by Reed James
They feared the slavers. That would end once I ruled Kivoneth. I wouldn't let the nagas raid my people.
As the day wore on, a hill grew on the horizon. It thrust up from a large plain devoid of any farms. The road ended before we got within miles of it. The hammer drew me towards it. I shuddered. I could feel it. This was it. This was where the Altar of Souls lay. A nervous tremble ran through me as we came closer and closer.
The hammer twitched as the hill grew to swallow the horizon, only the tallest peaks of the Despeir Mountains rearing above it. I felt such majesty pouring off the hill. It concealed something important, something of such power that not even the powerful illusion cloaking it could fully hide it.
“Gods damn, but you can feel it,” Sven muttered.
“No wonder there are no farms around here,” Kora said. “My teeth are almost rattling.”
“The Altar of Souls,” I said in breathy excitement. The hammer twitched in my hand.
“You have the key, Princess-Mistress,” Carsina said. “Once you unlock it, the Altar will be exposed. Anyone can use it after this.”
“Better than the Biomancer living,” muttered Sven.
I nodded my head in agreement.
I swallowed when we reached the base of the hill. It wasn't a gradual transition to the great grass covered mound. It was artificial, a shell built over something. I slipped off my saddle with grace, clutching the diamond hammer. The afternoon sun shone on my back. Its rays reflected in the heart of the diamond as a fiery brilliance that shifted as I moved it.
Sven moved forward. He reached the hill and pressed his hand against the slope, pushing the grass out of the way. “Krab built this over the Altar of Souls.”
“To hide it from being abused,” Carsina said. “It's so impressive.”
“There's a tree growing on the side,” Zanyia said. “Don't trees have deep roots? How thick is this hill?”
“Thick enough,” Carsina answered. “It is said to have a core of adamant. Nothing normal can dig through it. You have to use the hammer. It will power the device he built around it. Cause it to... to open. Somehow.”
“I don't see a keyhole,” Sven said, looking around. “Do we need to move to a different spot, Carsina?”
“No,” I said, reaching the base of the hill. I stared up the slope reaching up to the blue sky. I could feel the mechanism in there, like I could with the lock of the vault back at the temple. It was built for an imbuer to use. But it was so massive, no imbuer's soul was strong enough to work.
Not without the hammer.
“It's not a lock in that way. It's like... Greta's armor,” I continued, squeezing the diamond haft. “The same way Carsina supercharged it, I can do that to the hill. I can puppeteer it and open it.”
“Do it,” Ealaín said. “Let us end this. Let us destroy Vebrin's phylactery and condemn his soul to his punishment in the Astral Realm.”
“Yes!” Sven growled, his voice thick, almost like he was... in pain. “Do it! Let's get this over with.”
I drew in a deep breath and raised the hammer over my head. It flared with pure radiance. The light spilled over the hill. The machinery inside quivered as my soul surged into the hammer. I swung it down, bringing my will in contact with the hill.
Light exploded around me.
~ * ~
Prince Meinard
I didn't need a horse. Not with the changes to my body. I had stamina, endurance. I could cross my country as fast as the squadron of twenty soldiers riding on their steeds. Gunther, my most trusted general, led them. Shevoin also rode with them, the master mage sitting his horse stiffly, weariness straining his aged features.
The men all smelled delicious. Not as sweet as a farm girl—the one I ate last night was so soft and succulent—but my soldiers could give me such strength. I had to remind myself that I needed them. They were useful.
Not like a farm girl.
The Paragon marched at the lead. I don't know how I ever considered her ugly. She was every race and species of sentient life brought together in one being. She had the nimble grace of a halfling, the strength of an ogre, the drive and determination of a human, the grit of an orc, the keen hearing of an elf, the endurance of a dwarf, the tenacity of a goblin. All of it distilled into her.
Father's greatest creation.
I quaked to see Father's rebirth. He would be so happy with me. He would make me King of the World. I would provide him the largest laboratory to make more creations. He could enhance entire villages, towns, even cities. Whole races would be improved by him. No more making solitary creations in the dark corners of the world, hunted by lesser men who didn't have the ambition to change things.
