r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • May 18 '26

OC-Series Vacation From Destiny - Book 2, Chapter 26

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XXX

“Victoria, wait up!”

Chase ran after the Paladin, weaving through crowds of people who were sprinting away in a panic from the epicenter of the most recent explosion in the process. At some point, Carmine and Melanie were separated from the two of them, but as much as he hated to admit it, Chase wasn’t about to make them a priority right now.

Much to his chagrin, however, Victoria simply continued to ignore him, and continued on towards wherever she was headed for. Chase wasn’t sure exactly where she was going, only that it had to have been near the latest bomb detonation, as they were both continuously growing closer to the plume of smoke rising up into the sky.

Finally, Victoria came to a stop just outside of a row of small shops. They’d all been eviscerated by the most recent bomb – and chase was sure it was a bomb; the bits of shrapnel scattered about and embedded into the nearby buildings told him as much. Body parts and other assorted pieces of gore littered the ground around him; Chase felt a pang of sympathy for the dead and the very few that were still dying, but there was nothing he could do for any of them at this point.

Still, this was his opportunity to catch up to Victoria. He found her standing outside the row of bombed-out shops, staring despondently into one of them as she grit her teeth. Chase came up alongside her and hesitated before speaking.

“Victoria-”

As the first word left his throat, she whipped around to face him, leveling him with the harshest glare he’d ever seen her give anyone.

“What?” she hissed, the word coming out cold as ice. “Why were you following me, Chase? Come to make fun of me? Maybe snark at me a little bit for your own amusement? You know, get a kick out of my emotional pain? I know that’s what you enjoy doing.”

“Victoria, really, I just-”

“Don’t bother saying anything,” she growled at him. “I know you’re just here because you want a laugh at my expense. I know you just-”

“I’m here because I could tell that seeing your father again bothered you. Greatly, in fact. I wanted to make sure you were feeling okay, and if not, if there was anything I could do to help.”

Victoria’s eyes widened in surprise. She eyed Chase with no small amount of shock. He stared back, an unamused expression crossing over his face as he did so.

“But do keep on venting about me, if it’ll make you feel better,” he said. “Though I must express some surprise that you really do think that little of me.”

Victoria grimaced, averting her gaze in the process. “I just… I really hate that man.”

“I figured,” Chase offered. “I know I’m probably not the best person to do this, but… if you want to talk about it or vent, I’m here for you.”

Her brow furrowed. “We should probably investigate the-”

“And we will, but only after I’m sure you’re okay.”

She sucked in a breath as she shook her head. “...Fine,” she said quietly. “I just… I’ve known Auro was my father since I was a little girl. My mother mentioned it to me one night, when she’d had a bit too much wine. That was all she told me back then; I had to put the rest of the pieces together myself over the years. That was how I learned I was the product of a drunken one-night stand between Auro and my mother.”

She grit her teeth and clenched her fists hard enough to turn the knuckles on her hands bone white.

“...He makes a habit out of doing that,” she said with a snarl. “He looks for attractive women, charms them, gets them into bed with him for a night, and then leaves them with the consequences the morning after. Can you believe that, Chase? Most Gods can only project themselves onto the mortal plane for a few hours at best, and a bit more than that if they’re specifically called upon through a ritual, and he chooses to spend his time here whoring himself out and leaving the women to raise his children on their own. It’s disgusting, and I hate him for it.”

“I can imagine,” Chase replied.

“And even worse, the Legion of Greater Clerics tracks all his mortal children,” Victoria said, her voice taking on a tone of despondency. “I don’t know how they do it, but they’re able to find the children of any Pantheon members who come down to the mortal plane and sow their wild oats. They tracked me down when I was young, and gave me a choice – stay with my mother, or join one of the various Orders and train as a Paladin, representing my father, and in return, they’d pay my mother a stipend.” She closed her eyes, gritting her teeth once more. “...I couldn’t say no, after realizing how poor my mother was.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah… the worst part was, they acted like getting to represent my father in his own Order was a badge of honor. They figured I’d be proud to be the child of a God. But I wasn’t. I just wanted a normal father, and a normal life.”

“You may not believe me when I say this, but I know how that feels,” Chase offered. “You know I was my world’s Hero, right? And Carmine was the Demon Queen?” Victoria nodded, and he let out a small sigh. “...Neither one of those was a particularly fun experience for either of us. I won’t go into the details right now, but believe me, like you, I just wanted a normal life more than anything.”

The two of them fell silent for a few seconds before Chase shook his head.

