by David Burke
Interlude 1 - Moving to Stage Two
A few miles away and deep underground a chamber had been carved out of solid stone. The architect and earth mage who had overseen the work in secret a year before now lay entombed in the stone walls along with his entire crew. The owner of this room would not risk there being anyone else alive who knew of its location.
Set into the floor at the center of the room was a large metal brazier filled with coals. Black flames leapt up from it and, with a surge of Death Essence from the room’s owner, a figure appeared in the flames. Hell, flame scrying was far less efficient than water scrying, but water was not an element that this one had any aptitude with.
“I can’t see your face, Raina,” Barak said. He blew steam out of his large draconic nostrils. “That is you, isn’t it?”
“Of course, and you don’t need to see my face for us to talk,” Raina replied. Her voice was honey but there was steel behind it.
“Whatever, keep your true appearance from me. It will only be all that much sweeter, when I finally uncover it someday,” the half-dragon demi-god said.
A smile crossed Raina’s lips, revealing two pointed canine teeth. As if a buffoon such as Barak could ever outsmart her. Of course, he was a powerful buffoon and she needed to remember that he was useful at this stage, even if he didn’t know the game they were truly playing. “Perhaps, if you are a good boy, someday you will.”
Barak fidgeted. One of the oddities of demi-gods was that rather than being less subject to the passions and desires of mortals, they tended to be even more deeply passionate and often had less self-control. This was one of the chief reasons that demi-spawn made with human or elven parents rarely survived for long. They were frequently consumed by their own passions and often made poor decisions that even their power couldn’t get them out of.
The most successful of the demi-spawn were generally the progeny of immortal creatures. Succubi were popular with some of the darker gods for obvious reasons, and Lige had a thing for dragons, who—while not truly immortal—had immense life spans and more inherent patience, even if they tended to be greedy. Some of the other combinations were even more bizarre. Supposedly Dod had even given birth to some twisted freak of an offspring from one of her undead generals.
“Don’t try your wiles on me and, more to the point, don’t make offers you don’t plan to keep. A dragon never forgets, and a dragon never forgives. Me, even less so,” Barak replied.
“I didn’t reach out and risk upsetting my cover story just to exchange banter with you. I am pleased to report that he is ready to move to stage two,” Raina said.
“What? So soon? He was barely able to handle that dried out husk of an Aekor before,” Barak asked.
“First off, you know that was no simple challenge. That enemy is so old that I doubt even many of our cousins know about them. Until Krig wrecked Verden, we would never have been able to find those last buried vestiges. But, yes, he is moving that quickly. His trainer is talented and I have provided some challenges for him recently that motivated him.”
“He passed a test that I gave him effortlessly, proving that regular mortal challengers will not be worth anything to him as a means to increase his power. More than that, I believe that he had a breakthrough and gained greater access to the divine spark within him. He will be quite strong—who knew that Uncle Krig would put so much power into a spawn,” Raina answered.
“And have you brought him to heel yet?”
“Not yet. He has eyes for others, and it is important that I not overplay my hand, but I assure you, he will fall for me. They always do,” Raina said. She wondered if Barak would take offense at such a statement, but again his dragon pride and innate stupidity kept him from seeing the insult.
“Ha, I’ve never heard of you having any trouble getting a male between your legs. Maybe he really is as cold as his sire. Well, if you can’t control him, then helping him grow into his power won’t benefit us—it will only create a greater threat. Especially if he has as much potential as you seem to think he does,” the half-dragon grunted.
“Not to worry, he is inherently weak. Remember, he is half human. No matter how much power Krig infused into him, he lacks the immortal pedigree that you and I have. But this is my part of the plan to worry about. I only brought you into this, because I need you to do what you are best at,” Raina said.
“You brought me in because I detected the disturbance that brought him to Verden, just as you did. So quit trying to act like you are doing me a favor. Now, what exactly is it that I do best?” Barak sounded angry as he asked.
“Why, destroy things…,” Raina began.
After another half an hour of planning, she had maneuvered Barak into the position that she wanted him in. It was almost too easy. Almost. But still, she laughed. Once she was sure that he would do as she wanted, Raina cut off the essence that powered their communication.
Then, she turned and looked at herself in the mirror upon the wall. She didn’t come here much. It was too dangerous to her cover to be disappearing too often. There were already enough rumors and suspicions floating around her.
But, damn, if it wasn’t nice to be able to wear her true skin from time to time, stretching her wings, literally. She had always liked her bat-like wings. They could be used in so many ways, from flight, to being part of an enticing dance, to using the barbed hooks in them as a weapon.
Her true form simply oozed sexuality. It was what she was. Her kind weren’t as physically powerful as some of the other types of fiends, but many had underestimated the strength of a succubus to their detriment.
