Limitless Path

"What's up?" Beth asked as she set the underwear and elixir on the end of the vanity.

"Sorry, just a little, like, nervous, I guess," Sabs said as she finished washing her hands and wiping before exclaiming, "Beth!"

She had turned to find Beth shirtless and bent over, in the process of pulling off her pants. Beth finished with that before straightening and dropping her pants on top of her shirt on the floor. She turned to Sabs to see her girlfriend looking like an overripe tomato.

"Like what you see?" she asked, only faintly flushed, and struck a pose. Sabs looked down and covered her face, eliciting a hearty laugh from Beth.

"Don't toss your clothes on the floor like that," she mumbled in response, moving to pick up Beth's discarded clothes. As she bent down and grabbed the shirt and pants, a piece of cloth fell on the back of her head. She straightened her back to immediately come face to chest with Beth's rather impressive breasts, getting out a half-shriek, half-strangled, "Beth!"

Beth just laughed in response, saying, "There's still one more."

"Sorry, I think this is just too much for me, Beth," Sabs said with a shake of her head, dumping Beth's clothes on end of the vanity opposite her clean underwear.

"No problem, I don't want to make you uncomfortable," Beth replied with a little chuckle.

"Yeah, sorry, I'll wait in the main room," Sabs said, still trying to look everywhere but at Beth's chest.

"Probably for the best," Beth said, tapping her chin, already entirely comfortable with her current state of undress around Sabs. "If it works like in stories, and based on what Jaq said, it does, this'll stink like fucking hell."

"OK, I'm doubly out," Sabs said, darting out of the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

"Well, this is going to be even less enjoyable," Beth muttered grumpily as she shucked her panties and grabbed the elixir.

She moved over to the tub, hopping in the nearest area to sit. The tub had four areas where people could sit, just far enough apart that Beth couldn't quite put her feet up on the opposite seat area across from her. If someone were sitting there, however, she would be able to set her feet on at very least their knees if not their thighs. She left the water off for now, not wanting to add that into the mix just yet.

Well, she thought, time to get stronger. Beth held up the elixir in her left hand and grabbed the stopper with her right, popping it out. With a deep breath, smelling a scent that was like iron and bark and faintly cinnamon, she brought the vial to her lips before tilting her head back, downing the whole thing in six or seven great swallows. She reached out and set the vial and stopper outside the tub before pulling her arm back in, already feeling like a fire was dropping down her esophagus and spreading outward from there, the elixir not waiting for her stomach to get to work.

She could feel as the liquid spread through her veins, it feeling like her blood was becoming superheated as the elixir went to work. It was already rather painful, Beth clenching her teeth in response, but it was nothing compared to what happened after a minute. When her circulatory system was fully inundated, the elixir started seeping in her bones, and it felt like her bones were being melted. She was now clenching her fists and grunting, able to keep from screaming with a sheer effort of will. Once her bones were fully melted, at least to her senses, it caused what felt like a feedback loop with her blood, causing it to now feel like molten iron was coursing through her veins.

Beth panted as she tried to focus on just staying conscious, the pain having slid from a five out of ten to an eleven out of ten over the course of fifteen or so seconds. She lost track of everything as she felt what the elixir was doing to her body, feeling like she was plunged into a vat of molten metal. The pain seemed to stretch forever, Beth having no idea if seconds or days were passing. At a certain point, she attempted to distract herself by trying to use Focused Meditation to, for lack of a better term, focus on what the elixir was doing to her. She found it immensely difficult on two fronts, both the pain hindering her as well as the fact that it seemed she wasn't able to analyze what was happening. The elixir's effects were too complicated and happening at too fine a level, controlled with too advanced magic, for her to be able to track what exactly how it was changing her.

The next event to occur Beth was almost entirely unaware of, as her veins started to release a kind of sludge. It was pushed to the surface of her body, oozing out through her pores as she sat and panted. A wave of stench spread out from her, smelling like a combination of burnt metal and rotten eggs. It was bad, but it got oh so much worse when the work of remolding Beth's bones started pushing out impurities and weaker material. The sludge from her bones took longer to get out through her pores, but once that more viscous substance started oozing out, the smell almost became corporeal. It was like someone had thrown burning tires and scrap metal into a pool of rotten eggs and liquid shit.

Beth by this point was almost totally coated in sludge, several minutes having passed. Her teeth, fists, and…well…everything was still clenched, and her veins and arteries were still standing out starkly, having taken on a slight greyish iron color. Even her hair wasn't left alone, with sludge have emerged from her scalp, likely from both the veins in her head and her skull producing the waste. The process lasted many minutes, with Beth panting heavily the whole time, though she never cried out or even groaned, the sound of her heavy breathing the only noise in the room.

Eventually, Beth's clenched posture started to ease, and she relaxed back into the seat. After a moment, she reached up to wipe at her eyes, managing to smudge sludge around and not really clear them out. She fumbled for a minute before managing to knock open the valve for the bath’s faucet, letting water start gushing into the large central part of the tub. She was able to quickly get her right hand somewhat clean before she wiped her eyes, getting enough gunk off to be able to open them.

The sight before her was pretty disturbing, considering it was pretty much all caused by her. Even with the water running, there was an inch thick layer of sludge on the bottom of the central area of the tub that was fighting valiantly against the drain. There was a several inch thick layer surrounding and on Beth, and she grimaced heavily as she made a wet sucking sound as she stood. She started to clean herself as best she could using just the tub faucet, which was about at her mid-thigh in terms of height. She started with the top of her head, the deep grimace staying as she felt the gunk clotted thick in her dark, silky hair. It made sense, even if it was gross, given that the elixir strengthened her bones and her skull was one large bone.

