Venus Online (Volume 1): LitRPG Sci-Fi Harem Read online

  She kissed the top of his head, his forehead, and made her way down to kiss his lips. More of her alien chant poured from her lips until she spoke English again.

  "The Ritual of Bonding is complete," she whispered. "I am yours. Henceforth, you are no longer Byron Jones. You are my Master."

  He smiled as he looked up at the ceiling. "I could get used to that."

  Text blinked above his head.

  CHETAARA IS NOW A MEMBER OF YOUR PARTY

  Chapter 9

  GENERAL DETH never knew what he would see when he walked into what Lady Necralia called her playroom, and this time was no exception. The screams could be heard long before he approached the door and the two Death Guard stepped aside to allow him to pass.

  One of Lady Necralia's slaves cowered against the wall, naked and vainly struggling against her chains in an attempt to get away from her master's whip. The bloody lines running down her back, limbs, and breasts showed the futility of her efforts.

  Lady Necralia herself stood in front of her slave, naked with blood dripping down her own breasts. She wielded a hooked whip with obvious pleasure as she lashed it across the slave's body.

  Deth felt somewhat disappointed at the scene before him. He had hoped she would have a more interesting torment for him to see.

  Lady Necralia paused to look at Deth. "I assume you have important news. You know interfering with my hobbies could put you in my slave's place in her stead."

  Deth glanced at the sobbing nude woman. Having been on the receiving end of the lady's agonies, he knew this was no idle threat. "Of course, your majesty. My apologies. But I thought you should know this at once.

  Necralia sighed. "Very well."

  She tapped a button on her bracelet. The chains fell away from the slave who stood frozen for a moment, as if unable to grasp the concept of freedom.

  Necralia reached out a hand to stroke the slave's chin. "You have pleased me well and earned your freedom. Go and be at peace."

  Tears flowed down the slave's face as she dropped to her knees and bowed. "Th-thank you, your majesty."

  The slave stumbled to her feet and began to limp out of the playroom.

  Necralia drew a sword from its place on the wall and hurled it at the slave. The blade punched through the woman's skull.

  As the slave collapsed, Necralia sighed. "There, now, what is the news, General Deth?"

  Necralia walked barefoot over to a bathtub against the wall as Deth said, "My lord, we have news on the lost shipment of slaves."

  Necralia sank into the bubbling waters with a sigh. "Ah, has the delivery been completed?"

  "No, your highness. In fact, the freighter has been lost. And the squadron destroyed."

  Necralia fixed her cold white eyes on Deth. She didn't move, leaving him to cower in her gaze until she whispered, "How?"

  Deth looked down at his tablet to avoid her glare. "I-It makes no sense, my lady. The flight recorders show a single ship destroyed all three Death Wing fighters with level three weapons. I'm assuming there's an error in the recording, but we have yet to find it."

  Necralia settled back and her breasts bobbed gently in the waters. "A level three."

  "Yes, your grace. Our initial analysis has identified the ship as one recently registered, the Icarus. The owner on the recordings is named Byron Jones. But I'm certain there must be someone else working with him, because the Icarus was a class-five frigate. Again, no match for our pilots. There must be more to it."

  "Or-" Necralia held up a clawed finger. "The one we were warned about has come."

  Deth couldn't hold back a laugh of scorn. "My lady, the story of the Outsider is a fairy tale. Surely--"

  She thrust her finger at him. "You will find this Byron Jones. You will take a battleship and you will capture him and you will bring him to me."

  "A battleship? Surely that's a bit much for--"

  She settled back in the steaming waters. "You have your orders. I want you to carry this out for me personally, general. And if you fail, I will have you chained to that wall and I will peel the flesh from your bones, and bathe in your blood."

  Deth bowed to hide his shudder, knowing she never made idle threats. "I will not fail you, your highness."

  He hurried out of the room, his mind reeling. The idea of sending an entire battleship with a thousand soldiers and a hundred fighters to track down one man for a single lost shipment of slaves seemed like madness. Yet there was no doubt in his mind that Lady Necralia was mad, and he would rather see her thirst for blood satiated on slaves and this Byron Jones than on himself.

  *

  When the doors closed behind General Deth, Lady Necralia settled back in her bath. Her fingers slipped down to play with her nipples as she pondered the situation.

  Just as the Orb had predicted, a low-level player had defeated her. It was a small victory. She had a vast network of billions of slaves spanning a hundred worlds, and one lost shipment was almost infinitesimal but the symbolism was unbearable.

  Of course, she faced losses all the time. As one of the most powerful enemies in the Galaxy, every so-called hero wanted to fight against her empire. She could handle a level fifty foiling her plans, even a level ten. But a three? It was impossible. If news of the loss got out, it would weaken her reputation. There could be only one explanation.

  Her hands moved down her belly and began to rub between her thighs as she called out, "Bring me the Orb."

  The lights dimmed. A low rumble shook the walls and floor, causing the water in her bath to ripple. A light flickered in the center of the room that grew until it formed a glowing white ball in the middle of her playroom.

