by David Burke
Some of the gods fading power was consumed by the void, and some of it fell unattended to drift off into other universes. The survivors each grew stronger as individuals but were weakened overall. Then, he heard the voice of his brother, Lige. It was a voice that Kyle had never heard before but knew as well as his own somehow.
“It is time.”
“This won’t work. We must find a way to destroy them.” The words came out his own mouth.
“This void eats even death. There is no balance to it. It has no weakness. We must secure what is ours. We must create a new place, before there is nothing left,” the woman beside him, whom Kyle knew to be Dod, said.
No reply was needed. These three, the strongest among them, turned their backs on the void. Ten others had been chosen to assist them, while the rest of the gods fought to hold back the void.
Then, was a great magic worked. It was enough for Kyle, to know that even Krig had no understanding of how it had been wrought. He’d simply thrown the might of his will into making it so.
A new bubble burst into being and they poured all their power into securing it, far from the void. They shifted damaged bubbles around to provide a buffer zone, and then they tried to create a thickened shield around their newly created universe.
The very multi-verse was re-arranged by their efforts, and when the great work was completed, the silvery haze of a shield protected their universe. But by then, only thirteen remained. They fled to this new haven, absorbing what they could of the fallen gods as they went.
Peace lasted no more than an instant, though, as the silver barrier served to keep out the wraiths, the children of the void, but not so the Aekors. Masses of Aekor descended upon the fresh green world the gods had created at the center of this universe. They called it Verden, and yet it became just another battlefield.
The thirteen gods were drained of their power after shifting the cosmos, but without the wraiths, the Aekor stood no chance against them. They split and fought and struck down the servants of the void. Everywhere that the Aekor were destroyed, the seeds of lesser monsters sprouted.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
This was their universe. They were the gods of all here, and nothing should have been capable of challenging their power, but Mercy fell. From her corpse, sprang the progenitors of the celestial race. Life was struck down next, his body so corrupted by the Aekor, that undead rose from it—beings no longer living, but who refused to embrace death.
When Space fell, from the shadowy expanse of his body burst forth the seeds that became the progenitors of the fiends in Dod’s hells. As Fire was extinguished, his corpse created the embers that became the dragons. The last of the gods to fall was Wisdom. Her remains were split, out of which was birthed humans, elves, dwarves, and glytharens—a race that Kyle only knew through Krig’s memories.
With that last fallen god, the final, remaining eight were able to lay low the last of the Aekor. Their remains were forced deep beneath the surface of the planet, and in her exhaustion, Jordan the Earth Goddess fell upon the surface of Verden and tied her very essence to the physical plane, to forever lock away all that remained of the Aekor and the many terrors that they had birthed.
So long as her body remained intact, these monstrosities would never escape.
Kyle pulled back. He didn’t need to see more. His mind flashed forward to the future. As he did, from out the corner of his eye, he noticed a tiny black speck at the edge of their universe. The tiny speck flew, fell, twisted, and rose once more as she fled some shadowy vestiges of emptiness.
He didn’t know how he knew it was a she, but a part of him recognized that tiny speck who dodged and fought, though it was impossibly far away.
As Kyle caught his breath, he heard Krig say, “You see? This is why you must surrender. Only I will be able to raise new champions up to fight against the void. It is coming. It will come. Maybe not this century and, Essence willing, perhaps not for many thousands of years, but it is coming. The weak must be purged and the strong raised up, so that we can forge a new army to turn it aside.”
“That isn’t what I saw at all. I hear you saying that you simply want to repeat the same failures of the past. Your way will not work. It is time for a new way of thinking. You can become part of me. Give me your power, give me your knowledge, and let yourself be truly reborn,” Kyle replied.
He didn’t know where he found the strength to resist a god, but he did so solely with his indomitable will. He would stand; no other would deprive him of his destiny. He was the best at what he did, and this was what he had decided to do. He would find a way, a new way, a way of unity, a path to power where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
It had to be done and he had just been drafted.
Krig cried out, “Never…” But the sound grew progressively weaker.
Kyle felt the hall he stood in collapse upon him. Essence rushed into him, but he realized that only part of it was coming to him. That must mean that the remnant of Krig was getting some too.
Kyle looked deep into his own mind and expelled the tumor that sat within him. Krig was exorcised from him and pushed the tumor away. Krig withered, but still essence poured into Kyle.
Then, the mantle fell upon him and its weight crushed him. He fell to his hands and knees. He felt smothered by the power, it was beyond mortal understanding, but he soaked it in as best he could.
When he felt as though his mind would break, Kyle was forced to build a partition. He had to hold the rest of the War God’s mantle at bay. He wasn’t ready yet, not to take it all on at once.
But he would be. He would push himself to his limits and beyond, if that is what it would take. Then, he opened his eyes.
