by David Burke
After a few minutes, Kyle realized that if he didn’t change the rules of this engagement, he was going to die. This time there would be no coming back. This time it wouldn’t be because of a spurned lover. If he died now, it would be because he failed and that caused him greater fear than even death. Winning was what Kyle did. It was what he knew. He just needed a second to think.
But every second waves of divine power were crashing against his soul. He knew he had stumbled onto something. Realizing that the other gods had given up cultivation was significant and not just in an academic sense. It mattered. They had given up on the way of life that made them what they were.
They were like the fat cat team owners who had built an empire and then sat back watching other people make money for them. They were the type that Kyle hated more than anything else. You could never stop striving. You could never stop trying to improve yourself. The moment you did was when you ceased to be you.
That was it. He had to think about what he knew regarding cultivation. He knew about his essence wheel. Hilde had said that mortals thought of it like that, but it worked for him. So that was what he would use. This time, he began to picture an essence wheel, but not his own. No, he began to visualize Dod's essence wheel.
She was the goddess of death. It was a simple wheel with only one spoke. The power it contained was massive, but it was also off balance. When they had become champions, it had been a step in the progress. They gave up other essence strands to focus on one. The gods had carried that over when they ascended.
Kyle now believed that he represented the next step in that evolution. A divine being who could utilize more than one essence. The secret was there. It was easy to know and yet hard to understand. All essence was one essence. It just took a broader mind to connect with it in that way.
So he saw her wheel. It spun. No it wobbled. It was fast, powerful and almost bottomless in the amount of essence which filled it, but it was also unbalanced. Kyle reached through his spear and envisioned its attack. It hadn’t just gone into the center of her construct. No, his weapon, the one which was bound to his soul, had pierced into her essence wheel.
And so he began to cultivate. He didn’t draw from the world around him. He didn’t focus on the power within himself, rather he siphoned it straight from Dod, through his spear. He drew on that power, even as she continued her assault against him.
He knew that his physical form must be screaming in pain, but his will would not surrender. Kyle drew tens of millions of raw essence from Dod before she realized what was going on.
Then she clamped down on it. Through her own pain she said, “You can’t take what is mine.”
That was just it, though. Kyle realized now that it wasn’t hers. Oh, part of it was. A single strand out of a broad tapestry. But you couldn’t make a masterpiece with only black. You needed the entire palette, and Dod had given up on other colors long ago.
Not so for Kyle. He pulled the earth, sky, sea, war, justice essences from her. Her power wavered but there was still more that she controlled as she tried to crush him. Kyle’s will would not surrender, though.
He plucked away at all the threads of essence he controlled. Then he realized he was limiting himself. He could see the deceit and lust threads too, so he began pulling on them too. The balance of power shifted even more his way, but she had such a head start on him. It was overwhelming.
One last thought occurred to him. He knew that many of the essence threads had not taken true form here in Verden. They were undiscovered concepts waiting to be realized. But there were still five more than he did know. He plucked at fire, space, life, wisdom, and mercy. It was harder for him to grasp them.
Eventually, though, he formed connections with each strand. Deceit, he knew through Raina. She had tricked him for so long, but she also had turned her power in his favor today. He could see value in it as he bound that deceit to himself through a person rather than a concept.
Lust was easy for him. His memories of Nyda were forever colored by the way she had begun to create lust essence. Her desire for him, her need to be wanted, were so great. And he knew he could satisfy her. In that, he formed a connection with lust.
The same thing came about as he connected to fire through Hilde, space through Kierra, wisdom through the advice of Saber. Life was all around him and he had never wanted it so badly. Surprisingly, his final connection was with mercy. He realized that in continually trying to off a chance to the other gods, he was showing mercy. Mercy didn’t exist in a vacuum, though. He knew that mercy was no good if he was not willing to fight those who refused it. In that way, he bonded it to himself.
The stream of essence in Dod was siphoned away, and he ripped control from her. He still couldn’t match her connection to death, but all the rest of the essence answered his call, and it overwhelmed her. Even a god couldn’t convert essence fast enough to keep up with the tide that hit her.
Her construct cracked. Black light shone from within her, and Kyle could sense his companions watching. He willed them to stay back because he didn’t know what would happen. Then her mantle cracked. The symbol of her ascension slipped from her grasp, and her soul was lost to the void.
All of that weight collapsed upon Kyle. Rather than exploding, her construct faded. But not so the mantle. Divine things don’t pass away so easily. It fell upon Kyle. But unlike with the war mantle where Krig’s plan had given him three years to forge a connection with it, this was all dumped upon him in an instant.
