A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
Regeneration for everyone!
-x-X-x-
In a way, it’s nice to have another direction for the demons to try to ply him with their offers. Not that Jason is foolish or stupid enough to actually so much as consider or contempte any of their deals for even a second. But it had to be said that given the amount of demonic summoning he needed to do to accrue enough demon blood for four different Blood Empowerment Rituals… well, it could wind up with the summonings becoming rather rote.
And that was no good for what were frankly obvious reasons. One did not want to become x or idle while summoning demons, nor did they really want their minds to wander. The ‘memories’ that Jason’s power had downloaded into his brain gave him numerous examples of peers who had done exactly that and paid dearly for it.
So yes, having a little more variation in how the demons reacted to him did help Jason to stay on target. At this point, he either got demons who knew who and what he was already and were terrified him, he got demons who didn’t recognize anything about him and were flippant, or he got demons who could sense the spark of Chaos Magic nestled inside of him now and were eager and intrigued.
All three encounters always ended the same way though. Demons drained either of their life force and blood, or if they were particurly effusive in their begging and praise, just their blood. It takes a while because of the aforementioned need for enough blood for four people, but finally… its done and Jason clears up the summoning circle before calling the dies back in from Vicky’s bedroom.
… Even though they’d already talked about Jason needing to paint on Amelia’s bare flesh for the Blood Empowerment Ritual, for some reason, he still wasn’t expecting it when she and the others walked out of the bedroom completely naked. In Victoria and Taylor’s cases, it wasn’t like it was anything Jason hadn’t already seen before… but still, he quickly averts his gaze all the same, feeling a little embarrassed by even the short glimpse he caught of Amelia Lavere’s naked figure.
“Oh come off of it. You’re going to see it all anyways.”
Amelia sounds more amused than anything else, even as Jason slowly nods.
“Sure, but that’s still no reason to stare.”
“… And if I wanted you to stare?”
What was his life? Slowly, Jason turns his gaze back to Amelia but only looks her in the eyes. He doesn’t let his eyes go below the neck, though it’s impossible not to notice some things all the same. She’s a curly haired brunette, something Jason already knew… but what he didn’t know was that those freckles of hers, some of which had faded with age, actually went below the neck down her chest. Did they go all the way to her tits? Jason didn’t know because he was pointedly not looking that far.
Gazing right back at him, Amelia hums consideringly.
“You know, there’s an easy way to equalize this. You just have to strip naked as well. You’re going to have to anyways… I’ll want to see you perform this on yourself before I let you do it to any of us.”
Taylor frowns while Vicky rolls her eyes.
“Oh come on! We told you, he already did us all up and there were no effects Ames! Don’t be ridiculous!”
“That was then and this is now. And don’t tell me I’m being ridiculous when you three were the ones summoning demons and extorting them for blood of all things without telling me.”
Jason winces at that. It’s a fair point. And while it’s a little ironic because normally a man fshing a woman is in no way an ‘equalizer’, he nevertheless begins to strip off his clothes, pulling off his shirt first as he kicks off his shoes, followed by his socks, pants, and boxers.
Unlike him, Amelia doesn’t hesitate to look down… though to her credit, her gaze doesn’t linger long before she looks away again, red faced. Unsure how to react to that, Jason just decides to keep the conversation moving.
“Ahem… so dies, have you figured out what you’ll each be getting this time?”
Taylor hums.
“What are you going to get, Jason?”
Smiling slightly, Jason shrugs.
“I’ve decided I’m going for the next tier up of regeneration. Not much point in doing the Minor Empowerment if I’m not going to build onto it when I get the chance.”
Tilting her head to the side, Taylor grins crookedly.
“Exactly my thinking. Although I should probably crify… there is another upgrade to Agility, right?”
Jason blinks, thinking about it for a second.
“Uh, technically no. We can give you a second Major Agility Empowerment, but it would be more additive than anything else. Also, the body can only take so many Blood Empowerment Rituals, so it would eat up a ‘slot’ so to speak. In retion, my Minor Regeneration is made to be built upon, basically.”
This was in fact extremely basic stuff… to someone who had extensively studied Blood Magic. Jason winces, feeling guilty that he’d not told Taylor all of this before. Fortunately, she doesn’t look too mad. Instead, she’s rather thoughtful as she slowly nods.
“Mm… alright, I’ll need to consider this a little while longer than I guess.”
That was more than fair. Jason looks to Amelia and Vicky next, with the blonde grinning. But before she can speak up, Amelia interrupts her.
