You can buy this story here: Lyris's Excursion (Anya's Odyssey 2)
The Story Thus Far:
Anya was genius explorer, with a net worth in the hundreds of millions, and one of the most athletic women in the world. Despite all of this, she faced a seemingly unconquerable enemy: her own mortality. With middle-age approaching, Anya grew desperate to find some way to halt and preferably reverse the aging process.
On a whim, and under the encouragement of her personal butler/assistant, Chuck, Anya returned to an ancient tomb that had befuddled her decades prior. Armed with years of learning and experience, the now older Anya found a way to finally enter the tomb: by sacrificing some of her own blood. Within, she found a mysterious vial of liquid and a map, both of which she brought home with her.
Eager to discover what this bizarre substance was, Anya did the unthinkable and drank half of the liquid. There were no immediate effects, but over the next few weeks, Anya’s life changed forever. She began to not only literally age in reverse, but also gained pound after pound of muscle each day, growing taller as well.
Fate wouldn’t let Anya slowly ascend to goddesshood in peace however. A young, lithe woman, somewhat similar to Anya in her 20s, had been spying the manor for quite some time, preparing to break in and steal whatever artifacts she could. One evening, this woman, named Lyris, finally enacted her plan. She eventually stumbled upon the other half of the water and the map Anya had plundered. Anya, who was now a tremendous creature in stature and ferocity, confronted the intruder, resulting in an intense escape that Lyris barely survived.
Back in her apartment, disappointed that she only managed to snag the seemingly least valuable items in the mansion, Lyris decided to celebrate the heist the only way she could: by drinking the liquid. Over the next few weeks, Lyris had a transformation of her own. While she did not age in reverse, as she was already in the prime of her life, Lyris found herself growing stronger with each passing day, eventually developing biceps comparable to softballs.
The young woman made the connection that this mysterious liquid was what had turned Anya into such a powerful amazon. Intrigued, she carefully inspected the map that had accompanied the magical serum, and discovered that it outlined multiple locations around the world. Emptying her savings in a desperate attempt to obtain more power for her inevitable rematch with Anya, Lyris made the trek to one of the destinations: the Himalayas.
After traversing the mountain on foot for hours, Lyris eventually stumbled into a cavern, injuring herself in the process. In the darkness, she found a mysterious stone door. Next to this otherwise featureless entry was the stone outline of a hand. With nothing to lose, Lyris brought her bloodied digits up to the imprint; suddenly, the rumbling of stones filled the air, and the door slowly opened…
1.) Immediately After Chapter 1 (Anya’s Oddysey)
Lyris stepped into the darkness of the mysterious entryway before her. Upon crossing the threshold, she found that the light from outside did not penetrate the sheet of black obscuring her vision. Confused, she retrieved a flashlight from her pocket, only to find that even its artificial beams were rendered useless; the darkness remained entirely intact.
From behind her, the rumbling of the stone door could be heard again, as it made its descent back down. She considered escaping, but in her hesitation, the rock fell faster than anticipated, landing with a crash.
There was no light whatsoever. Lyris had never seen anything like it before. There had always been some form of illumination, be it ever so faint, either from natural or artificial means. Most concerning, her flashlight was actually ON, it simply produced nothing. Lyris reached into her pocket, grabbing her cell-phone. This too, produced no light at all, and Lyris could not see its screen, rendering the device nearly useless.
Fear began to set in. What would she do? With no other option, she trudged forward with careful, measured steps, making sure to not accidentally trip on something in the process; such a misstep could prove fatal in this situation.
Eventually she stumbled upon something at her feet. She reached forward, and her hands instinctively moved towards an effectively invisible object. Eventually her grasp met what felt like… an amulet. Suddenly, a purple light projected from the mysterious item, faintly illuminating the room. The true shape of the amulet made itself known to Lyris: A tremendously large violet gemstone lay in its center, connected to a chain of presumably pure gold.
In fact, it was the largest gemstone Lyris had ever seen. Her knees quivered slightly, and chills ran down her spine. Having spent years of her life breaking into museums to steal objects like this, her eyes grew wide with childlike glee at the sight of such a magnificent find. “I can only imagine what that baby is worth…” she mused out loud.
