FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 6

Days of tour in the inside of the volcano had made Ryan getting used to it. He became strong enough to be alone, though he would rather stay close to Red. Now both the bovine demon and the human were patrolling in the volcano like everyday.

A corner among those many caves and tunnels looked strange, Ryan noticed. When he looked at it, it seemed to like a path, but he wasn't sure. It was odd because Ryan was rather close to it. It was dark for sure, without light. However, he wouldn't call it black since black is a color, while that spot had no color. It was void. Without knowing what it was, Ryan was confident to say it was better staying away from it.

Ryan had passed by that spot for a couple times, and Red seemed that he didn't notice anything unusual. He didn't even look at that. Eventually, Ryan decided to ask when they passed by that void spot..

"Red? What is it." He tugged the bull's paw to stop him, pointing at that corner.

When Red turned back, seeing that voidness, his eyes widened. He was silent for a moment, staring at there. The human watched it carefully, and he saw the void spot gradually formed into a tunnel. To Ryan this was nothing special, since he had seen Red creating or closing paths for many times.

"Thanks for telling me. Tell me when you find more of that." The bull said.

"I will, Red. What was that?"

"I will take you to a place to explain."

"We are going out of the volcano again?" Ryan winced at the notion of the outside world.

"Yes."

*

Hours later, they traveled through the mountains to an area where Ryan had never reached so far. That area was deserted. During these hours, Ryan hadn't seen any other creatures. It was a long and boring journey. Still, Ryan was very glad the area was vacant.

At the end, they came to the front of a hideous building, and it was massive. The area of the building was larger than an entire village. It was also tall, about 10 meters.

"The Refuge." The bull demon lord said.

Ryan nodded.

They entered the building from a huge opening. When he stepped into it, Ryan heard the kind of chaotic sounds again. He could hear dripping water, heavy breaths, groans, metal, hisses... basically any sound he knew as well as many sounds he didn't know. Nevertheless, the mixture of sounds in this building contained seldom screams and cries in pain, so that was a great relief for Ryan.

The inside of the building was ugly too. There were only rooms and corridors, separated by crooked stone walls that were coated with patches of slime, dirt and something Ryan couldn't tell. Well, slime was better than rotted flesh and blood, wasn't it? Ryan was glad about that.

Along the corridor, they went down, passing by rooms where different kind of demons resided in. Some of the rooms didn't have an opening, so only the demons could come in and out freely because they could create an opening. Such building must be created and owned by a lord, who could form permanent objects. Other demons could make temporary changes. When they made a hole on the stone wall, the hole would be mended as soon as that demon's attention diverted to something else.

There were demons climbing on the walls. Ryan looked up at the high roof, and saw a lizard like demon lying on the roof as if gravity worked reversely to it. That lizard kept staring at Ryan through the whole time when the pair passed it by, making the human nervous. Unlike other rooms, that opening was on the top, which was convenient for the demon living in an upside down style.

Ryan couldn't help but got curious to the various creatures in each room. None of them was alike. Rather to his surprise, there were also humans, and they were not being tortured. In one of the rooms, a man was combing a half-lion-and-half-man monster's mane, and both of them seemed to be enjoying that.

Ryan asked the bull, "Are they the same as us? Had the lion been raised up by the man when they were alive?"

"No."

They continued heading forward. Later, Ryan saw two women with the exactly same look were touching each other. He asked, "What about them? Why are there two humans and they look totally the same?"

"The one on your right is in fact a demon in disguise."

Such disguise from a demon could easily affect a human, but could be seen right through by a powerful demon like Red. In this world nothing was absolute, which varied greatly by different observers.

They passed by a room with a giant floating octopus and several humans diving in the air like fishes, as if the room was filled with water. They passed by a human who was tongue kissing a lizard demon, whom Ryan considered hideous, but that human appeared to like the kiss as well as the thick mucus from the demon. A small feline demon was standing alone in its room, who could only move his eyeballs, mouth and tongue in a very limited extend. Red walked into that room and he fed it with a bowl full of liquid. Ryan was sad to see the feline slightly opening its mouth, drinking the liquid, eyes looking at them. The human asked the bull why was that demon unable to move the other parts of its body. The bull refused to answer, and he seemed to be in somewhat anger, though that anger was not toward Ryan.