He would end death and suffering. He would end all those petty differences between humans and dwarves, elves and orcs. What did any of that matter when all were like the Paragon? When all were improved? He would make a paradise of the world.
No matter how many centuries of experimentation it would take.
On the horizon, a hill loomed. It thrust out of the eastern farmlands, the Despeir Mountains behind it. The trail led towards it. Finally, we had located that bastard Sven. He had my daughter. She would be a succulent treat to enjoy. I licked my lips in eager anticipation of the delight of my sweetling's flesh.
With the death of the Watcher, we were blind. We only knew Sven and his whores traveled East. Yesterday, we caught his trail. The stink of him filled my nose even now, growing stronger and stronger as we neared the hill.
My daughter's scent mixed in. I could smell her pregnancy, that bit of Sven in her. That would only make her taste—
White light exploded from the hill and flashed across the entire horizon.
“They found the Altar!” the Paragon hissed. “Father!”
Fear lanced through me. As I charged forward at a full run, I snarled, “Gallop!”
Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Altar of Souls
Kora Falk
I gripped the ruby amulet as we climbed the small hill revealed behind the massive illusion. At the top, something glinted. Something crystal. The Altar of Souls. My heart beat faster and faster. A hot thrill built and built in me, it grew with every step.
I could almost feel the soul of the Biomancer pulsing and quivering inside the ruby. Did he know that his phylactery's destruction neared? That as soon as we reached the summit, Ava would destroy the vessel and cast his soul back to the Astral Realm? There he would spend eternity in whatever punishment that he deserved for his crimes.
I was ready to be done with wearing this necklace.
The faceted angles of the gem bit into my hand. It felt so familiar. I hated that I had grown used to wearing it. To having this evil thing around my neck. It was almost over. The gem twitched again in my hand.
I smiled. “You're about to die,” I whispered. “For good.”
~ * ~
Sven Falk
A tremble raced through my body. Despite the strength my new armor gave me, lead weighted my feet, my boots filled with it. My heart labored. I stared at the crystal altar at the summit of the hill. It was all about to end. My deal with Rithi was about to be completed.
I'd have to give up my step-sister soon.
My breath quickened. I was almost gulping air. I had to be ready for this. Stoic for this. I couldn't be weak. I had to hurt my sister. I had to end our relationship to save her. To save all of my women. I needed to rip out my own heart.
I didn't want to.
My teeth ground together. What choice did I have? Rithi would undo her miracle that saved my wives. All my women but Ealaín, Ava, Greta, and Carsina would die. I trudged against the weight in my boots. My heart beat faster and faster. It ached. I wanted to clutch it.
Zanyia, padding beside me, looked up at me. Her ears twitched. Her tail swished and swayed, brushing my leg. How would she take it? She was the reason that Kora and I had taken that final step into our taboo relationship. Would Zanyia hate me? Would Nathalie? Ava?
W
ould I lose them all by breaking Kora's heart?
I stared at her striding ahead. She stepped with such confidence up the hill in her pink robe. Her twin braids of blonde hair swayed down her back. She marched with such eagerness. She had no idea the pain that awaited us.
My steps slowed. I wanted to do anything to stop this. I wanted to find some excuse not to get up there. To be selfish. If we didn't destroy the Biomancer's soul, then we wouldn't have to be parted because of my deal with Rithi.
I rubbed at the back of my neck. It prickled. I shifted, slowed. Was I just being selfish now? Could I stop this? It would mean letting the evil bastard's soul survive. It would mean allowing him the chance of having a new body, of living again. He would continue his experiments. He would keep making more and more monstrosities. The Paragon would continue to hunt us.
Maybe we could just hunt her down and kill her...
No. Rithi would see this as a breaking of our deal. No choice. Better for Kora and my women to live hating me than to die today.
Kora and Ava reached the summit. They were at the altar. It was about to be over. It was all going to change. I couldn't believe it. I only had to walk up the last dozen or so feet and witness the end of my harem.