Before acting on the treasure, Lyris looked around her now-visible surroundings and noted that the room was small, very small. It appeared to be some kind of shrine, though her education on the topic wasn’t nearly as vast as Anya’s, so she could only wager a guess at best.
Above the amulet’s resting place, on the wall directly in front of Anya, she could see a series of letters. Any normal person would’ve been unable to discern their shape, but her transformed body allowed her to see them clearly. At first they looked like gibberish: various letters from entirely different alphabets, and even some hieroglyphs. This seemed strange to Lyris, but once again, unlike Anya, she lacked the education to truly understand the significance of such a mishmash.
Lyris continued to stare at the symbols, racking her brain to see if she could find any discernable meaning to them. After ten seconds of intense thought, something happened: in Lyris’s vision, the letters seemed to… move. They continued to shift and whirl until eventually they spelled out a message in plain English: “She with the Blood of a Goddess, take The Amulet if thou seeketh power. Beware, for The Amulet is one that helps seal The Darkness, remove it only if you are prepared.”
The blonde beauty scratched her head. She had no idea what the message meant about darkness. She guessed that this ‘The Darkness’ must have referred to how dark the room was.
“Well… I DO seek power. As much as possible, since I have to be able to defend myself from that madwoman Anya… plus power IS fun… really fun… That darkness was a bit scary, but I think that having more power would be a good offset; as long as I can figure out how to get out here. I came this far, so may as well, plus just look at the size of that gem…!” she monologued to herself before grabbing the amulet.
As she grasped the artifact, its light dimmed, and the eerie, impenetrable darkness of the room returned. Fortunately, Lyris always had extremely good coordination from her thieving days, which was enhanced even further from the ‘Goddess’s Blood’ she drank a few weeks prior. She clasped the amulet around her neck. To her surprise, despite the tremendously hefty gemstone in its center, it seemed weightless.
Suddenly, a strange sensation overtook Lyris; she felt… energetic and good. Even more energetic and even more good than she usually felt. She heard a whisper in her head: a mysterious utterance from an unknown dialect. Despite not knowing what the words meant, Lyris could sense their intent. They were urging her to… She concentrated on generating light.
At that moment, the violet light from the amulet returned; this time, it was brighter than before, better illuminating the room; and it was… emitting directly from her chest! Lyris glanced down and was tremendously shocked to find that the gemstone was IN her chest! She let out an audible gasp, and stumbled backwards before collecting herself and reaching up to feel it. There was no denying it – the amulet had somehow… fused with her.
What did this mean? What was that voice? Realizing that she had willed the light to turn on, Lyris focused on making the light brighter, and the gemstone did as she willed: illuminating the room even more greatly.
2.)
To Lyris’s surprise, the mysterious words on the wall had entirely vanished.
Thoroughly freaked out with the events that had transpired, Lyris wanted to get out of this weird shrine thing, and figure out what exactly having a gemstone fused into her chest really meant. She turned around and headed towards the exit. The stone door was still down. Lyris pushed against it to no avail. That was when the noise started again: the familiar stone rumbling.
This time however, the door wasn’t moving. Worried, Lyris quickly looked around the room and found… the walls themselves were trembling! A few moments passed, and slowly, but surely, the walls began to move, caving inward towards the center.
Lyris’s eyes grew wide. She had seen enough action movies (the very ones that had inspired her to become a thief in the first place) to know what was coming next: The walls were undoubtedly going to cave in, crushing her in the process.
Unsure of what else she could possibly do, Lyris continued to push against the stone door with no avail. The walls continued to slowly and ominously close in. Desperate and frustrated, she ran over to the right-hand wall and began shoving against it in a plea to try and preserve her life. Lyris dug her feet into the ground, her thick, powerful legs expanding with vitality as the muscles found themselves taxed; her upper body similarly swelled up to new proportions.
“If only I was stronger!” She yelled out, grunting and groaning with effort she put everything she had into trying to stop the slow, deliberate march of the wall.
