<Very well. Approach, human.>

I stepped uncertainly forward until I was flanked by Asthenar’s front-most pair of legs. He raised them high overhead, and I reflexively held up my arms over my face. This proved to be a sensible, if perhaps not really necessary, move. In a blur of motion the razor edged pincers disposed of my clothes. He didn’t even bother to rip and tug, just sliced clean through the fabric and let it fall away. First, my jacket and tank top, then my pants and briefs.

Though my hands shielded my vision, I was faintly aware of things fading into view in the previously empty room. When I lowered them, Asthenar was settling into one of three thrones set atop a jasper dais. The demon on his left was some sort of bear/snake chimera, the one on his right, a vampire squid with what seemed like two slender humanoid legs underneath their skirt-like webbing. Around the dais was a 180-degree amphitheater that held a couple dozen other monstrous entities. Perhaps half of them seemed to resemble some phylum or other of life on earth; the rest were amorphous mixtures like Ana, or something else, entirely alien and incomprehensible.

I swallowed, my skin suddenly hot with pinpricks of sweat.

<The Triumvirate of Morai-sa recognizes earthman petitioner Sheldon, the first of his kind to visit in... roughly 90 of your Earth years. Zdrakloyananuiseth, you are here in support of the petitioner?>

I blinked, and looked back over my shoulder at the Anomaly. They’d said their true name was a challenge to human tongues, but this was my first time hearing it. It was, admittedly, a mouthful.

<Yesss,> they said.

<Very well.> The prince steepled his humanoid hands. <State your case, earthman.>

I took a deep nasal breath before speaking.

“Demons of the outer realm, I request your help. As a child, I never felt at home in my body. I wished to live as a man. I also never felt quite sure how to express the sheer breadth of my sexual desires, which went so far beyond simply “men” or “women” or indeed any category of humans. Science has changed my biology, allowing me to look and feel more like myself. But it was the transformer that helped me embrace the whole of myself and the full scope of my desires.

“In the process, my worldview has been greatly expanded. I want to keep walking that path, and to do it safely, I need to be fully in control of my transformations. I need that spark of demon essence, and I’d knowingly, willingly pay your price to get it.”

My judges sat in silent cogitation for a minute. At length, Kaesalpinnix, the bear-serpent spoke. Their expression was serene. <You have explained what the gift is worth to you, earthman. But what will you do with it? Contrary to human belief, we are not without conscience, we strive always for interactions with organic life to be beneficial. How will you represent us to your planet?>

“I am a scientist by profession. Mainly I develop modified food crops to help my species survive, but I believe I’ll find new ways to help by studying my demonic gift. I can also use it when need arises to protect others from violence, from fires and floods, situations that would be deadly for an unmodified human. And, of course, I can use it to bring pleasure to others.”

My response seemed to satisfy the three of them.

The vampire squid, whose name I would learn was Olkayabnothep, had no exposed mouth from which to read an expression, but her eyes felt stern and serious. <You do understand,> she said, <that once begun, once you receive the heart, you must complete the rite and receive the spark from our assembly. Else it will degrade and incinerate you from within.>

“Yes. Either I get the demon bukkake, or I die a grisly death.”

There followed a couple very long, tense minutes of silence as the triumvirate exchanged meaningful glances amongst themselves.

<Good news!> Asthenar said jovially. <You shall have the rare honor to receive a piece of the heart of Olkayabnothep herself. The ritual of transference will start immediately. All others must step back to a safe distance, now.>

I still had no sense of the scale of this “room”, but now the amphitheater seats rushed back to a distance of perhaps a hundred meters. Asthenar himself reared up and skittered off in that direction; Ana and Kaesalpinnix floated along behind him.

“Olkayab—”

<Olkaya will suffice, until you have learned thoughtspeech. We sense you are wondering, yes, we are she, just as Asthenar is he, and they are they.>

“I was of the impression full demons did not have gender.”

<Our identities are complex. We simplify them for the benefit of others. It is the same for you, is it not?>

“I guess you’re right... So what happens now?”

<Embrace us, our head held to your heart.> She extended a pair of long filaments out to either side, and wrapped them around my body. Like Ana, she was warm to the touch. When I pressed her to my chest, I was startled by a little pang of emotion that passed between us.

“I feel... fear? Are you worried for me?”

<No,> she said, <we just don't relish this next part.>

An invisible spear, like a bolt from the heavens, slammed into the two of us with a thunderclap. I could feel it slice through Olkayabnothep’s mantle, liberating a piece of her inscrutable black heart, and then punch a hole in my sternum. I could sense the black heart sliding free, shoving its way into my chest. In the psychic backflow I saw bits and snatches of my life before my eyes.