  The Orb spoke with a deep voice. "Why do you disturb me, Lady Necralia?"

  Under the water, her fingers toyed with her pussy lips as she called out, "It seems your prediction was correct. One has appeared who is far stronger than he should be."

  "Of course I was correct," the Orb rumbled. "I know everything about the game. I know the future. Is it Byron Jones?"

  Her body froze a moment before she could speak again. "Yes. How did--"

  The Orb growled. "It's happening as I have seen it. But we will stop it this time. You will kill this Byron Jones. You will not fail."

  Necralia's fingers quickened on her clit. "Yes, Master. I will give him such pain that the gods themselves will pity him."

  The Orb disappeared in a flash.

  As Lady Necralia thought of Byron Jones' blood dripping from her naked body, she cried out in orgasm.

  Chapter 10

  BYRON LOOKED down at the beautiful woman lying next to him on the bed. His fingers stroked the top of her head, careful to move around the two pointed ears. When he traced down her neck, he couldn't help rubbing along the stripes running down her back, and further to the small of her back. Naked, he admired her curvy ass with a feline tail flicking above it.

  She looked up at him with almond-shaped green eyes and smiled. "That was amazing, Master. Since I was a little girl, I have looked forward to the Ritual of Bonding to form a union with my master who would lead me forever. It was so much more pleasurable than I ever hoped for."

  He frowned. "I'm sorry, I'm not really familiar with the ritual of bonding. What is that?"

  Her eyebrows knitted together. "What we just did, Master."

  "I know, but I mean, what does it mean? What's it for?"

  Her eyes brightened and she began gesturing with her hands. "The Ritual of Bonding is an ancient tradition among Nikora males and females. When the bonding is performed, it means we are linked to another, body and soul. A bonded Nikora will do all that his or her master wishes, including giving up life itself. We believe that being bonded is our path to the Great Temple, what you would call the afterlife. It is a great honor to be bonded to another, and we all strive to find one we can be so connected to. However, it's rare to find someone so worthy."

  He felt a little chill at the way she described it. "It, uh, sounds like married."

 
; She giggled. "No. We have marriage. This is different."

  He exhaled with relief. It wasn't that he didn't want to be married someday, but didn't want to marry Chetaara without knowing more about her. He also worried it would make things complicated with Scarlett. He wasn't sure if Chetaara would be upset, knowing what had happened between him and his robot assistant. If she found out he had slept with Scarlett, would the cat-woman rip his throat out?

  Wow, he thought, things had changed. Before, I couldn't get one girlfriend. Now I'm trying to juggle two.

  Chetaara continued, "Bonding is far more intimate and powerful, and cannot be broken. There is no separating two who are bonded except death. The bonding also does not always have a romantic or sexual component after the ritual is performed."

  "Uh, but the ritual does involve sex?"

  She gave him a puzzled smile. "Of course. We Nikora are more enlightened than other races regarding sexual activity. For us, sex is a part of life like eating or drinking."

  She traced one of her claws in circles on his chest. "Of course, sex can be more pleasurable with one we have feelings for. And I do have feelings for you, Master."

  He smiled and kissed her. "I have feelings for you, too."

  She's not real, he told himself.

  Shut up and enjoy it, he told himself.

  "Tell me about yourself, Master?"

  He looked away, hesitant. Not only did he not want to spoil the fantasy in the game, but he wasn't sure she would understand it. Chetaara and other NPCs seemed to be unaware and ignorant they were in a game.

  "Uh, there's not much to tell. On my world, I worked in a call center."

  She frowned. "What is a call center?"

  "It's a, uh, place where people communicate to a lot of other people. In my case, I worked tech support for a phone company."

  Her frown deepened. "Phone company?"

  He gave up. He wasn't sure this was going to work. "Never mind. Chetaara, I want to ask you something. Does the name Venus Online mean anything to you?"

  "Venus Online? No, I am afraid it does not."

  "If I told you this was all a game, that this world wasn't real, what would you say?"

  Chetaara lowered her eyes. "I would say that would be a very strange thing to say and I don't wish to pursue it. Our faith teaches such questions are blasphemy to the Goddess."

  He gave up. It seemed like Scarlett was right, and the non-player characters had some sort of system or block to keep them from knowing about their fictional world. "I'm sorry, I won't talk about it again. Tell me more about yourself."

  "Well, on my world, I was a high priestess for the Goddess P'rrshala. I looked forward to bringing the goddess to the rest of the Galaxy." Her smile vanished, replaced by cold anger. "The blasphemous armies of Lady Necralia entered our very temple to drag us into their slave ships, even as we performed a blessing of peace for the universe. They killed my father when he tried to stop them. Now my goal will be to punish them for their godless ways."

  "If that's what you want, that's what we'll do."

  After they savored the afterglow for a few more minutes, Byron and Chetaara got dressed again. They kissed for a little longer before the two of them left the Captain's quarters and headed back to join the others. He led the way to the bridge, where they found Scarlett at the controls.