The more Lyris pushed, the more the incredible sense of energy that had flooded her upon donning the amulet welled within her. Was it possible? Was she getting… stronger? “YES! MORE!” She yelled, “MORE ENERGY! MORE STRENGTH! MORE POWER!”
Despite her efforts, Lyris was still being slowly pushed back by the slowly moving obstacle that threatened to take her life. Her focus sharpened, and Lyris pulled internally for more inner strength. The sensation continue to well to greater and greater heights, and a moment later, Lyris heard a strange fleshy ripping sound; it was her.
Lyris’s muscles were growing, slowly and surely; same as the slow assault of the oncoming stone walls. She was too preoccupied to see the changes, but Lyris could sense that she was getting stronger. “Have to keep pushing…” she grunted, pulling from within even more.
During all of this, the gemstone fused into Lyris’s chest continued to glow brighter and brighter; had her eyes not been shut from the complete and utter focus she required, Lyris would have likely shielded her sight from the very light she was producing.
The sound of muscle fibers ripping and instantly rebuilding themselves grew louder. Lyris could feel her already meaty biceps and deltoids pushing against the rest of her body. The sound of fabric slowly tearing joined the other sounds, creating a bizarre symphony of flesh, cloth, and stone, all grinding; in a sense, the entire shrine had transformed into a machine that would test Lyris – either transforming her into a living goddess, or unceremoniously ending her life.
Lyris’s growth continued. The hems of her shorts split open as her trunk-like legs, brimming with unbridled power, required room to breathe. The back of her vest similarly began to part, as her growing back demanded more and more fabric to cover it, fabric that simply did not exist. Her arms were comparable to Anya’s, and their thick veins pulsated the same violet color of the gemstone in her chest.
The wall she was pressing against seemed to slow down, though it was still gaining ground. Lyris glanced over her shoulder, and found that the other wall was drawing nearer still. She continued to desperately push against the first, culminating in yet another growth spurt, and the wall slowing down ever so slightly.
Lyris’s efforts mattered not, for the second wall still threatened to end her life in a mere few moments, as it had finally reached arm’s length of the girl. Unsure of what else to do, she placed one hand on the wall she was pushing against, and the other against the second wall.
Her muscles continued to quake, shake, and grow ever larger with each passing moment. Strength was flooding into her, but it seemed to not be enough.
With both walls simultaneously pushing against her, Lyris spread her legs out, which were fortunately still supremely flexible despite their musculature, and pressed with all four limbs, two on each wall. Her life on the line, Lyris screamed as she begged – no, demanded- that her body continue to grow and adapt to the task at hand. It did exactly that, and her strength skyrocketed.
Despite these efforts, Lyris was still slowly being crushed, and she had to allow herself to cave in slightly to avoid having her bones crushed to dust.
Her muscles were becoming so immense that the clothing covering Lyris continued to shred and fall off, bit by bit, moment by moment. A few seconds later, her back had become so broad, so wide, so ripped, that her vest turned to shreds, gracefully falling to the floor. Her bra followed suit, revealing her tremendous body: An upside down V of muscle so exaggerated that it looked impossible, lats absurdly wide juxtaposed to a model’s waist; biceps larger than her head next to a face more beautiful than any living model. Between her physique and the gemstone fused in to her chest, Lyris truly looked more like a comic book character than a real human being.
The walls’ progress slowed down. The grinding sound of stone became less pronounced. Lyris let out another scream, and her shorts fell to shreds to give way to her obscene lower body; her undergarments quickly followed suit. All of the other possessions Lyris brought with her fell likewise.
Fully naked, and brimming with more muscle than any human being could ever hope to possess, Lyris finally started pushing the stones back. Slowly, the stone yielded to her unstoppable force. After pushing them back as far as her limbs would go, a large clicking noise rang out. The walls had stopped entirely.
With a sigh of relief, Lyris fell to the ground and gathered herself.
She didn’t have long to rest however, as another stone rumbling could be heard; this time the ceiling was shaking! The small amount of stone above her was quickly descending. Lyris would later posit that by defeating the first trap, as indicated with the clicking sound, she had activated a second one.