“Gods damn it all,” I muttered, rubbing at my neck.
“Master?” Zanyia asked as I stopped. “What's wrong?”
“I...” I turned around, looking down the slope of the hill, desperate for anything to stop this. My eyes slid out to the plain we crossed and...
Riders galloped towards the hill. Metal glinted off their armor. Twenty or more soldiers with a black-robed figure charged behind two figures running on foot. One was a massive thing, as big as the ogre we had fought, its features indistinct, looking almost patchwork even at this distance. Beside the hulk was a leaner figure, skin looking gray and waxy, almost like an insect.
Monsters.
Price Meinard's soldiers and the monsters raced toward us.
My shadow rapier formed.
~ * ~
Princess Ava
I shuddered as I reached the altar. My imbuer senses responded to it. My soul quivered as I stared at the crystal altar resting on the top of the perfect cone of the hill. The Altar of Souls was more than this small part thrusting out of the grass. It was the entire hill. It was all one machine, an arcane device created by the God Krab. I could feel the power it contained. It gathered energy, pulling it out of the air, building it up in vast batteries deep in the earth.
I trembled in awe at the potential for work it contained.
Kora pulled the amulet off her neck. The flash of ruby light playing across its faceted surface almost broke my senses from the machine. From what it could do. It left me dizzy what I could do with it. My hands clenched on the diamond hammer. It was the key to activating it.
Kora set the amulet on the altar. She let out a gasp and stepped back. “I haven't taken that off—”
“Ava, destroy the amulet. Now!” roared Sven.
His shout jerked my attention from the crystal altar and the blood red amulet. I looked down the hill and gasped. Armored men had reached the base. Two monsters were at the lead. A jolt of fear shot through me as my husband's black armor grew shadowy. His rapier was clutched in his hand, almost bleeding umbral vapor.
“Destroy it, Ava; we'll hold them off,” Sven growled.
I blinked as Sven moved down the hill. Greta, Nathalie, and Ealaín surged with him, Zanyia stalking after while Aingeal winged into the air, her pink wings fluttering. I swallowed. My family wore the armor they gained from the vault. An aura of wavering heat rippled around Nathalie as her flaming sword appeared. Light burst from Ealaín's armor, her dual weapons radiating in her hands. My own bedmaid, my busty Greta, held out her gauntleted hand. Her watery blade appeared in a splash of mist, the vapor blowing away from the shiny blade.
“That has to be the Paragon,” Kora said beside me, her voice tight.
The soldiers spread out, Shevoin, my father's master mage, riding in the center. I didn't see him, my father, but his captain Gunther leading the soldiers. At the lead, the hulking monster and the gray, insect-thing now worked up the hill, moving fast towards us. My eyes fell on the man-bug. It was... There was something familiar about the shape of the figure, the way it moved. I pushed past the waxy look of its segmented skin to...
“Father?” I gasped.
A wave of fear shot through me. I trembled, staring at the figure. I didn't know how I could know it was my step-father, but it was. He marched beside the patchwork hulk, the Paragon of the Biomancer. My father was transformed. He had become a monster himself, molting away his human exterior.
A nauseated wave washed through me. My stomach clenched as I remembered the lust the spell had generated in me for him. I no longer felt it, but just the things I had done with my father, letting him debase my body, made me feel so dirty. So soiled. In my mind, I saw him now as this insectoid thing. On me. Pumping away at me.
Violating me.
I whimpered. My hands tightened on the crystal hammer.
Carsina placed a hand on my shoulder, squeezed. “Mistress, you have to work the Altar. Do you feel it? Does your soul want to sink into it?”
I glanced over at her. She stared at me with those ruby eyes. She gave me a comforting smile, nodding her head. She was right. I had to destroy it. I had to ignore my family's plight and focus my thoughts on the altar.
On activating the power and destroying the amulet.
A great, almost feminine, roar echoed up the hill.
~ * ~
Zanyia
As we descended the hill, we spread out from each other. My tail swished as the Paragon and the bug-thing moved up the hill faster. The soldiers formed up at the base, gripping reins, their armor flashing. The robed man at the center lifted something to his mouth, tilting his head back like he was drinking something.
