---

Understanding flooded Cove's mind. He had murdered real people in their dreams! The dragon man, the merman, that woman with the penis mace, the vampire, the guy pretending to be Hitler, and most importantly, the Russian President, whose self-assured smirk looked back at him from the news app proclaiming his death during the night. That guy had been in the guise of a fiery demon straight out of Tolkien's Middle Earth before Cove used the onyx marble to take away his power before the ebon blade killed him.

He rushed into the bathroom just in time to hurl the contents of his stomach into the toilet.

---

"Ignis?"

The woman who had been Julie, Cove's housekeeper, stirred on the couch and stretched, showing off her curvy stolen body. "Cove? Did you return to my world again?"

Cove sat down next to her. "Yeah, and I killed this guy the previous time I went there." I showed her my phone screen. "Were all the people that you had me kill from my world?"

She nodded. "They started arriving, one or two at first, and then more, every day, absorbing my energy and using it to fuel their darkest passions. Then you arrived in my chamber and I knew that I had to make a bargain with you or you would do the same. Your power was then tied into the orb and blade, which were also part of me. Through those, you could return my stolen energies." She reached up to caress his cheek. "I did not expect what happened next, when that maiden you saved touched the charged orb and its power pulled me into her mind."

"Destroying it," Cove added. "Was she from my world as well?"

She nodded. "Not all those who arrive in my world retain their own thoughts as you do. You called my world a dream, and for those others, perhaps they only play a part in someone else's dream. Then they return to their world -- this world -- and wake."

"Except for the ones who die."

She dropped her hand and lowered her eyes. "Yes. Their stolen energies are only returned to me -- her -- by their absolute destruction."

Cove crossed his arms and sat back. "I can't keep doing this...I won't."

She rose to a sitting position. "Your life is tied to hers now, Cove. She will make you do her bidding. She will torture you, or others, to make you rid her world of the intruders."

Cove looked at her. "You're that bad? I thought you were in trouble and needed my help."

She sat up and took his hand. "I'm-- she's that desperate. She doesn't know how many humans there are in this world, just how many are appearing in hers."

"There are, like, over 7 billion humans on this planet, Ignis."

Her eyes went wide. "So many...all is lost..." She let go of his hand and slumped forward.

Cove thought hard. "I have to convince her to let me go...cut our connection and then I won't go back to her world?"

Ignis looked at him and considered. "Perhaps."

He took her hand. "Will you help me? Tell me how I might convince her."

Ignis looked uncertain. "I...I don't know..."

Cove moved forward and kissed her lips. "Please?"

She nibbled her lower lip. "Will you have sex with me again?"

In answer, Cove kissed her again and urged her back onto the cushions. She was already naked, so he quickly slipped his clothes off and took one of her prominent nipples into his mouth.

"O-hh, Cove..."

He took his time, moving less urgently, and by the time that he was ready to enter her she was panting with desire.

"Please..." she urged him, her hips rising up as if she could pull his cock inside her.

He sunk his erect member inside her welcoming body, making her moan. Again, he moved slowly but with purpose, making love to her instead of fucking.

"This...this is...ohh..." she gasped as she had a small orgasm. "...different...more...more..."

Cove held back. He wanted...what did he want? His feelings for Julie...for this version of Ignis...they weren't hard or rough...they were soft and loving, so that's how he touched her. The other Ignis was bad, but he knew that this one had changed.

"I...I think I love you," he told her.

"Nngghh!" she moaned as she came on his cock. "Oh, Cove...cum inside me, my lover."

Cove moved faster within her, his feelings overcoming his good sense, and soon enough, he grunted as his own orgasm blossomed from his loins.

"Yesss..." Ignis moaned as she felt his member throb inside her, filling her with his warm seed. Her new body felt strangely hot as it accepted his genetic material.

Then he collapsed upon her, but he made sure to keep his eyes open, waiting...

"I...I will help you..." she told him.

---

The lava creature who called herself Ignis floated in her pool, serene except for the persistent, nagging sense of loss she felt regarding the parts of her that had been stolen by the interlopers. Suddenly, she felt the presence of her champion. She rose from her pool, forming the human-like shape that he seemed to appreciate. "Cove?"

Her cavern was empty, the ebon orb and blade still sitting untouched at the edge of her caldera. Had she been mistaken about his arrival?

---

Cove dashed down the mountainside, hoping that Ignis hadn't noticed him, and also that he wouldn't encounter any dangers without his weapons. Knowing that they were a part of Ignis, he couldn't take them with him; what he had to do next, he had to do alone and unarmed.