Chapter 18 - Forging a New Beginning
When Kyle opened his eyes, he saw the others all still standing where they had been—except nothing was as it should be. The air was heavy around him and it almost didn’t feel like he could move, as though gravity was dragging down on him much harsher than it should have.
Then everyone else became aware of it, as the effect of the mantle settling onto Kyle rippled out from him. At first, they just turned to stare at him. Awe was immediately followed by panic on their faces, as one by one they were forced to their knees. Skrug’s strength did him no good, as the need to bow, to serve, to worship became overwhelming. Gilthan and Kierra fell prostrate a moment later.
Lash lasted just a bit longer but was eventually brought low. She buried her face in the ground, unable to look at him. She groaned out, “Help us, my lord.”
Hilde was the last to fall. The power swept over even her third-tier body, and she was unable to stay aloft. She hit the ground hard, the stone floor of the cavern cracking where she landed. As her body was pulled to the ground in an overwhelming need to humble herself, she managed to gasp out, “You must restrain your aura or you will kill us.”
The problem was, Kyle had no clue what it was he was doing. He could feel not only the power of the mantle surging into him, but as he came into his own as a god, the essence-soaked matter of the dungeon began to flood his center. The essence was denser here than outside, but even that wasn’t enough to save it, as the very walls began to crumble, seeking to fill his divine need for more essence.
He couldn’t control it and he knew it. The millions, no hundreds of millions of essence that were sucked into him was going to overwhelm him. His mind have become something more than mortal, but it was still adapting. Then, his expanding senses felt there were others out there, others like him.
But they were far away. They hadn’t noticed him yet, partly because his strength was still building, and partially because being in the dungeon shielded him. He just knew they would discover him any moment, though.
There was no remnant of Krig left in him, so even if they had been on speaking terms, he couldn’t gain any further insights from the former war god. Sadly, he wasn’t confident that Krig was truly dead, j
ust that remnant of Krig that had dwelt in him.
He didn’t have the focus to spare at the moment to worry about that.
His mind went back to what must have been just moments ago, although it felt like ages ago, inside the mantle. When he had been absorbing the mantle and it had threatened to overwhelm him, he had instinctively thrown up a partition. That had been in his mind, now he needed to do the same in his body. His knowledge was lacking, so he’d have to feel his way through this.
Without knowing what it was he’d done, he felt the pull on everything around him slow and then drop to a barely noticeable trickle. He had successfully sealed away the greater part of his divine power into a separate partition of himself. It was there to be accessed, but he had to learn how to control it first, lest it consume him.
From the new memories he had gained, as fragmented as they were, he began to understand from the vision he’d had beyond the door called ‘Blood of the Fallen’, that all the gods had once been mortals. Then, they’d become champions—beings of great power who could make worlds tremble.
That progression had continued, when they’d fought the children of the void. And as others of their kind fell, the champions who remained had absorbed bits of their essence, becoming something beyond mortal.
They had become gods. This process had occurred in the span of moments in his vision, but he now understood that it had taken well over a century for that to occur. He understood how the gods had become stronger, as even their kin fell in the Void War, which dragged on for several thousands of years.
He realized that the more divine they became, the less they were truly individuals and more a manifestation of their core ideal. It was not necessarily a fate he wanted for himself. He would have to learn to control this power, without letting it define who he was.
As the power of the mantle settled around him, the others were slowly able to stand, though they each stared at him with masks of emotions ranging from outright fear in Gilthan’s visage to a strange hunger on Kierra’s. Kyle’s awareness was still expanded, but it wasn’t close to what it had been only a minute ago. It certainly wasn’t what it had been when he was seeing through Krig’s eyes at the end of the war.
He wouldn’t be rearranging the cosmos—on his own or with the help of others—anytime soon.
The worst part, for him, was how much of his attention was required to keep the rest of his divine power at bay. He missed the depth of understanding he had possessed, just moments ago. The majority of his newly divine mind, though, was required to hold the rest of his power in check.
He sighed and realized that, for a while longer at least, he would have to be content with being mortal. Well, maybe not simply a mortal; perhaps it would better to consider himself a newborn god. And realizing it had taken the champions an eon to develop their abilities, and even longer to learn how to control them, made Kyle feel less insecure about his lack of control, now.
