful to count out the exact number of each symbol that Aila had told her to draw, and she was pleased to find that by the time she had reached her lovers’ faces, she had more room than Aila had planned for.

“What do you want me to do with the extra space?” Jay asked as she carefully checked over Eir’s breasts, making sure she hadn’t missed any places a few more circles could fit on the underboob area. “I have room left.”

“Just put as many extra on as you can in equal amounts,” Aila instructed, still working on painting Kerr’s bosom. “Just don’t put any of the shield symbols on their faces. Those should only be by their feet.”

“Got it,” the three of Jadis responded as they resumed their careful brushwork.

Soon enough, all of the circles were painted, including the surplus, and both Aila and Jadis stood in the center of the ritual, looking over their handiwork.

“Very nice,” Aila commended, her tone pleased. “You kept your symbols small and accurate.”

“Like I said, I try,” Syd smiled. “Now that we’re done with that part, what’s next?”

“Yeah, what’s next?” Kerr echoed, a mixture of tension and boredom in her voice. “Please tell me there’s something fun coming next, because I am so antsy right now.”

“Here,” Aila swiped her finger across the bottom of the bowl Dys held, coating her finger in a bit of the lewd mixture. “Open, but do not swallow.”

Obligingly, Jadis let Aila put a little of the sweet mix in each of her mouths before watching the redhead take a dollop for herself. With the last bit on her finger, Aila motioned for Jadis to face her three selves towards the painted women.

“Kiss. And when the glowing starts, get out of the way.”

Doing as instructed, Jadis carefully leaned over her lovers and gave each a long, deep kiss. The positioning was a bit awkward, since she had to be careful not to step on any of the floor runes while also not letting a certain part of her that liked to dangle smear any of the circles that had been drawn on their skin, but Jadis enjoyed the moment of gentle tonguing with her lovers. At some point, she lost track of what she was doing and leaned into the kisses, closing her eyes and moaning in concert with Aila, Eir, Kerr, Thea, and Maeve. But eventually a soft light brushed against her shut eyelids and Jadis remembered what Aila had said. Pulling away, she opened her eyes to see that the symbols that had been drawn all over her lovers’ skin had begun to glow a pure white light.

“Remember, don’t move!” Aila said breathlessly as she broke her kiss with Kerr.

Jadis moved out of the circle at the same time as Aila and together they watched as the magic light grew in brightness. Soon, the whole cabin was lit up like a beacon, and yet Jadis felt no discomfort. She could see without squinting, the light not bothering her eyes, which was how she was able to see the symbols drawn on both flesh and the floor float up into the air to form a thin latticework that hovered over them all.

With a sound like deep bell ringing, the runic latticework suddenly spread out, rapidly expanding and passing through the walls of the airship. In moments, the magic light was gone from the Leviathan’s interior. Jadis quickly looked outside, her Jay self throwing open one of the cabin doors to step out onto the balcony so she could get a better view. The runes continued to spread out across the sky, glowing brightly like a full moon on a cloudless night. In seconds, the latticework had expanded to the point where the land surrounding the army camp for half a mile was covered, while the space inside of the camp was left untouched. With one final pulse of white light, the runes fell from the sky, painting the landscape before fading completely from view. In the next moment, it was like the massive spell array had never existed at all.

“Is that it?”

“Is that it?” Aila repeated Kerr’s question. “I just cast a ritual that put literally thousands of my force traps around the camp, as well as my shields around the perimeter of our walls. Do you have any idea how much time and magic that would have taken without this ritual?”

“Yeah, yeah, super impressive,” Kerr waved her hand. “But where was the sex!? The climax!? Fuck, there wasn’t even any humping! Come one, Blue, I’m dying over here!”

“I am never using you for any ritual ever again,” Aila said sourly as she crossed her arms over her bare chest.

“Well, hold on, let’s not be hasty…”

Jay mostly ignored the evolving conversation inside of the airship as she gazed out over the dark landscape. Even though the spell had just been cast, she could already see a few flashes of ghostly light bursting along the edges of the spell radius. Stray Demons who were prowling the perimeter were setting off Aila’s traps, no doubt being killed by her spikes and lances. If any got close enough to the wall to be within easy arrow range, they would find themselves bound by Aila’s chain traps, and if they somehow pressed past those defenses, they would find their progress arrested by the arcane shields that the ritual had created. It wasn’t a perfect defense, but Jadis heartily agreed with Aila. Her ritual was amazing.

“I take it that the ritual was a success?” Severina asked as she softly landed on the deck next to Jay.

“Yup,” Jay grinned at the Seraphim. “Any Demons that try a night assault are going to be in for a nasty surprise.”

“Very good,” Sev said, her cheeks flushing as her eyes inadvertently glanced across Jay’s uncovered form. “Perhaps you should put some clothes on, and then we can let the generals and the Hero know about successful ritual?”

“How about instead of that,” Jay reached out an arm and drew Severina close against, not minding the cold of her armor against her bare skin, “you step out of your gear and join us for some quality time inside of the Leviathan?”

“Ah,” Severina said, her blue eyes looking past Jay to see what was happening inside of the airship. “I take it the ritual was… exotic.”

“Not enough for some tastes,” Jay laughed as she ran her fingers through the metallic feathers of Sev’s one dark wing. “That’s why we need to satisfy certain urges, if you catch my drift.”

“Mm,” Severina gave Jay a look before a smile spread across her face. “Well, we do need to keep our bond active, don’t we?”

“Attagirl!”

“What?”

“Never mind and just kiss me.”