  The bridge looked a lot like the one on Byron's Icarus but with more instruments, and someone had put up a poster of a naked alien woman with tentacles instead of breasts. The forward window showed the rainbow of chaos from hyperspace, and the distant song coming from everywhere.

  The robot Scarlett gave him a big smile like she knew exactly what happened. "How'd the 'bonding' go?" She held up two hands to put air quotes around "bonding."

  "Uh, good." Byron looked at the swirling hyperspace outside the window to avoid meeting her eyes.

  Chetaara wrapped her arms around his shoulders and nuzzled the top of his head while her tail flipped around to encircle his left leg. "The Bonding was amazing. He is truly a powerful Master."

  Scarlett reached out to rub the crotch of his pants. "Yeah, seems like he enjoyed it, too."

  He knew his face burned hot. He was normally a very private person who didn't even talk about sex with his sister. "Okay, let's talk about where we're taking this shipload of women to."

  Scarlett turned back to the controls. "Sure thing. It's a planet called Aegis in the Republic of United Worlds. We'll be there in a few hours. Aegis is pretty far, even by hyperspace, but it's in the Outer Rim so it's outside of Necralia territory. I'll set the ship on autopilot so we can go mingle."

  She stood up and headed off the bridge, calling back, "First thing I wanna do is see if there's any booze on this ship."

  While Scarlett began looking through lockers, Chetaara narrowed her eyes. "You are a machine. How can you get inebriated?"

  Scarlett held up a finger. "Just because I'm metal doesn't mean I can't get lit, baby. I've got all the body parts I need to enjoy myself. Ain't that right, Captain?"

  She wiggled her eyebrows at Byron who blushed again. She was so outgoing that it had gotten embarrassing. He was also worried about making Chetaara jealous after the whole Ritual of Bonding.

  He glanced at Chetaara. "I, uh, I'm not sure what you're talking about."

  Scarlett's mouth dropped open. "Seriously? I'm talking about when you fucked the shit out of me a few hours ago?"

  He looked quickly at Chetaara to see if any pain or concern appeared on her face.

  She looked back at him with a blank expression. "Do you really not remember that?"

  "Well, uh, I mean, I remember it, but I just thought that, uh, you might--"

  "Might what?"

  "That you might, you know, mind. Get jealous or something."

  She gave him a warm smile, tucked her arms around him and kissed his cheek. "Master, as I said, sex is normal to my people. We would no more deny someone we love sex than we would deny them food or water. Monogamy as your people see it is something unknown among the Nikora. Feel free to enjoy the bodies of others. And Scarlett does have a very nice body that I'm sure you would enjoy."

  "And you could enjoy," Scarlett giggled.

  Chetaara lowered her eyes even as she smiled wider. "You are beautiful, but I have little experience with females."

  Scarlett did a slinky dance over to Chetaara and wrapped her arms around the feline woman's waist. "That's ok. I'll teach you all about it, baby."

  Holy shit, he thought. This is really happening.

  Like many guys, he enjoyed lesbians. He'd watched enough porn to know the mechanics of it, but seeing the two ladies giggling and looking into each other's eyes right in front of him made him flush with excitement and his cock throb.

  Venus Online, he had decided, was the best game ever. Not only was he paired up with two gorgeous women but bisexual ones at that.

  Scarlett giggled and moved past Chetaara to hunt through some more lockers. It didn't take long for her to hoot with joy and pull out two large bottles of a green liquid. "Ha, jackpot! Draava ale, straight from the monasteries! The good shit. I wish I could find whoever stowed this away and give them a blowjob to thank them."

  Chetaara smiled. "That would be most polite. However, I was forced to kill the crew."

  Scarlett froze. "Uh, say what? I need to hear how that shit went down."

  "Well, as I told my Master, the Captain was the first to die. Captain Venn was a most noble man who hired this freighter out of his own pocket to transport us to freedom. He made the crew promise to deliver us safely and not to abuse us. However, the captain of this ship Dell Q'voni broke the deal. He took me from the others and tried to force me to submit to a Ritual of Bonding."

  Scarlett pulled off the cap of one of the bottles. "Ouch. That was a mistake."

  Chetaara's smile widened, showing more of her sharp teeth. "Indeed, it was. With the help of the gods, I was able to convince the captain to remove my chains and tore out his throat. From th
ere, I searched his quarters and found one of his weapons, a Hirill M-82 plasma pulse rifle. Well armed, I made my way back to the hold where I found the entire crew trying to have their way with my Nikora sisters. A simple shot to the back of the head would have sufficed, but my rage demanded more. I ordered them all to the airlock where I shot them out into space."

  Scarlett took a swig from her open bottle. "You are lethal as fuck, Chetaara. Remind me to stay on your good side."

  Chetaara laughed and shook her head. "You have nothing to fear. The Goddess forbids us from harming another living thing except for survival or in self-defense."