Name: Krig-Kyle Hudson
Race: Godling
Stats: (Current/Max)
Strength: 20/42
Agility: 14/42
Constitution: 20/45
Will: 26/45
Mind: 13/39
Charisma: 17/29
Essence: Current/Max
Sky: 0/12
Death: 1/25 Conversion rate: 1/10 seconds
Sea: 0/12
Deceit: 1/13 Conversion rate: 1/10 seconds
Earth: 15/33 Conversion rate: 1/3 seconds (Durability)
War: 21/50 Conversion rate: 15/second
Raw Essence: 4,210,833 (construct)
571,032,552 (mantle inside you)
Skills:
Flowing Earth Armor 1 - 2 Earth
Earth’s Sucking Snare 1 - 1 Earth/target
Divine Ability:
Rage Burst 2 - 5 War
Reality Shift 1- Variable Raw Essence
Expanded Awareness 2 - Passive based upon raw essence circulation
He had grown a great deal, as a result of absorbing the rest of the mantle. Reality Shift and Expanded Awareness were new divine abilities made formal on his sheet since he’d already been utilizing them. It was also still calling him a godling, so maybe he hadn’t made it all the way there yet.
That was fair, since he was only able to control a fraction of the power that he possessed. The rest of it was partitioned away, but he still had millions of raw essence to work with. Hopefully, that meant that he could learn to handle it better and slowly add more to his direct control as his skill with it increased.
More than that, both his available War and Earth Essence had increased and he’d seen significant spikes in his essence conversion speed. He was now into the third or Spirit Tier for War Essence and could convert it at a rate that meant he could use his abilities almost constantly. Even if all he did with it was use the War Essence to empower his weapon and body, that alone would be worth a great deal.
The changes to his stats were even more intriguing. He had gained three each in both Strength and Constitution, which put him at peak Monster Tier, along with four in Agility to push him past mortal limits. Even bigger changes came in his non-physical attributes.
With his Mind now at thirteen, he had exceeded mortal limits. Kyle wished that he could say he felt smarter, but it seemed to be more about perception and the ability to process multiple actions at the same time. Worse, after the way the universe had seemed like an open book to him mere minutes ago, he felt almost like a dullard now in comparison, even if he was much more alert than he had been before.
He had to chuckle as the thought crossed his mind—how much fun would it be to be able to go back to Chicago and play a game of baseball in this body, with these stats?
His Charisma had also shot up into the Monster Tier, and at seventeen, was a substantial boost from where it had been before. He wondered how that was going to affect his interactions with the rest of the team, but figured he would have to experiment to find out. Most shocking though, was the jump of his Will attribute all the way up to twenty-six. Apparently, partitioning his mind and body, as well as learning how to process massive amounts of essence had been quite a test.
His calculations were ended by Lash crying out, “Oh, my lord, it is you! Krig or Kyle, I don’t care. Where have you been? I needed you. No, forgive me, my lord, I am here for you, now. Please restore your handmaiden.”
He looked down at the anguish in her eyes. Now he understood better the sense of loss she must feel. He only had broad strokes of memories from Krig—but there was no way he’d try to pretend that he was Krig.
A part of Krig had been in him, and he had access to some of those memories. But there was still another part of Krig that was out there somewhere, or that he feared was out there. That part was probably plotting how to gain control of Kyle’s body, even now.
“Marie,” Kyle began as he held out one of his hands to her while keeping the Mor’dverg axe in the other. He gently stroked the side of her face before continuing. “We aren’t there yet, but you need to know that I’m not Krig. Part of him was in me, but I’m something new now. If you want to be a battle priestess again or a weapon maiden or emissary, whatever title you prefer, you are going to have to earn my trust.”
Holding her gently by the chin, he smiled at her. “Now you can see that I was speaking the truth, but I have to know that you are, too.
Tears streamed down her face and she fell to one knee, clasping his much larger hand in both of hers. “Whatever you wish, my Lord. You came back to me. Just know that I remain your servant. You may be different, but all the suffering wasn’t for naught. You came back to me.”
“And I always will. Not just for you, Marie, but for any of the faithful,” Kyle said.
He didn’t know quite why he said that, whether it was his increased Mind or Charisma stat, but it just seemed like the right thing to say. Judging by her reaction and the way she pressed her face into his hand, it must have been.
&n
bsp; Gilthan chose that moment to get over his awe as he practically shouted, “Now hang on one gods-forsaken moment. By my ancestor’s tail, what is going on here? What do you mean, you aren’t Krig but part of him was in you? Isn’t the war god dead? That’s what all the churches are teaching.”
Kyle allowed Marie to keep rubbing her face against his palm while he looked over, first at Hilde who simply had lowered her head, then at Kierra who still had a hungry look in her eyes, before resting his gaze on Gilthan. He’d skipped past Skrug, who was just staring off into nowhere, a vacant look on his face.
“I didn’t want to speak of this yet, but events have forced my hand.” Kyle shook his head. “Krig didn’t outright die three years ago. He was gravely injured in a battle with the other gods. That battle caused what you know as ‘the cataclysm’. All of it… the crazy birds and uncontrollable storms, the exposed dungeons and monsters crawling out of Verden’s core, even the undead plague… all of that was caused by the injuries Krig inflicted on his siblings in their battle.”