“I think we should all focus on Regeneration then today.”
Taylor and Vicky both look surprised as their heads swivel over to Amelia, but the healer doesn’t back down even under the sudden scrutiny.
“If there’s a limited amount of ‘space’ for these empowerment rituals, then it seems to me that we should be going with the option that lets us build upon it, especially if we’re going to be doing this more than once. You called it a ‘slot’ right Jason? Based on all of your ‘knowledge’ and ‘experience’, wouldn’t you recommend using one of our ‘slots’ on regeneration?”
If they were going to come back for more of him painting demon blood on their skin? Yes. Although…
“But Ames, you’re literally a healer! Wouldn’t it be better to focus on shoring up other weaknesses?”
Amelia is already shaking her head though.
“You’re relying on me too much again, Vicky. First, my power doesn’t work on myself. So being able to naturally heal quicker than normal is a rather strong boon for someone vulnerable like me. And I know we discussed seeing if Jason could make me as durable as Alexandria, but I’m not sure I want to be a flying brick without the flying part, truth be told. I’d rather start slow.”
Vicky bites her lower lip at that, even as Amelia continues.
“Also, I can’t always be there when you need help. I’ll be at my clinic while you three are out each night patrolling and risking your lives against the vilins of this city. Having Regeneration might be what keeps one of you alive so the others can bring you to me for healing.”
Nodding sharply, seemingly as much to herself as she does to all of them, Amelia sweeps her gaze around to them.
“I’m not trying to make it an order or throw my weight around here… but I would feel far more at ease if we all had such a simple and effortless level of natural healing.”
There’s a brief pause as the others consider her words. Personally, Jason finds himself in complete agreement with her, so he’s gd when Taylor and Vicky both finally nod as well.
“You’re right. I was going to stack agility on agility to make myself more maneuverable, but if there are limits… this is better.”
“Yeah, this gives us more of a foundation. I mean, I’m already pretty tough to begin with… but I’m not invincible or anything.”
And like that, it’s settled. They still start with Jason of course, the others gathering around to watch as he applies the runes to his flesh, painting with the demon blood he’s gathered up. This time around, the runes are far more complex because he’s building off of what’s already there, turning his Minor Regeneration into Major Regeneration. With this, Jason will be able to grow back limbs in a day and even survive having his heart pulled out of his chest. The only thing that will be able to permanently kill him now is decapitation, so he’ll just have to focus on protecting his head at all costs. Which to be fair, was already a priority anyways.
After Jason is done with himself, he moves onto Taylor and applies the runes for Minor Regeneration to her flesh. Then, once he’s done with her, he turns to Victoria and Amelia, only for the blonde to push their benefactor forward with a grin.
“Ames next!”
When Amelia doesn’t raise any sort of protest, Jason shrugs and gets to work. He tries to be professional about it, putting her earlier words out of his mind. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for the Blood Empowerment Ritual not to be rather… intimate. Jason finds out that Amelia’s freckles do not in fact extend all the way down to her breasts, instead covering her upper chest. He also gets a rather extensive ‘education’ in the rest of her form as well. On top of the discovery that she’s… well, a little aroused. Her nipples are hard and her slit is glistening.
Jason doesn’t comment on that though and Amelia is silent as he moves the paintbrush across her flesh. So silent that he starts to wonder about something.
“Can you… get anything from the blood when its on your skin like this?”
Shivering, Amelia slowly nods, careful not to move too much.
“Its actually a bit overwhelming. I’m trying hard not to think about it, but the possibilities of things I could do with this blood is… staggering.”
Jason hums at that, a little grateful that they wouldn’t have any left over once they were done here. Especially since leaving Amelia unattended with demonic blood seemed like a potential recipe for disaster. On the other hand…
“Well, I hope I don’t have to tell you how dangerous messing around with this stuff by yourself could be…”
Amelia nods.
“… But I could maybe come by your clinic one of these days and we could check it out together, maybe?”
That gets the healer to perk up, her eyes alighting with excitement for a moment before she tempers her reaction.
“I… I’d like that, yeah.”
Jason matches her smile with one of his own and then finishes off the Blood Empowerment Ritual, causing the runes painted across Amelia’s naked body to glow bright for a moment before vanishing from view. The way Amelia’s breath hitches lets him know that she can no longer feel the demon blood across her skin, but he checks with her all the same.
“All good?”
“Y-Yes… hah, holding myself back while you drew the runes was… rough. I’m not looking forward to next time.”
