War God for Hire- Mercenary: A Reincarnation, Cultivation, Litrpg Adventure

by David Burke

  The morning after he’d finally bonded with Marie, one of the staff told him that Meeka wanted to speak with him in her office. He expected she wanted to give him a mundane update on their supply levels or recruiting efforts. So, he wasn’t prepared to find a distracted, even flustered, Meeka fidgeting behind her desk as she waited for him.

  “I was up all night, thinking about what you said to me yesterday,” the demi-goddess said. She kept her eyes on her desk as she fussed with a small stack of paper in front of her.

  Kyle watched as dusky rose points bloomed on her cheeks—was the succubus demi blushing?

  She took a deep breath and sat up straighter before looking him in the eye. “I don’t know what I’m going to be able to do to make you believe in me, but I want to offer you a piece of knowledge that might help you understand me better… and hopefully improve your opinion of me,” she said.

  Kyle nodded for her to continue.

  “As you may know, succubi don’t eat like normal beings do.”

  He smirked at her, nodding.

  “Oh, I can eat normal food, too, and even enjoy it—a good red wine really does it for me, but it just isn’t the same.”

  She sighed wistfully. “Just as your construct can’t survive without essence, so my body can’t go without another type of nourishment.”

  “I’m not sure where this is going, but I’m definitely not going to let you start fucking people to death for sustenance,” Kyle growled.

  “No, I told you before—it isn’t like that… well, it doesn’t have to be like that.” Her cheeks heated again and she had to turn away. “

  “I… I haven’t actually done that very many times since taking Meeka’s face as a cover.”

  He leaned forward in his chair, his knuckles turning white and the poor arms of the chair groaned.

  “No! Not once since meeting you, M’lord… I only need powerful emotions, not intercourse.” She ducked her head, cringing.

  Kyle settled back in his chair; his eyebrow arched.

  She flushed again. “Well, it has to be Lust Essence gathered by the strong emotions that come with sexual pleasure, and I can even absorb it from the air.” Meeka frowned. “Sure, it feels better if I’m directly involved, but I’ve managed to live for years on the other. My divine splinter makes me far more resilient than most succubi.”

  “Okay, so why are you telling me this?”

  Again, she looked down. “I don’t want you to think that I’m inherently evil. I don’t go around killing for no reason.”

  Her head came up and she glared at him. “Although, I won’t deny there is plenty of blood on my hands.”

  This was the Meeka he’d come to know. Kyle relaxed a bit, glad to see she was being open with him.

  “The thing is, now that I’ve moved into the guild hall, I have a problem. I have refrained for months from having sex with anyone, in the hopes of catching your eye.” She grimaced. I‘m still amazed that you refused me and maybe that makes me want you all the more, but it is what it is.”

  “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel about any of this. Let me just be blunt. What do you want from me?” Kyle asked.

  “In the past, the present, or long term?” She responded to his question with one of her own.

  Kyle shrugged. “What the hell, all three.”

  “Originally, I didn’t know what you were. I thought you were just a fragment of Krig and I wanted to consume your essence, in the hope that it would raise me to divine status, or at least make me powerful enough that I could live in peace.” She shrugged. “As you may have figured out, the lives of demi-gods are not very peaceful. We are created—usually for some purpose—by our divine parents who then consider us expendable. We hunt one another, and mortal mages would do anything to get their hands on us.”

  “You have my sympathy. It can’t have been easy being the child of Bedrag. He connected to deceit because his desires were always so shallow—at least in my opinion.” Kyle shook his head. “Every child should be protected by their father.”

  Meeka smiled softly and seemed to appreciate his sympathy. With a start, she squeezed her eyes shut and then shook her head, trying to stay focused. “Don’t forget that my mother is the queen of a soul sucking variant of nymphomaniacal fiends.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure that didn’t make for an easy childhood, either.” He cocked his head to the side. “I wonder why some of the more depraved gods don’t spend more time with your kind.”

  “Simple enough,” Meeka snorted. “My mother may not be an archfiend, but she is close enough that there is no difference. And while no fiend or archfiend can stop a god, who is aware of their powers, what about a thousand? Five thousand?”

  She shrugged, “the pleasure isn’t worth the risk.”

  “Probably not the best thing to tell me, if you hope to win a place in my inner circle,” Kyle said thoughtfully.

  “Don’t remind me.” Meeka rubbed at her temples. “I’m trying to be truthful and it feels so… unnatural.”

  She frowned. “Anyway, after I figured out what you were, I became curious about how far you might grow. When it first started to seem that you were getting too powerful to handle, I considered having Barak and I team up on you, but ultimately decided I’d rather try to earn my place at your side as your consort.”

  He gave her a deadpan look.

  “What? It’s how mortal women have gained a respectable position of power in a world dominated by men for as long as Verden has been around.” Meeka shrugged. “I figured it wouldn’t be this hard to seduce you and claim such a position.”