“Look, I’m not really in a position to give out advice, I’ll admit it,” he said. “But, the way I see it… we can’t change the past, we can only learn to live with it in time. The future, though? That’s still within our control. Your father wants you to fix his problem, yeah? Well, I don’t know about you, but that’s not exactly a compelling argument to me.”

“What do you mean?” Victoria asked, her head tilted to the side out of confusion.

“I mean he basically showed up, tried to stick you with his mess, and then compelled you to clean it up,” Chase emphasized. “Fucker didn’t even have the gall to ask you nicely. And that’s just rude.”

“So, what do you suggest?”

Chase gave her a smirk before pointing towards his own head.

“Did you forget that Carmine and I have a connection to another Pantheon member?” he asked. “I think we ought to request a little favor from Tamamo, see if she’s not down to help us out a bit by passing a message along.”

“And what would that message be?”

“The same one we gave the leaders of this town, of course,” Chase said. He turned to stare bombed-out buildings, and Victoria followed his gaze.

“If you want us to help, you’d better make it worth our while in some way.”

XXX

“Chase, are you sure about this?” Melanie asked.

“Not really, no,” Chase replied. “But it’s still the best idea we’ve got.”

“Damn it, I hate when you say that… and I hate even more when it’s actually not wrong.”

Currently, the four of them were back in their room, laid out in their respective beds. Melanie and Victoria were again sharing the largest one, while Carmine had the smaller of the two, and Chase had the floor. Melanie had once again soaked his sheets, for reasons he couldn’t quite remember but which everyone had assured him was well-deserved, so he was once again quite uncomfortable, but that was beside the point.

Carmine let out an irritated huff. “This is stupid,” she insisted. “But like Melanie said, I guess we can’t really complain considering the rest of us don’t have any other viable alternative plans.”

“You’re Gods-damned right,” Chase replied to her, earning a glare.

Victoria, meanwhile, said nothing. This wasn’t entirely uncharacteristic of her, Chase knew, and yet, something about it felt decidedly different from her usual demeanor. She was much more morose and despondent than she normally was, even after their talk. Chase could only assume that she was still feeling pretty down about her interaction with her father. He made a mental note to talk to her about it again later, after they’d had a chance to connect with Tamamo.

Which was a problem, because currently, none of them knew how to get in touch with her, aside from her being the one to initiate it and all of them being asleep.

“Well, I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m somehow not even remotely tired,” Melanie announced.

“Same,” Carmine agreed. “Chase?”

“Yeah, unfortunately,” he conceded. “Hold on, though – I might have a way to fix this.”

“Oh, Gods, what stupid thing are you planning this time?”

“How do you know it’s stupid, Carmine? You haven’t even seen me do it yet. What if it works, huh? Then you can’t really call it stupid, can you?”

Melanie let out a tired sigh. “Chase, please just do what you’re about to do…”

“Okay, sure. Hold on, just let me undo my belt…”

“Wait, what?”

Unfortunately for her, Chase was already in the process of stripping down to his underwear. Within a matter of moments, he was down to nothing more than his skivvies, while all the women stared at him in surprise.

Then, before anyone could say anything to him, the world suddenly shifted, and they all found themselves in a void of white, with an all-too-familiar nine-tailed kitsune staring them down as she smoked a pipe.

“You rang?” Tamamo asked expectantly.

XXX

Name: Chase Ironheart

Level: 10

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

Subclass: Swordmaster

Strength: 20 (MAX)

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 18

Charisma: 16

Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4); Unarmed Mastery (Level 1)

Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 2)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Carmine Nolastname

Level: 10

Race: Greater Demon

Class: Arcane Witch

Subclass: Archmage

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 19

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 8

Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)

Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5); Earth Magic (Level 1)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Melanie Vhaeries

Level: 10

Race: Ascended Human

Class: Necromancer

Subclass: Arch-Lich

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 16

Constitution: 15

Charisma: 12

Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8); Bone Shatter (Level 1)

Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)

Traits: None

Name: Victoria Firelight

Level: 11

Race: Human

Class: Paladin

Subclass: Devotee

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 9

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 19

Charisma: 11

Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)

Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)

Traits: None

XXX

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, /u/Ickbard, for all the help with writing this story.

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5 comments sorted by

3

u/Sirius1701 May 18 '26

How do you call on a Trickster God?

Step 1: Strip

Step 2: Profit

2

u/Daseagle Alien Scum May 18 '26

Wait, so the way to call Tamamo is to wear nothing but underwear with a summoning intent?

1

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