Lyris considered attempting escape, but the ceiling gave her no time. She put her arms up, and soon stone met hands. Lyris had hoped that her triumph over the walls would translate to instant success against the falling ceiling, but her hopes proved false. Slowly, the ceiling began to push her down, forcing Lyris to slowly descend onto her knees.
The blonde continued to scream, summoning even further strength from within. Her muscles slowly grew once more, as ever greater reserves of strength made themselves known to her. The descent of the ceiling was slowing slightly, but Lyris was still losing.
The battle raged on, as Lyris quite literally grew stronger and stronger just to preserve her own life. If she failed here, if she did not ascend to godhood, then her existence would be finished.
This reminder helped her grow even faster, and a few seconds later, after falling to her knees, Lyris finally mustered the strength to fully halt the ceiling’s descent. Summoning up even more power, she slowly began to push the stone upward, gradually rising to her feet in the process.
Lyris’s back and quadriceps in particular exploded with sheer power, and a minute later, she was holding the ceiling in place. Unfortunately, there was no clicking sound to indicate that the trap had been defeated. Instead, Lyris had to gather enough strength to maintain the ceiling in place while moving forward. She alternated the placement of her hands while taking deliberate steps forward.
After a painstaking process, Lyris finally made it to the front door of the shrine. The door was still closed, but she refused to allow this obstacle to stand in her way. Lyris brought her foot back, gathered her strength, and with one mighty blow, kicked the stone door wide open with her bare feet.
The entryway finally open, Lyris released the ceiling from her grasp while diving forward through the exit in one swift motion. Behind her, the tremendous stone that threatened her life fell to the ground, sealing off the shrine forever.
3.)
Lyris stood up. The cavern was still pitch black, but with a small amount of focus, Lyris found that she could will the gemstone in her chest to produce its familiar violet light. With her surrondings illuminated, she could finally take inventory of her body.
The young woman let out an audible gasp at what she saw. Beneath her gaze was the most unfathomably muscular body she could imagine. Every inch of her tall form was etched with bulging, marble muscle – all covered in velvet skin. Lyris glanced over at her arm and flexed it, the resulting bicep was so intimidating that it actually intimidated her! It was as large as her head, peaked, and ripped with endless striations of definition. The thick veins running across it occasionally pulsated with the same purple as the gemstone; something that would have frightened Lyris had she not been saved by that very power.
With a body like this, what could possibly stop her? She was by far the strongest human being alive, even stronger than Anya now, unless the older woman had somehow vastly increased her own strength since they last met. Lyris felt an ache of desire for a reunion with Anya. She would dominate that magnificent specimen, and have some real fun. There was no man on Earth that could provide what Anya’s body would.
Lyris gazed up at opening from where she had fallen from. The light shining down was at least twelve solid feet above her, and there seemed to be no possible grips for her to grab onto and scale up.
A crazy thought crossed Lyris’s mind. “Let’s see what these legs can do.” She crouched down, gathered her strength, and leaped vertically with everything she had. The amazon soared into the air, the sheer image of the act would be comical to behold as she ascended the full dozen feet. Lyris then grabbed onto the ledge, and effortlessly lifted herself upward, her back muscles exploding in harmony from the effort.
Lyris dusted herself off. “It cost me everything I had, but it seems my little excursion was successful. Now to return to civilization.” She gazed into the horizon; surprisingly, Lyris found that she could perfectly recall precisely where she came from.
The young woman realized that her belongings, in particular her wallet, phone, and credit cards, were lost forever within the shrine. She would have to procure a way back to the city, thousands of miles away, on the other side of the planet.
Her next destination was a small village she had scouted on her way to the shrine. The people would gawk at her tremendous, naked form, especially with that massive gemstone in her chest; but what could they really do? She was a goddess already, and there seemed to be no limit to how powerful she could become. Lyris would be merciful to the villagers, but they’d still need to serve her during her visit.
You can buy this story here: Lyris's Excursion (Anya's Odyssey 2)