Aingeal, flying above us, asked “What is that bug thing?”
I shuddered and formed my twin katars out of the leather straps of my armor wrapped around my body. “It's ugly.”
“It's Prince Meinard,” Sven growled. I could hear the hatred in his words.
I hissed, staring down at the man who had tried to turn his step-daughter into his whore, to breed her. Hehad had that spell put on her, inflaming her lusts until she couldn't resist surrendering her body to him and fucking him.
“I will take the Paragon, Sven,” Ealaín said.
Master nodded, his eyes focused on the transformed prince scurrying up the hill. I could feel his eagerness to fight the thing. To kill it. This was the man who murdered his parents, his sister, who turned his betrothed into a whore.
“Gut him, Master,” I said. “So I'll take on all the soldiers. It seems fair.” I grinned, my tail swishing faster. With Silence, I felt so strong. So swift. I had reflexes as keen as—
The ground beneath my feet became liquid. I sank into it. Gasping in shock, I leaped immediately, ripping out of the muck as Sven, Ealaín, Nathalie, and Greta gasped. My jump soared me out over the cliff. I looked behind me to see them sunk to their ankles, their balance disrupted as the ground gripped them, holding them in place.
The Paragon and Prince Meinard charged closer.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Skittering Monster
Aingeal
“Cernere's black fingers!” I hissed. “Master mage! We're in trouble!”
Zanyia sprang past me. Her jump carried her over the Paragon and the Monster, her tail swishing behind her. She threw a look over her shoulder at me, her ears twitching, an excited glint in her cat-slitted eyes.
“Deal with him!” she hissed. “I got the soldiers!”
I summoned abjuration spirits. The blue balls of ethereal energy, the tangible forces of creation, surged around me. They danced around me before diving for the feet of Sven and my wives trapped by the hill's soil. Wreathed in the purple energy, the manifestation of my will, the abjuration spirits slammed into the ground, disrupting the ear
th magic.
Sven burst free as Prince Meinard and the Paragon closed the distance. Blurring like shadows, my husband didn't so much as charge down the hill at Meinard but flowed. Umbral vapor poured off of Sven. He roared, a sound of pure hatred distilled into a physical rage. Light exploded from Ealaín as she rushed at the Paragon. Water and flames swept from Greta and Nathalie.
The wave crashed into the Paragon. The hulking, patchwork monstrosity battered through it with no effort. The muscles of her thick, corded limbs flexed as she kept barreling up the hill, her strange, misshapen face twisted with a clash of emotions, forming a riotous, brutal expression of pure drive, her hands forming massive fists. Prince Meinard ducked beneath the wave, scuttling on his belly like a four-legged centipede, his limbs looking oddly jointed.
He rose upright in time to meet Sven's attack.
At the base of the hill, Greta's wave swept into the soldiers on their horses. Some were thrown down, their horses screaming and kicking. Others gripped the reins. The water flowed around the mage, channeled by the force of his magic.
I focused on him, gathering my spirits, my wings fluttering. Did I have the strength to battle a master mage?
I pointed my finger and fired a beam of evocation spirits at him.
~ * ~
Ealaín
A beam of purple energy lanced through the air as I closed in on the Paragon. Water dripped from the patchwork thing. She was hideous. The Biomancer had formed this thing from a dozen different humanoid creatures. I could see human, dwarf, orc, elf, goblin, ogre, halfling, and more in her features. She had breasts and a cock bouncing before her. A nauseating writhe rippled through my stomach.
Vebrin had fashioned her by despoiling a dozen different works of art, living creatures all, and stitching them together. It horrified me. It was like he'd taken a dozen priceless statues carved with exquisite care, hacked them to pieces, then stuck them together and declared that he had created something better. That he'd distilled the very essence of art.
A paragon.
My hammer and ax blazed with light. My armor strengthened my limbs. I would slay this thing for my divine mother. This thing was an affront to all Rithi stood for. I howled as I raised my weapons, Greta charging at my side.