Tilting his head to the side, Jason smiles crookedly.
“Well hopefully we can get in a session before next time where you get it out of your system.”
If she was jonesing to py around with demon blood that much, it was probably better for Jason to prioritize getting together with Amelia at her clinic sooner rather than ter. But for now, he gives her a nod that she returns and then turns to Vicky.
Victoria grins and preens as Jason begins painting onto her naked body as well. She has a lot to be proud of in the looks department, but he just gives her an exasperated gnce before focusing on his work. Well, mostly focusing on his work.
“So, you’ve finished preparing for the test have you?”
Vicky huffs a little at that, until he gives her thigh a smack and admonishes her for moving too much. Staying as still as possible after that, the blonde hums.
“Y-Yeah. I studied ahead. Looked up all the stuff you were pnning to show me and did it myself. I mean, what did you expect when you gave me an empowerment of ‘Major Intelligence’?”
Chuckling, Jason is forced to acknowledge that she has a point there. Even still…
“We’re still going to be doing some tutoring every night though. I’m not a thief. But so long as you can prove you’re retaining the material each night… perhaps we can shorten our tutoring sessions and focus on other things like patrolling instead.”
Vicky lights up at that.
“Really?”
Jason, pretending not to notice the way she gets ‘perky’ in some very specific ways, just smirks.
“We’ll see…”
She huffs at his teasing tone but nevertheless rexes as Jason finishes putting the runes in pce and completes the empowerment ritual. Once it’s all done, the dies all test their regeneration with small cuts. Jason is tempted to go further and chop off a finger just to see how fast it grows back… but they talk him out of it.
Still, he knows it worked. And with this, all of them are a little bit safer than they were before. Amelia had made a good call, on that front.
“… So, pizza?”
They all perk up at that and Vicky throws her hands into the air, which does… interesting things to her breasts.
“Pizza!”
-x-X-x-
Ding!
Sacred Seals and Staffs – Making – 100 Points
There are some who cim faith is not so different from schorship, though both sorcerers and saints would beg to differ. Regardless, with each investment here you may purchase mystical implements that allow mortals to wield either sorcery or incantations. From the twisted, crimson dragon communion seal that enhances incantations obtained from that practice to a staff of pure crystal fashioned by the Crystallians, any non-unique magic implement can be purchased with this option here. May be Purchased Multiple Times.
You now have 200 Points saved up!
The next day, Jason finds himself dealing with a bit of a dilemma. Not the pull, that’s something he has no issue handling. While it’s interesting that there are powers that let him buy them multiple times like that, he already has the Staff of Magnus and doesn’t feel much need for more casting implements… especially weaker ones.
Pass.
That isn’t the dilemma. The dilemma is that halfway through the day, he gets a message from Parian asking for him to meet with her and Fletchette… and Jason has a pretty good idea of what they might want to ‘discuss’. He’s not going to turn them down, but he’s also not sure whether or not to take Taylor with him or go alone for what this turns out to be.
In the end, rather than make the decision himself, Jason throws the ball in Taylor’s court, shooting her a text and asking her if she thinks she should come or not. Finally, a half hour ter, he gets a notification on his phone from her…
-x-X-x- The Vote: [ ] Taylor is fine with him going alone - 32%[X] Taylor insists on coming along - 68%-x-X-x-
A/N: Will try to keep this up to date at the end of every chapter, get on me if I forget please. Though if it gets too out of hand, might have to change it at some point.
Jason's current banked points:
200 Celestial Points
Jason's current banked power:
= A Collection of Magic Rings (300 Points)
Jason's current powers:
= Fsh Air (Gained in Chapter 1
= Transformation Pendant (Gained in Chapter 4)
= Keen Eye (Gained in Chapter 4)
= Blood, Death, and Demons (Gained in Chapter 6)
= Alchemical Prodigy (Gained in Chapter 8)
= Staff of Magnus (Gained in Chapter 13)
= Bind and Seal (Gained in Chapter 17)
= Hero of a Hundred Faces: Everyone's Leader (Gained in Chapter 20)
= Minor Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 23)(Taylor got Major Agility, Vicky got Major Intelligence)
= Restraining Order (Gained in Chapter 25)
= Focus (Gained in Chapter 28)
= Scarborough Fair (Gained in Chapter 30)
= Chaos Magic (Gained in Chapter 36)
= Major Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 40)(Taylor, Vicky, and Amy all got Minor Regeneration)