---

"Ready?" Cove whispered behind him after an indeterminate amount of time later; it was hard to tell the passage of time in Ignis' world. At the man's nod, they rushed into her chamber. Both threw the contents of the buckets they had brought into the lava pool. Instantly, the water cooled the liquid rock where it touched, causing gouts of steam to erupt.

Ignis' feminine form burst from the other side of the pool where the magma was still liquid. "STOP!" She froze at seeing Cove there, still holding a dripping bucket. "Cove? Why do you hurt me?"

Other people, both men and women, filed into the chamber, also holding water-filled buckets, and Ignis hissed, sounding much like the molten rock had as the water hit it. At Cove's raised hand, they paused.

"I'll make you a deal, Ignis...you cancel our agreement and these folk will leave." Sweat beaded on his forehead...the humidity in the cavern had jumped dramatically due to their watery assault.

Then he explained. It had taken a while, but Cove had found friends: the people who had been ensorcelled by the fake Hitler...Bertram the trader's village...those who lived near the fire demon's caverns...finally, the people of the villages that had been attacked by the dragon. They listened to Cove's tales of how he had defeated the monsters and evil leaders that had been plaguing them, and believed. They had gathered as many buckets as possible, filling them with water for the trek back to the lava creature's cavern. There were dozens behind Cove, ready to seal Ignis inside a cooled rocky tomb if they had to.

"But why? I only wanted you to help me..." Ignis' rocky lips almost seemed to pout.

"But you kept information from me," he countered. "All these people are from my world, even the bad ones I stopped!" He winced, thinking about the killings he had performed on her behalf. "I thought that this was an amazing dream, but it's just a fucking nightmare world."

"You are remarkably well informed." Ignis' fiery eyes took in the throng of humans behind Cove and then softened in defeat. "Very well...our covenant is at an end." She moved to the edge of the pool, picked up the ebon orb, and crushed it to powder. "Thrust the blade into me and it will be over." She closed her eyes and held her arms aloft from her sides, waiting.

Cove wiped the sweat off of his brow and picked up the knife. "Yeah?" It made a kind of sense, he thought.

He stepped forward and thrust the black blade into Ignis' midsection. Instantly, her body burst into flames and he felt the flesh of his hand burning. He screamed and tried to pull away, but she grabbed his arm, holding it in place as her eyes locked onto his. The flame moved up his arm.

"One last kiss, lover," she crooned, and she took his head in one hand as the other held him firmly. He could feel his face melting as the lava woman's tongue slid into his mouth, and then he could no longer even scream as his insides liquified.

---

"GUH!" Cove sat up quickly, coughing as if his lungs had something in them. "Oh shit...she made me feel it..." he murmured.

He looked down. His Ignis had her hand on his cock, stroking out the last of his ejaculation.

"It worked!" She smiled and licked her hand. "I could feel that you were with her, and that things were going badly. I'm sorry, Cove, but I knew what she would do. I didn't think you'd go through with it if I told you beforehand."

He struggled to calm his breathing. "I...forgive you. You saved my life! If you hadn't made me cum right then...fuck." Shaking, he looked down at his arm to confirm that it was still whole.

When he had finally calmed down, Ignis asked, "Is it done?"

"Yeah...yeah, it's done." He looked up at her. "I could feel something stop -- my connection to her -- while she, uh, melted me." He felt his stomach lurch at the thought, but knew that he wouldn't barf again. "It's over. I don't know why humans started appearing in your world, but hopefully that stops now, and we can get on with our lives."

"Our lives?"

"If you'll have me in your life, Ignis." He took her hand. "I know you never wanted to stay in a fleshy body, but I'll do my best to make it bearable."

"Oh, Cove...will you make love to me again?" She pulled him toward her.

"Again and again," he replied with a grin. Then he looked down at his wet noodle. "Um, I might need a few minutes."

Later, Cove filled Ignis with his seed once more, but new life was already growing within her stolen body. This strange otherworldly couple and their impending family would face an uncertain future.

---

You open your eyes in a hot, dark cavern, and your sight accustoms itself to the slight glow emanating from a pool of lava behind a waist-high rock wall. In that scant light, you are shocked to find dozens of burnt human skeletons lining the floor. As you try to calm yourself, your attention is drawn to a bubbling in the center of the pool. A human-shaped form made of glowing liquid rock rises from it and regards you with eyes of fire.

"Desire and intent are powerful things in this world," the creature says, its voice deep but compelling, its body shifting slightly into a form more pleasing to your eye. "What is your desire, human?"

The End

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