More than that, she was no mere fiend. Her sire was Bedrag, the god of deceit, and her mother had been a matriarch amongst the succubi in the fourth circle of hell. Now, she possessed the lewd, yet alluring, beauty of her mother’s kind but even that was enhanced, as she was a demi-goddess.
Her long black hair was parted by twisted horns that rose from her skull. The features of her face were too perfect to be mortal, beautiful with an ample dose of cruelty. Many a male had lost his mind over the centuries in the deep, midnight pools that were her eyes. That same inky hair cascaded down over her shoulders and off her oh so pert backside, offering the only cover available to the treasures that lay beneath. A sinuous spiked tail snaked out just above her heart-shaped ass.
It really was a shame that she had to cover all this up just to assume her cover identity, but demi-gods were hated and feared by all the mortal races—and even by other fiends or celestials. Worse, they were hated by each of the gods, except their divine parent, who rarely—if ever—offered them any protection.
For immortal beings they usually lived only a little longer than your average mortal.
At least there weren’t many of them. Each of the gods was only able to create seven divine splinters at a time. Those could either be used, like a few of the gods had done to create artifacts, or as others did, to create generals and heralds. The final possible use for a divine splinter was, of course, to create offspring.
If her plans worked out though, she wouldn’t have to worry about this much longer. She intended to harvest far more than a divine splinter from this reincarnated war god. She just needed him to gain full access to his power, but then had to strike before he had full control of it.
It was a careful game she had to play. Now, though, it was time to push him a little harder; it was time that he became an adventurer. Monsters would test him much more than mortals could—even more so, since the cataclysm. She just had to make sure she had her hooks in him deep enough. Of course, he was male, so he would never suspect a thing.
Suddenly her head perked up from preening herself. She felt something. What was that? When she realized what it was, she cursed out loud so violently that she would have shamed any sailors who overheard her.
He was a fool. If he exposed himself to one of the other gods now, they would strike him down before he had gathered his mantle and she could never fe
ast upon his power. This had to be stopped.
Chapter 9 - A New Awareness
Meanwhile, morning had come. Kyle woke up from what felt like had been a dream, but the warm body next to his quickly made him realize it had all been perfectly real. He looked down at Hilde and smiled.
She looked so beautiful, laying there with her head against his chest. Truthfully, she looked beautiful all the time, but now he felt a genuine connection with her. It was nice to wake up with a woman you cared about, rather than simply having fun with one.
He quickly gave up on the idea of getting up without waking her. She had them both wrapped up in her wings. Fortunately, he didn’t have to worry about having to get up to answer nature’s call. This essence constructed body of his ate, but didn’t create waste material quite the same way.
In fact, the more that he got used to the body, the less he seemed to produce. He wondered if there would come a day when such bodily functions were no longer necessary. He already needed very little sleep, and while he ate like a horse, he couldn’t help but wonder if that wasn’t more out of reflex, than an actual need. As annoying as the need for sleep, food, and less pleasant bodily functions were, they also defined one’s day and set a pace for life.
Kyle wondered if he would miss that.
Rather than disturb Hilde, Kyle just lay there and turned his mind inward. That one girl he’d dated who was always into the crystals and incense would have laughed. He had always rejected everything she offered. Even now, he couldn’t seem to remember her name. Moonbeam? Eclipse? He wasn’t sure. It didn’t really matter, other than as a reminder of who he had been.
Since he had a minute, he took the time to look at the description for his upgraded Divine Ability. Apparently, with whatever had happened when he’d willed the world to change around him, it had created a deeper connection with the mantle that he was supposed to inherit. A part of him couldn’t help but wonder if this was one of those things that he had to believe in before it would work. He sure hoped not, because although learning to fight was coming naturally to him, seeing himself as a god was another thing all together.
Rage Burst: Your righteous fury is blasted out in a circle centered upon yourself. The force is divine and can only be countered by other divine energy.
Maximum range is up to 30’. Ability activates instantly but has a cool down of 1 second. Damage is equivalent to 50% of mortal fatal/ability level but may be enhanced with extra War Essence.
Level 2 Perk: May now be directed into a cone with 60’ range.
Cost: 5 War Essence
Duration: Instantaneous
After reviewing that, he turned inward and looked at his essence wheel. It was swollen in size. Before, it’d had the feeling of being fifteen feet across or more. Now, it felt overwhelming. It had to be at least as big as a baseball stadium. The outer wheel and frame were still full of raw essence, but there was a second even greater ring of essence around that.
If he had to guess, that outer wheel must be his mantle.
Raw Essence: 28,109,478 (construct)
97,053,861 (mantle)
He couldn’t be sure because he hadn’t paid close enough attention to the exact numbers before, but as he looked his essence amount over, it appeared that his construct’s raw essence had dropped by tens of thousands—no doubt from bringing Hilde here permanently.