  “That explains quite a bit about why you did what you’ve done.” Kyle smiled as he asked, “What about the present?”

  “That is simple. I want to be allowed to sleep in your room.”

  “I thought I was clear that I’m not ready to trust you that much, Meeka,” Kyle replied.

  “I figured as much,” she shook her head sadly. “But all I meant, is that I want to be in your room when you and your women are fucking. The energy from a divine fucking is so much more delicious than that of mortals and your women all have such distinctive flavors,” Meeka said and squirmed in her seat.

  He wasn’t sure, but he thought she might be rubbing her thighs together.

  When he frowned again, she added, “but if that would be too awkward, then I ask that let me build a room next to yours—sharing a wall with the headboard of your bed. I can thin out the wall and hopefully absorb what I need just by being that close.”

  This was definitely not something Kyle had expected to have to deal with. She seemed to be being honest with him, though, so he wanted to reward that. “A month, heck, a week ago and I would have declined such a request outright.”

  Kyle pinched the bridge of his nose and then continued, “but not now. Verden is not the same as where I am from, so I am trying to adapt.” He glared at her. “On one condition though, you have to only get your sustenance from us and not from any other mortals.”

  “Yes, M’lord.”

  “And what about the future? What do you want from me for the future?”

  “I’d rather not answer that yet… umm, I don’t really know yet,” Meeka hedged.

  Kyle stared at her with more than just his curiosity in his eyes. “Which is it? You don’t want to answer, or you don’t know.”

  An awkward silence followed as Meeka stared shuffled the papers on her desk. “I’m afraid that if I lie to you, you will know it… but that if I tell you the truth, you will destroy me.”

  Kyle immediately went on high alert. He wanted to give her every chance, but he wasn’t going to be stupid about it. “I will hear you out,” he finally said, “and judge you fairly. Even if I don’t agree to do what you want, I won’t strike you down just for speaking the truth.”

  She paused again before she began speaking. “First off, you can do things that no other god can do. I have seen you reclaim the es
sences of the lost gods and I have seen you activating the bloodlines of those you bind to yourself. Even with Saber, you blessed him with significant upgrades.”

  She looked down and took a deep breath. “I had to ask myself what I might become if you enhanced me. My first thought was, perhaps, to become the goddess of deceit; I thought you might allow me to take my father’s throne when you kill the other gods.”

  “What makes you think I intend to kill the other gods?” Kyle asked. “We will need their strength against the enemy that is coming.”

  “Maybe, but you have already shown that you don’t care for strength for its own sake.” She reached her hand out over the desk to him. “If you only wanted power, you would bed me, enjoy yourself, and then try to use my power for your own purposes. If you worry about me being unreliable as an ally, how much more will you have to worry about beings who refuse to acknowledge the existence of the enemy and have the power of gods?”

  Her logic was sound, but Kyle suspected there was more to it. “Fine, you said that was what your first thought was… what is it you really want?”

  “I want to master Space Essence.”

  He snorted.

  “Now, I don’t know how, but you have taught the lycan to use Space Essence, or maybe at least you have given her the ability to gather it. I am fiend born, too, and likely would have far more aptitude for it than Kierra.” She squared her shoulders and met his eyes. “I want you to awaken my abilities within me.”

  The two looked at each other for a while. Eventually, Kyle said, “Thank you for being honest with me. Now, we do need to speak about one other thing.”

  “What is that?”

  “I mean to take over the city when next I meet with the Governor. I will not allow his ineptitude and greed to continue to cost innocents their lives.” Kyle’s tone made it clear that he would not accept another option.

  Her eyes lit up. “I can lay the foundations for this, M’lord. Thank you for trusting me with this,” Meeka responded. She seemed genuinely excited. Then again, it was probably the sort of thing that was exactly up her aisle.

  After a little further discussion, that was the last he’d seen Meeka for the three days they agreed it would take to set things up, although he did notice that workmen immediately began modifying the room next to his.

  In the grand scheme of things, this was of limited importance. He had to train himself and the rest of his team. As he had expected, Marie turned out to be the most powerful of companions now, followed by Kierra. Kyle felt a little bit bad for Gilthan and Skrug, but they were always going to be at a disadvantage now. That is, unless Kyle learned how to improve them through some means other than dual cultivation. He was able to enhance their bodies some as he got better at concentrating living tissue, but physical might would only carry them so far in the battles ahead.

  He also found time to empower a dozen officers that Saber hand-picked for him to bless. It would have been better if they could have waited a bit longer before taking this step, but Kyle felt they were already working with borrowed time. Saber was already working around the clock, so he needed help.

  Kyle felt it was the least he could do, since he was far too busy to help train the massive influx of new recruits himself. The guild had swelled to more than seven hundred soldiers, but that wasn’t going to be nearly enough, if that huge army of undead came at them.