After two or so minutes just to try to get her hair and ears cleaned, she scraped most of what was left off of her face, spitting twice to get a little crud out of her mouth. She tried scrubbing her body next, having to use her nails at some points to try to pry the gunk loose, not enjoying the feeling of clawing out her own armpits in particular. She moved to her arms after a minute, feeling that her back was still coated but not able to do much about it. Trying to scrape one arm with another was tedious and slowed the process down, Beth afraid at this point her face would get stuck in a grimace.

She moved on to her legs after a handful of minutes, starting with her butt and working her way down. She eventually, many minutes later, was mostly cleared of the horrific goo, and decided it was time to hit the shower. She carefully padded over to the large enclosure, keeping any gunk from dropping onto the floor, before quickly slipping into the small room. The shower was big enough that she had to take several steps to get to the controls on the back, and she turned the four overhead faucets on to quite hot water at full blast. There was a rack of supplies by the controls that included loofahs and washcloths, as well as soaps and shampoos. She first stepped under the massive deluge at the center of the room, giving the fast-flowing water a chance to scour away more of the surface crud.

Her next order of business was her hair and, while she didn't really put much stock in her looks or her inky locks, she did remember her cute girlfriend waiting in the next room. Best that she not come out of this looking like a total disaster. She utilized a thick, cream and lavender smelling shampoo to do three separate washes before she was satisfied enough to move on to a slightly sweet-smelling conditioner. Satisfied with her hair, she grabbed a rough textured loofah and the heaviest-duty soap on the rack and worked up an impressive lather before scouring the crud, and her outermost layer of skin, off with gusto. This still wasn't enough for her, not yet feeling actually clean, and she repeated the process a second time after she had rinsed clean, her skin now red and raw but spotless.

Next, she fiddled with the controls until she had turned on two side jets, setting them to maximum blast and very hot water. She proceeded to use them for a final clean, not using soap but just standing right up next to them while twisting all around. She liked the way the force of the water slammed into her skin and pushed against her, especially in certain areas such as her armpits, scouring them rather longer than was strictly necessary to enjoy the feeling. She even took advantage of her much-increased DEX to stand on one foot and let the other foot and ankle get thoroughly blasted, making sure she was as rinsed down as possible.

She finally shut the shower down, more than pleased with the experience, having only really done quick scrubs before this point in the unit. She was also quite positive she was well cleaned at this point, and she stepped out and grabbed one of the ubiquitous towels that there were stacks of in the bathroom. She toweled herself off quite well before heading over to the tub with a sigh. She made sure to be careful as she turned the tub back on and spent some time cleaning all the remaining gunk out. Fortunately, her care meant she got only a tiny amount on her hands, which she thoroughly washed afterwards.

At long last, she was squeaky clean, fully naked, and exhausted. She grabbed the boxers and bra she had brought in and threw them on before making her way to the door and opening it to enter the living room. She saw Sabs and Blood sitting together, Sabs on the couch with Blood on her hind legs in front of her. Both looked over as the bathroom door opened, and Sabs made to rise, but Beth motioned her to stay on the couch. She moved into the kitchen first to get something to drink, grabbing one of the sports-drink equivalents before heading out to the couch.

She plonked down next to Sabs and wrapped her right arm around the small girl, kicking her feet up on the table as she pulled Sabs in tight. The older girl leaned into Beth, snuggling against her as Beth chugged her sports drink. Beth finished the whole thing and tossed the bottle back on the table, her increased stats letting her land the bottle upright in the center of the table with ease. She tilted her head back and let out a huge belch, Sabs letting out a giggle in response.

"What's the verdict?" Beth asked.

"Seven-point-five out of ten," Sabs replied.

"Huh, I can do better," Beth shot back, rubbing her right hand up and down the outside of Sabs' arm.

The two sat for a while in silence, enjoying each other's company as they watched some random show Sabs had put on the wall screen. Sabs nestled deeper against Beth as they sat, enjoying the feel of her warmth and loving the scents from the long shower. She took one deep breath after another as she buried her face in the side of Beth's right breast, feeling incredibly content.

Eventually, Beth got up and moved over to the lights, turning them off, before moving back to the couch and picking up Sabs with one arm. The smaller girl made a pleased grumble, snuggling against Beth as she moved into the bedroom, shutting the door behind them. Blood had jumped onto the couch as soon as Sabs had been picked up, clearly staying in the living room for the night.

Beth set Sabs down on the edge of the bed, where the older girl proceeded to shuck her outer layers of clothes before crawling up to the head of the bed. Beth hopped in behind her, crawling right on top of Sabs as she rolled onto her back. Beth slid her arms under the smaller girl, snuggling close as Sabs wrapped her own arms around Beth's shoulders before burying her face in the top of Beth's chest.

Beth, not wanting to fully smother Sabs, rolled to the left onto her side, still keeping Sabs wrapped up tight. She moved her legs forward slightly, easily entangling Sabs' short, svelte legs with her own long, muscled ones. Suitably entwinned, the two luxuriated in the feeling of each other's warmth and smooth skin. Beth only enjoyed it for a moment, the elixir having taken quite a lot out of her, and she drifted off to sleep in a short handful of seconds.

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