A pit of blackness opened up at his feet as Kyle struggled to gain control of death’s mantle. He felt himself being pulled into her realm. The power was beyond his control. He opened his eyes and saw all Lash reaching out for him.
“Prepare the way. I shall return.”
And then he was gone, sucked into the hellish pit of the abyss.
Epilogue - Many Threads
Dragon, elves, human, lycan, and troll. They all stood in helpless terror as the one being who united them all was sucked down into a blackness even their eyes couldn’t pierce. His last words encouraged them, but it was too much.
Lash was the first to speak. “You heard him. He’ll be back. For now, it falls to us to make his will a reality.”
The great black dragon growled. “And why should I follow any of you?”
“You know me, Skylar. We may not have always seen eye to , but we were faithful servants of the war god. Now he wants us to gather an army for him. So that is exactly what we need to do. The enemy he predicted is upon our door.”
“I do know you, Lash, but you have changed. He has raised you in some way. I can feel his touch upon all of you,” she said. Then Skylar was quiet for a moment before she added, “For now, I will take your word about what has happened to our master and why he neglected me for so long. One thing I know for sure is that the void is an enemy every bit as dangerous as the master foretold.”
Gilthan said, “I’m glad that is settled. Now we need to sort out what to do.”
Nyda said, “I’m going to stay here and help with the wounded. The undead are not gone. Nargossa will need as much support as we can provide. And I want the master to have a home to come to.”
“You just want him to cum for you again,” Raina laughed.
“Now is hardly the time,” Lash said.
Raina shrugged and replied, “You can’t blame a girl for being who she is.”
“I don’t know if now is the time or not, but I would definitely like to hear about this change in the master,” Skylar said, with as close to a purr as a dragon can make.
Lash said, “Enough for now. Nyda, Gilthan, Raina, and I will stay here. Skylar, if you are willing, it would serve our master best if you could carry Kierra and Skrug to the north. She is to bring an army of her lycan kin back.”
They discussed the plan back and forth for a while, but in the end even Raina wanted what was best for Kyle, so they all worked to make sure they would have an army waiting to follow him when he retu
rned.
________________________
“How did this happen?” Lige screamed at his fellow gods. Himmel, Jordan, Bedrag, and Begaer were all there. Hav still was refusing to meet with them. While Dod was obviously not going to ever attend another of these divine councils. Lige refused to think of the usurper as a god. He was an uppity mortal who possessed power he hadn’t earned. Looking around, he realized these were all that he could count on.
“What I want to know is what those creatures were. They felt like children of the void. But that shouldn’t be possible,” Himmel said.
“If it’s true, then does that mean that Krig was right all along? Have we doomed ourselves to oblivion?” Jordan asked.
“Silence. We are not discussing that. We will deal with other threats once we solidify our base. Right now, we are talking about what to do about this usurper,” Lige commanded.
“You mean, Kyle? Don’t you find it odd that his name is so similar to Krig’s?” Bedrag asked.
“I don’t know about his name, but he is just as hot as Krig ever was and from the look of things is far more amenable,” Begaer said.
“Keep your filth to yourself, sister, and your mind on the task at hand,” Lige said.
“Pffh. I’m not your slave. You are first among us, but what are you going to do? Kill me if I don’t listen to you?” Begaer taunted.
“That is just it. We have survived thousands of years since creating Verden. In all that time, we argued. We schemed against one another for sure. But we never outright attacked each other. Or, for that matter, stood in the way of one another’s nature. That is, until Dod convinced us that Krig was unbalancing things. We have no one to blame for this but ourselves,” Bedrag said.
Jordan shook her head. “It is a sad day when the god of deceit is preaching truth to us.”
“You all can speak for yourselves. I didn’t attack Krig. I just mind my own business,” Begaer said.
Himmel stomped around angrily. “That is because you are afraid to do any of the hard work. You just want to lie on your back and wait for things to fall into your lap.”
“The bigger issue is that flash of purple energy. It was like Rom was reborn for a second. Aren’t any of you worried about that?” Bedrag asked.
A flash of golden power blasted all of them back. Lige was definitely the strongest of them. Only Dod or Krig might have contested his power before, but now on his home plane he was uncontested. “Silence. Stay focused. We must decide what to do about the usurper.”
“Don’t we have to find him first?” Begaer asked with that feigned innocence which Lige found so infuriating.