A wolf like monster was mating with a man. Ryan quickly turned his head away from that scene.

*

Later, they arrived at the center of the building. There was a mighty demon who was half snake half man. Ryan could tell that must be a lord just like Red, and he assumed this monster was the owner and creator of the building. The snake simply nodded at the bull, and then Red and Ryan turned to a slope toward the roof. Out of curiosity, Ryan was staring at that snake, but the demon had absolutely no interest in him, so Ryan just continued following his master, climbing up along the slope.

When they reached the top of the building, Ryan found the slope extended further into the sky. He kept following Red climbing up till they were standing much higher than the building. Red stopped and turned back. He looked at Ryan, saying, "Look down."

What the human saw caused him shivered in fear. It wasn't the top of the building as he expected, but a massive voidness. It was the same as what he saw earlier in Red's volcano, but only much bigger, with the size of a whole village. It looked abysmal and nonexist. It was as if the whole building was replaced by a bottomless hole.

"Why is the top of the building like this?" Ryan asked.

"Because the lord has not built a top for his building. He does not need it."

The snake wanted a roof when he was in the building, so he created it. However, he didn't care what the top was like, so he didn't create it, and then it was void.

"What if someone falls from here?" asked Ryan, guessing that he wouldn't like the answer.

"All of this world we are standing on is based on our mind. If one falls into somewhere nobody cares or remembers, then that one will be forgotten. It will be floating and dissipating in a nonexist place for a long time. However, a soul will never be extinguished. Eventually its soul will be broken down, and will be merged with this world. We call those lost souls the oblivion. They are everywhere."

The worst is to become the part of it.

Ryan imagined what it would be like to be the part of this world. The world's thoughts would be his. He would feel every part of the world, where souls were being tortured. He would hardly have his own thoughts, because his soul would be scattered and it was almost impossible to congregate again. Every other souls' horrible memories would be shared and played on and on. He would doubt if he had ever existed. He would forget which memories were his.

Ryan remembered when he first came to the world, an upper body of a man formed from the ground, clutching his ankle calling for help. Ryan was sure that was one of the oblivion they were talking about, who wanted to be pulled out and separated from a mixture of billions of other dissipated souls.

The human was deep into his thoughts. Red put his paw on the smaller one's shoulder and said, "Do not be worried. With me, you will never be forgotten."

Ryan nodded gratefully.

The bull continued, "However, others in our volcano may not be that lucky. It is why I have to walk around in it as much as I can, to ensure that I remember every corner of it."

"Then, why was there still a void spot in the volcano, like what we found earlier?"

"I guess that is because every time I went by it, I habitually turned left. After a long time I forgot about the path on the right side."

"I see."

"Suddenly our work becomes meaningful to you, doesn't it?" The bull mused.

"Indeed it does. What about here? Should you create a top for the building in case that someone falls?"

"No. First, this is not my territory. Second, others will not be allowed to use this slope, so it will not be a problem."

Red nodded.

They returned back home after that.

*

Ryan had never believed he would be attacked by the oblivion in the volcano, until one day.

*

It seemed to be a peaceful day. Red was touring in his territory as usual, while Ryan was staying in the cave, engraving some random things on the ground with an iron stick. His engraving never lasted long. The notches on the ground would be healed by itself quickly, less than a few minutes. When Ryan finished a simple line of a bird, he took a look of it before it disappeared.

Abruptly a face formed on the ground, that made Ryan startled and stepped back at once. He saw the face continued protruding from the ground, till a human upper body revealed. The oblivion was struggling to extract all its body, but it looked like that the world was trying to suck it back in. Ryan stepped back another steps, keeping a distance staring at it in consternation. The oblivion moved toward him with great difficulty, crawling with hands. The body and face were made of the same material of the ground, as if a figurine made of clay though with colors of red and black, struggling to pull itself from a swamp.

Ryan was more scared to see the figure actually trudged toward him, though slowly and painfully. It was also trying hard to pull its body out. Its crotch was out once, but a second later, some stronger force made it sank back into the ground. When it moved close to the paralyzed human, it even succeed to drag its thighs out. However, it was pulled back in again, and Ryan saw what was doing it, which were a lot of hands of other oblivion.