  It turned out that Saber wasn’t the only one training people, though. Marie was busy with the refugees. She’d only found thirty followers that met her standards, but she swore that if he gave her a year, they would all be warriors to make him proud. Of course, they both knew he didn’t have a year to give her.

  Gilthan continued to scout the enemy, but with the vampires patrolling in much larger packs, it became just too dangerous. Soon, they were cut off from any real information about what was happening to the south. At least the zombie attacks had stopped. Although Kyle assumed that meant the necromancer’s focus was on Calrissi. He wondered how long the capital could hold out.

  Skrug continued to grow stronger. Saber had assigned the handful of half-human warriors to the dire troll. He called them nutcrackers, because their role in any battle would be to break through the strongest part of the enemy lines.

  Nyda had become frustrated and withdrawn, when it became obvious they weren’t going to get any privacy in what little time Kyle had to spend with his girls. He was frustrated, too, but could relieve those frustrations with Kierra or Marie. He tried to give her some space.

  It had to have been embarrassing to come out like that and ask for him to make love to her, but then one thing after another kept getting in the way.

  She’d done one big favor for him, though. Nyda had taken it upon herself to keep Froggy occupied. That was especially useful after the second day, when Hav’s minion had cornered him in the hallway. Kyle could simply have moved her out of his way but doing so would have required him to physically force his way past her, and that likely wouldn’t have gone over well.

  “Why haven’t you made any time to talk to me? Hav is most displeased. You were supposed to include me as part of your team and yet you haven’t even invited me into your bedroom,” she complained.

  Kyle started to point out why that would have been inappropriate, when another part of what she said stuck with him. “Wait… you said Hav is unhappy. How do you know that?”

  “I didn’t say she was unhappy.” Froggy frowned at him. “I said she is displeased with you and your conduct.”

  “Has she been here?”

  “Why? Does that worry you?” The amphibian taunted.

  This time, Kyle did grab her, but only to pick her up and pull her into his bedroom, which he had just been leaving.

  She gave him that impossibly wide grin of hers. “Oh, I didn’t mean you had to take me to your bedroom right now, but since we are here…” She strode across the room and hopped up on the end of the bed. She looked back over her shoulder at him with those big eyes of hers and bounced her brows at him. “I bet you’ve never tried froggy style.”

  Kyle felt his frustration with the green woman growing, but he couldn’t resist the obvious bait. “Froggy style?” He rolled his eyes. “I suppose you’re going to tell me it’s a position guaranteed to blow my… mind,” he deadpanned.

  “No, silly,” Froggy laughed, wiggling her amazingly taut and human-looking green ass at him. “Froggy style is like doggy style—except you aim one inch higher and see how far you can make a girl hop!”

  Despite his growing irritation at the sea goddess’ emissary—hell, with just about anything that had to do with Verden’s pantheon—Kyle couldn’t help but laugh. Everything that involved one of the other gods seemed to anger more often than not, these days. He needed their assistance to deal with their ancient enemy, but instead, he was forced to hide from them.

  It felt good to laugh, though. Kyle realized he hadn’t done so in far too long.

  Froggy still smiled that impossibly wide smile of hers over her shoulder at him. “Except I promise not to hop away!”

  Kyle snorted. “You automatically assume every guy is into anal.”

  “Please,” the green woman chortled, “is a frog’s ass water-tight?”

  He groaned at her ridiculous pun. “That isn’t why we are here, and you are smart enough to know that. I have watched you and Hav wouldn’t have sent you here, if you didn’t have a brain in that pretty green head of yours.”

  She turned around, so that she was simply sitting on the edge of his bed, with her feet dangling off the side. “Fine, but this would have been more fun.”

  Kyle gave her a deadpan look, so she continued. “Hav hasn’t been here, but I have a way to communicate with her.”

  She batted surprisingly thick eyelashes at him. “There, I’m revealing secrets, so you should share some, too. Hav about lost her mind when I told her I think you figured out some way to cultivate with your bonds. She asked if you
had figured out dual cultivation. Something about how it was lost after the ascension. Not sure if that makes any sense to you.”

  Now Kyle had to figure out why she was telling him all of this. She was Hav’s spy on his team but seemed to be revealing things about her Mistress. There had to be a reason. He couldn’t assume she was just overly talkative. He also needed to give her enough to pass on to encourage her to keep talking. “You have to have seen enough to know that we are doing things differently here. Is Hav interested in learning some of this?”

  “I can’t pretend to speak for the goddess of the sea, but I think she believes you can provide her with the next breakthrough,” Froggy said before staring very intently at Kyle. “She is willing to offer you a great deal if you can show her how you are using other types of essence without losing your divine status. And if I’m not mistaken, she is very interested in the idea of this dual cultivation. She said something about the stronger the partner, the more beneficial it can be to the senior partner.”