There’s a reason why we humans do heart surgery under anesthesia. She and I both tipped our heads skyward and screamed. It was like being burned alive in a trash compactor. My knees buckled, and my vision went red.

This must be dying, because living didn’t hurt like this. Obviously something had gone wrong. Soon I would be gone and out of pain. Fuck, shit, no. Josefina. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her this way. Why. Why did I take the risk?

Moments later Olkayabnothep’s demonic healing factor kicked in, and our injuries (be they psychic or physical, I was never 100% clear) mended and faded into the background. When the pain did recede, it was replaced by a breathless rush, incomprehensible hunger, and an urgent thrumming in my pelvic floor muscles.

Olkaya has since explained that, at the moment of transfer, my mortal heart stopped, and the sudden rush of lifesaving energy from black heart to red left me starving for replenishment. All I know is, in that moment, the vampire squid body plan of my benefactor was the pinnacle of sexual attractiveness. For comparison, I’ve had the hugest queer crush on porn actress Charlotte Sartre since before I transitioned. Just then, I felt like I could have walked right past a naked Charlotte and felt nothing; but for Olkayabnothep, for her touch, I’d have committed murder.

<It is done, your eminence,> she said. Then she turned to me with a hawkish spark in her eyes. I shivered.

I could scarcely get out the word “Please—” before Olkayabnothep surged forward, tackling me off my feet and onto the gleaming bubblegum-pink surface of the realm. I barely noticed the impact; all my attention was on the mental connection we’d just formed.

<BEAUTIFUL.>

I was significantly more attuned with her desires and responses than I’d expected to be from past experience with Ana, and the transplant process had left us both animalistically desperate. She was on top of me now, deftly turning my naked body over to face her. I groped for her, and caught hold of the tentacle nearest my face. Her nerve endings sang as I licked and nibbled the rubbery flesh. A pair of filaments, like long thin translucent fingers, traced the contours of my crotch and of the reappeared space dick.

As her arms worked, the webbing between them lifted like a skirt caught in a gale. I could see her mouthparts, pouting and slavering as she grasped my torso and pulled herself down against it. A mucus-clad filament teased my ass open.

<Give yourself, earthman,> she thought at me as her cavernous mouth engulfed my dick, its gossamer lining undulating against my flesh. And here, I surprised myself: I thought something back at her.

<You first, Dame Olkayabnothep.>

It was recognizably my voice, but it rang only in our heads. Olkaya’s massive eyes opened wider with approval. Her skirt-like webbing flapped against my legs and body as I grasped the top of her head and began to thrust us together, fucking her ravenous maw. I shut my eyes tight, focused on the empathic connection between our sensoria.

She was enjoying my body, but it felt like something was missing.

<Should I make it bigger?>

<Not necessary, but we can accommodate more if you wish.>

I was still building the mental picture for myself—this time, a true monster, a foot-long penis with girth to match, and what the hell, maybe a prostate to go with it—when her tendril slipped up my ass and began to slither up the front of my rectum. My eyelids clenched tight, and the plumbing upgrades winked into existence. I swelled to fill her mouth.

<Oh! That’ll do nicely... hmm, what’s this?>

I let out a squeal of shocked pleasure; she’d found the prostate. All her thought turned to the working of that tendril. Her touch set my spine quivering and the tip dribbling.

<I’m not going to last,> I said—

<No, we have another place for that.> Prying herself loose, she bowed her head towards me. <Ready yourself.> I fapped compliantly, but it took a moment to figure out what she was trying to show me. A little pink orifice was puckering right in the center of her forehead.

<FILL US.> Her words compelled me toward eruption; so, too, did the feeling of gentle pressure as her tendril fed itself up my ass, over my prostate and into my literal guts. The newly enlarged space dick was so unwieldy that I needed both hands to beat it off, and only the tip of me could fit her receptacle. Presently the leaking became a spurting; I moaned with pleasure.

"Ohhh, holy fuck!"

<MORE.>

Her will hit me like a jolt of electricity, somehow localized to where her tendrils met my flesh. The powerful contractions in my pelvis refused to die out. I was becoming unsteady on my feet. A shot of cum went wide of her, arcing off to be caught instead by someone in the periphery of my vision.

That someone turned out to be Kaesalpinnix, deftly catching a few errant droplets on their long scroll-like tongue. With a grumble they unceremoniously grabbed Olkayabnothep and tossed her aside. I gasped as the business end of her tendril came flying out my butt, accompanied by a staccato burst of flatulence. Still dizzied by her overpowering will, I couldn’t help but laugh.

<You and she are too in sync,> said Kae. <She might have worn you out all by herself. The Prince will see to her.>