The painful look and broken voice from that face made Ryan nauseated. The oblivion must be the worst creature ever. Each individual wanted to be released, but at the same time they didn't allow others to leave. Nevertheless, he felt bad for the oblivion, that made him thinking if he could actually help this one out. He stood up, hesitantly stuck his hand to the oblivion, who caught it at once and forcefully dragged it to pull itself out.

But it failed. It would never succeed. The other oblivion, which had been pulling it back with their hands, knew that there was someone helping, and that there was hope. They all became mad and each tried to extract itself. Suddenly, around Ryan's feet, tens of oblivion came out from the ground, hands sticking out first trying to catch Ryan. A second later, the human's legs were clutched by hands of the oblivion. The first figure Ryan saw that day was pulled down by others, merged into the ground with a desperate shriek.

Ryan had never been this scared before. He couldn't move at all with so many hands trapping his legs. He wasn't stupid enough to fight against the hands with his own hands. He didn't want his upper limbs being caught too.

The hands holding his legs became stronger. Ryan cried out to feel the bones of his legs were about to be crushed. Before he could come with any idea to deal with this situation, his hands were caught and dragged from above. He was shocked to see the roof of the cave was full of oblivion. Not only on the roof, but also on the wall and in the tunnel outside the cave, there were inumerous oblivion trying to get him. They went crazy for the hope, even though it was the tiniest hope.

The cave was collapsing. Many of the oblivion on the roof lose their concentration, and they fell as stones. Stones stumped on the floor, crushing some of the oblivion on the ground but soon became merged with the ground and more oblivion formed. The center of the roof was dropping. The cave became nothing like before.

Ryan felt his body was about to be dismembered. In fact, the bones of his feet and calves had already been crushed. His arms were dragged up ruthlessly.

"Reeeeeeed!!!!" He cried in pain and despair. But a hand of oblivion taking this chance, caught his face with three fingers into Ryan's mouth, hooking his palate. Ryan's neck felt like to snap. He bit down the fingers in his mouth. As soon as he bit it down, the fingers became ordinary stones. He spat them out, but felt an extremely sharp pain of his right eye. A thumb had digged into his eye hole.

Ryan was losing it.

Then he felt a warm feeling from his stomach. With the last bit of consciousness, he witnessed a red glowing bull dashing toward him. The bull killed what its hooves stomped on, but it didn't hurt Ryan as it passed through the human's body. The hot feeling as their body contacted made Ryan realize what was the bull made of--the magma.

The bull kept rushing madly in this cave, stomping as much as it could. At first Ryan thought it was a guardian created by Red. Then he realized the bull was following Ryan's own mind. It was Ryan who was controlling the magma. The magma pool in the cave began to flow rapidly. The boiling magma was burning those oblivion, but it didn't hurt the human in the center of the cave.

The distorted cave was filled with sound of screams. Ryan was holding his last breath to fight against those mindless creatures, by controlling the magma bull running over as many as it could, but there were only more of the oblivion formed and crawled toward him. The magma was gradually filling the cave, but it was too slow. The human was losing his consciousness, and the magma was becoming steady.

A wave of the magma surged toward the human, melted those oblivion's hands that trapped the human and pushed the human into the glowing pool.

Ryan was caught and held by someone in the pool, not that he could swim by himself. All his four limbs were broken as well as his one eye.

I can't breath. I'm going to be drowned.

Ryan thought desperately.

"It is me. Open your eye, silly human." It was Red's voice, and Ryan was now in his embrace.

Ryan slowly opened the remained eye, looking at the bull through the golden fluid. He realized indeed he was silly. He won't be drowned, because he didn't need to breathe.

The bull and human were standing at the bottom of the pool of magma, which was quite deep. Ryan was too tired to ask why they were not floating in the magma. Above them, all the oblivion were searching for the human. They were crawling randomly and crazily in the cave.

"Close your eye and let your whole body relaxed." Red said.

It must be the magma that caused Ryan didn't feel much pain, even though his body was destroyed badly. He followed the bull's words, letting himself as much relaxed as possible. Then he felt the same feeling before, that a wave of warmth radiated from his stomach. Next, he felt stronger, and quite different.