Even as he watched, he could tell it was filling up much faster than it ever had before. He also noticed that the total essence in his mantle had decreased by just over a hundred points. Kyle couldn’t have said how he knew it, but he was sure that the essence from his mantle was not leaking into his body.
That meant he must be losing the essence preserving his mantle in the void. While equally, it meant that his body was now absorbing essence at a faster rate. Doing some guesstimating, he figured that his mantle had more than six hundred years’ worth of essence left, assuming that the drain remained consistent and that he had just been asleep for six hours.
That was his best guess, given that the dawn had yet to break, though the morning birds were starting to sing. Equally, it meant that his body was now passively absorbing slightly more than one thousand raw essence per day. That seemed like a massive amount; he was sure this was a substantial increase from what it had been before.
Given how much power he had used bringing Hilde here, he had to assume that doing divine level things was now going to be on a whole different level.
Kyle remembered Hilde saying something about the fact that there were other areas which had denser concentrations of essence. He needed to remember to find out more about those. For now, he simply started practicing moving the massive quantities of raw essence he had.
At first, it felt like he was trying to push a mountain. Finally, it began to move, if a bit sluggishly. He felt a rush as he completed his first full rotation of his much larger outer wheel. Sweat broke out on his face, but he was too lost inside of himself to notice it. When he pushed again, this time a full rotation only took minutes, rather than the half an hour it had taken the first time.
The weight of all that essence was immense, and it both made him feel terribly burdened and powerful at the same time. But, as with many massive things, once you got it moving, it was easier to keep it moving than it was to get going. Another half an hour went by and he was able to make a full circuit in just over a minute.
He began to like the way it felt.
Then he pushed again, really digging deep and forcing it to move faster. He could sense the essence responding to him. Whereas, at first, it hadn’t wanted to move at all, now it almost taunted him, begging him to spin it faster and faster. After another fifteen, he was able to make a full rotation in just under ten seconds. Continued improvements seemed to be getting easier and he felt additional power surging through his limbs.
Kyle had thought he was strong before, but this was something else. Hilde had always assured him that his true power lay in his use of essence, but the power of a few thousand essence paled when compared to nearly thirty million. Now the cycles were spinning faster, it felt like energy roared to life within him.
He achieved one full cycle per second. If his eyes hadn’t been closed, he would have noticed that his body was starting to glow. It was just about then, that the door to his room burst open and Lash rushed in.
“What in the name of Krig are you doing?” She cried out, her voice laced with anger and fear.
Kyle sprang into a defensive posture which, given his state of undress, was a little embarrassing, but Lash didn’t laugh. Hilde was on her feet only an instant behind him.
The celestial glared at Lash before asking, “What’s the matter? Jealous much?” But then, she turned and looked at Kyle. “No, Kyle!” she shrieked. “Stop doing that. Stop it right now. They will find you.”
Now that he was caught between two women, each of whom was intimidating in her own right, he stumbled backwards, grabbing a blanket to cover himself up. He didn’t know what it was that he had done to upset them, though, so thought silence was the wisest course of action. The fact that he didn’t once think about how he was the war god, and that they should be bowing and not yelling at him, was probably a good sign for all of Verden.
“You think a blanket is going to cover this up? Stop showing your power. Every mage who’s worth a damn in this entire city is going to sense your aura,” Lash barked.
Hilde followed it up with, “One of your siblings will see this, if you don’t stop. It will be all over then. You aren’t ready to face any of them—not by a long shot.”
“Vengeful Krig, why aren’t you stopping? It is only getting stronger!” Lash shouted at him before turning her anger on Hilde. “Didn’t you teach him anything, Qua’ardet Flammaurorae?”
“There hasn’t been a need, he didn’t have access to this level of power until last night. And… well, I was a little distracted last night after he summoned me to the material plane,” the celesti
al replied.
She reached out and put her hand on Kyle’s arm. “Kyle, you have to stop doing whatever it is you are doing. You are giving off a divine aura that can be felt for miles, depending on how sensitive the being in question is.”
“I was only cycling my raw essence. It felt heavy at first, but the faster I got it spinning, the better I felt,” Kyle replied.
“Focus on your essence wheel, please. Slow its spinning. You have too much raw essence now to do the same type of training we did before,” Hilde said.
Kyle could hear the urgency in her voice, so he blocked out the women and focused inward. The raw essence was spinning so fast now, it was making a full revolution every second. He reached out with his hands, or rather the psychic equivalent of his hands, and tried to slow it down by placing his palms on the outside of the wheel.
If he had thought it was hard to get his essence moving in the first place, this was much more challenging. It was like trying to stop a freight train with just his hands. He tried telling himself to relax and, without thinking, he dropped to the ground in a cross-legged meditative position.