“Certainly one of you should have sensed where he went to.”
“I haven’t heard a peep from my elementals, but aren’t you supposed to be the all-seeing god of justice?” Jordan asked.
Lige slumped back into his throne as his hand went to where an eyepatch covered one of his eyes. It was ridiculous. He should have been able to reshape his construct, however he wished. Whatever wound Krig had inflicted on him had wounded his soul as much as his body. “Just find him. None of you interact with him on your own. He is too dangerous. Just find him and then we will meet again.”
_______________________________
Deep under the sea, the only living goddess not in attendance was stewing in her own anger. She had just received a report from her minion and was ranting now. “How could he absorb my divine splinter?”
“I’m sorry, my goddess, he refused to tell me,” Froggy replied. She had actually started to think of herself by that name. It was silly, childish even, but there was something compelling about Kyle.
“Your sorrow does me no good. You are sure that Dod is gone?” Hav asked.
“As far as I could tell, my goddess. But it isn’t for me to say. I simply saw them fight. She appeared to be struck down and then a great blackness swallowed him and he was gone from my senses. I do know that the temples of Dod are in great disarray now.”
“This is bad. He was supposed to join me. I knew he had potential, but I don’t want to be subordinate to him. Too long I had to follow the whims of Lige, Dod, and Krig. I thought with him, the seas might finally take their proper place,” Hav mumbled as to himself.
“What should we do about the Aekor and those other creatures who didn’t have any essence, my goddess?”
No answer came for a long time, but Froggy was used to waiting with Hav. She could be as calm and still as a quiet inlet on a windless day or she could be as violent as the great hurricanes which raked the southern continent. Eventually she said, “No, Kyle is the priority. Perhaps it is not too late. You need to get him to come back to me. Or at least trick him into coming close enough to water that I can have the upper-hand.”
“Uh… How am I to do that, my goddess?”
“I don’t care. That is your duty to sort out. Spread your legs for him if you have to. He seems to be as amorous as Begaer.”
Froggy gulped, but not for the reason Hav might have surmised. It wasn’t a reluctance that made her nervous, but desire.
___________________________________
In another realm, as foreign to the sea as possible, Hilde stood before the elders of her people.
“We have heard your pleas. But we will not amend the pact. If the war god wishes for us to serve him more directly, then he must come here and summon us himself. That is what the pact requires,” declared the elder fire celestial. She sat upon a golden throne surrounded by the other two elders.
“You don’t understand the danger which the world faces. Krig made the pact with us in case this ancient enemy were to return,” Hilde pleaded.
The elder on the right said, “It is you, young one, who does not understand. You have been pampered because of your power and skill. Then when you returned carrying his child, we took it as a boon. It will tie the war god even more tightly to our people, especially if he cares for you, as you say. But that passion of yours for him is also clouding your judgment.”
Hilde wanted to scream, but she knew it would do no good. Inside her, she felt Glitendre moving. Her daughter was forming much faster than fire celestials normally did. She hoped it was because of who her father was, but could only wonder if it was because there was something different about her daughter.
The central elder tried to speak in a more consoling tone. “The Aekor are mighty, but they haven’t appeared in numbers great enough to threaten the entire world. And should the war god need us, then he must appear before us and claim his right as dictated by the pact.”
Hilde paid close attention to their words. They were very careful to not use Kyle’s name. They had to know by now that he was not Krig. Some of them might argue that the pact had been made with Krig. If so, it would require that Kyle spend precious months that he didn’t have to conquer her people all over again. No, it was much better if the pact could be maintained.
“I have felt the power of our origins.”
“So you have told us, but none of the rest of us can find this power. It is as it always has been. We wield raw essence as fire. It makes us unique amongst all the celestials,” the elder on the right said.
“Very well, I shall be guided by your wisdom,” Hilde answered dutifully.
She still couldn’t shake the feeling, though, that her people would be needed for this battle sooner than expected. Hilde knew this was futile, but she would gladly make a fool of herself again and again if it brought aid to her beloved. She had felt a great burst of pain from him. But being this far away, she had no idea what it meant. For now, she would wait and whisper in the right ears. One way or another, she would bring an army to fight at Kyle’s side. The war god was going to war and she would not be left out.
To be continued…
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Book 4 will be titled WAR GOD FOR HIRE- CONQUER. No pre-release thi
s time or not yet at least. I want to be a bit more flexible as I have many plates spinning now. The goal is end of October to release the final book in this series
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