"Open your eyes now, and follow me."

Ryan opened them, seeing his master swimming up, so he followed him. He saw his broken, limp arms stroking the magma, which was odd since he felt his arms were fine. Anyway, he kept close to Red, and they both came out of the pool from another surface other than it in the cave. Ryan looked at his body, and found what all about him. He was now a bull made of magma, smaller than Red but bigger than his human body. Speaking of his human body, it was now inside and protected by the magma body. Before Ryan had any fun with this temporary body, he heard the sounds of the oblivion coming to him from the tunnel in front of it. The entrance of the tunnel had already been sealed by coagulated magma, which Ryan assumed to be done by Red beforehand.

Ryan saw the mindless creatures flooding out from the cave crawling toward him, but what was following them was the boiling magma. It quickly filled the whole tunnel and cave, before it solidified, trapping all the oblivion inside. Then the entrance of the tunnel was blocked by expanded wall, completely hiding the ghastly scene forever.

The bull said, "The oblivion cannot be destroyed. This might be the only way to keep them from you."

"Red, I'm sorry for causing the huge troubles." Ryan said apologetically.

"That is fine. They at most could have killed you, and then you would be revived on the next day, though lose all of your memories."

Ryan looked at the blocked tunnel through the magma bull's eyes, saying sadly, "I'm aware of that. But I meant to say our cave has gone, because of me. It's a home where we have been living for a long time, and I kind of like that place."

"We now build another."

Both of the bulls went to find another suitable place to build their new cave. That magma body of Ryan was 7 feet tall, basically the smaller version of Red except made of different material. He was enthusiastic to play with his paws each with three fingers. His limp human hands were inside, index fingers and middle fingers sticked together to fit in the middle finger of the paw. It was also new and interesting to walk on hooves, which were much less sensitive as feet. He had a tail. He swished it rapidly for fun, but got over excited that he accidentally threw off the tip of it because it was made of fluid. The separated part became ordinary, lifeless magma and fell down into pool. Ryan carefully swished his now shorter tail, concluding that the fluid body was not as concrete as he imagined.

When he was walking fast, he felt how ponderous the package under his crotch was. Parting his thighs, he saw that magnificent, glowing cock and balls dangling weightily.

The real bull stopped and turned back to see that magma bull was dancing with his pelvis, jumping up and down to sway that package, feeling its weight for fun. Red told the excited man, "Try to not move that vigorously. Better keep your real body alive."

"Sorry. You're right." Ryan almost forgot his broken body was in the magma body. After all, he didn't want to die and lose memories. If he did, he would have to learn about the world all over again.

Ryan stayed moving slow, playing with this body in a milder way. He sticked the big tongue out and licked the smooth snout. He twitched his ears, and touched his horns. Also, he tested to move that prehensile cock, which now could move itself.

Red let his human had fun with that body while he was searching for a new place to build a new cave. Anyway, Ryan could help little on this.

*

At the end of that day, Red and Ryan were sitting in their new cave. Its shape and size were similar to the former, but there wasn't a tunnel that connected it and the center of the cave. The only way was through the magma, that they would swim in it to get in and out the cave.

The cave was dark, only lit by the fluid. The smaller, glowing bull was leaning his head on the bigger one's shoulder, when it was about the time of daybreak.

A second later, light began filling in the room. Ryan's broken human body was healed fast inside the magma body, while the outer one was melting down slowly. Ryan closed his eyes.

When the human body was healed fully, the magma that had been protecting it became inanimate fluid and flew into the pool. Ryan opened his eyes as a human again.

"You need to refill this." Red handed the human a bowl of red and golden liquid, the same thing he gave Ryan at the first day.

Ryan looked at the mixture of blood and magma, and then the cut on Red's wrist.

Seeing his man's hesitance, Red said, "If you are worried about feeding you this will eventually drain my blood, you are greatly underestimating me."

Ryan rolled his eyes back at Red's words. He took the bowl and drank it down.

After that, they cuddled in their new cave. Red's paws began to touch the human's smooth skin, which he liked very much. Ryan enjoyed that touch, too, since it felt real with his own body.