The dark unicorn slowly trotted through the fog in the direction of the party its vapor had surrounded. Its pace was lackadaisical, and it felt confident and a bit opportunistic as it lazily strode towards the impertinent creatures who dared intrude upon its domain.
The reasoning the creature used to justify its lazy pace to itself was so that it could call upon one of its most potent powers, a power which it never failed to use right before it went to battle and had over time became a tradition of the creature before it met any new being.
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This damnable power... What I wouldn't give to somehow improve it. I'm sick and tired of having to wait for it to recharge before I feel comfortable diving into battle, or using it to frighten weaklings into obedience.
The creature complained to itself as it strode through the mist it had magically generated. The creature then began to count the seconds it took for its strange ability to begin to take effect.
10...11...12
It had counted almost all the way up to 15 seconds before its jet black horn began to gently glow. Just moments later the horn began to sweat a bright liquid, a liquid which dripped from the beast's horn onto its snout.
The area soaked by the liquid darkened in color and Qut felt itself grow in power, albeit temporarily. The dark unicorn made a sound that was halfway between a gasp and a moan as the feeling of power suffused each part of its body. And then it picked up its pace to move closer to the party of adventurers who had unknowingly stepped onto its territory.
One effect of the aura that the unicorn was slightly uncomfortable with, when not using it at least, was that it strengthened any dark urges the beast felt, even while it was spreading over the creature's body. And though that might be a boon in battle, it did make the moments during which battles weren't happening more difficult for the creature.
An example of that was that in the wake of the silence that the creature had been met with after it spoke, it wanted to use its horn to impale each member of the party that it was approaching. The longer they were silent the more it felt like goring them onto its unusual extremity.
The thought of one of Althos's allies speared onto its horn brought the dark creature a not-insignificant amount of glee.
Qut's vision was unimpeded by the haze it was using as cover to slowly approach the creatures. The dark unicorn could effortlessly see each member of Althos's party, from the tiny batrachian humanoid hiding next to the human-like creature in the group to the massive demon who stood behind the group's sole human-looking member.
When the creature looked upon the human-like creature who was at the heart of the party's formation it was surprised to see that the deity was looking right back at it. This caused the unicorn to want to straight into Althos's eyes directly. The deity didn't avert his gaze and actually grinned when the unicorn's eyes met his own.
The unicorn was rather surprised when Althos suddenly locked eyes with it. The unicorn's eyes were like dense pools of dark magma, but the deity's eyes were a dark void that felt as though they'd absorb anything that they came into contact with. The unicorn met the gaze of the deity for a few moments, but then averted its gaze.
In the moments the deity and the unicorn locked eyes the creature felt a chill run up and down its spine. It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience, but in undergoing it the unicorn came to a wise realization: the creature who was lurking in the heart of the party was a nefarious and mighty creature.
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Moments after Althos determined the location of the unicorn, thanks to its eerie ruby eye color, the god and the magical equine creature locked eyes. Althos stared at the creature openly, boldly, and without blinking or backing down. The creature tried to match Althos's gaze, and successfully did so for several heartbeats, but ultimately averted its gaze.
Despite averting its gaze the dark unicorn continued its leisurely trot towards Althos and his servants. With each lax step it took in the direction of the party, more and more of its wicked yet striking body was revealed to Althos.
The dark unicorn was perhaps the most majestic creature Althos had seen in his life, however short that life was.
The creature that was lazily walking towards Althos and his followers was about two and a half meters long. Its coat was similar in color to its blazing eyes, a dark red color that contrasted sharply with the fog it shrouded itself in. Some features, like the unicorn's crest, were a striking shade of white that to a creature with more experience than Althos would have looked like snow. The color contrast was striking yet made the creature stand out even more.
The coat was thick but not thick enough to hide the creature's mighty muscles. Qut's body was covered in dense muscles. The creature's length was caused in no small part by how muscular the creature was, its muscles making its legs thicker, and giving it a broad chest.
The creature was tall, measuring close to three meters in height. Its face was sharp and angular, with deep-set eyes, a snout that occasionally exuded puffs of dark smoke, and a mouth that hid rows of teeth that were similar to shards of broken glass.
One of the strangest things about the creature, in Althos' eyes anyway, was an "air" which seemed to surround it. In fact, to the god's eyes Qut was positively bathed in a strange and alien aura.
This aura drapped itself over the creature's body, like a sort of barding that wrapped the creature in air a darker color than the creature's coat. For Althos the act of looking at Qut was the act of looking at a unicorn with a dark coat, through an even darker filter. It was totally bizarre.
Though Althos was studying Qut, Qut was studying Althos's party. The dark beast spent several moments eyeing each of the creatures the young god had gathered to his side.
Althos wondered what the creature thought of the very tiny cult and followers he had gathered, but that was mostly an idle thought. Instead of focusing on it, Althos began to walk in the direction of the creature, quietly passing the orcish brawlers who had positioned themselves to defend their allies.
Althos' followers tensed up, still unable to see where Qut was coming from but aware that Althos, who was approaching them from behind, probably could see the creature. He motioned for them to not move. None of them disobeyed him.
Althos's movement caught the wandering eye of the enigmatic unicorn who stopped its relaxed movements in response to Althos moving forward. The creature's final step brought it just close enough that Althos's companions could see the shape of it stand out against the dense fog, even if they couldn't yet make out any of its specific features.
Althos willed the next words to escape his lips to come out in the dark language of the demons and opened his mouth to speak.
"Greetings Qut. My name is Althos. I and my companions are newcomers to this forest. What is this you just said about 'having our friends'?"
The deity's question wouldn't be answered immediately, as the dark unicorn evidently had other plans and possibly even a flair for the dramatic.
As if in response to the words of the god, the fog that hid Qut from the view of the creatures who served Althos slowly began to pull back. Once the fog had pulled back enough to reveal all of Qut to the party, the fiendish creature silently made eye contact with every member of the assembled party and then took a small step towards Althos.
The sight of the dark unicorn caused the various figures who served Althos to gasp. It had an otherworldly bearing and it was quite striking in an alien sense, like something one might expect to see in a world that was a dark mirror of the one the adventurers lived in.
At that precise moment, the wind blew through the forest, causing the mane-like hair on the back of the unicorn's head to billow to the side.
Althos felt his party react to the figure who was apparently behind the mist, thanks to his unmatched hearing. He heard the beads of nervous sweat not only form on the brows of his allies but begin to roll down their brows as well. He even heard the quickening of their heartbeats. This made Althos grin, but of course, the deity only grinned internally.
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All five orcs in Althos's service were ultimately simple men. None of them possessed skills in spellcraft and none of them possessed any real experience with magic. This colored how they saw the dark unicorn.
When they looked at the dark unicorn, they saw a creature that was clearly intelligent, but they couldn't even consciously perceive the magical aura of darkness that Althos saw clearly when he looked at the creature.
The orcs who were in Althos' service reacted to the creature solely on the basis of its majestic physical appearance. They were astounded to see a creature that was both regal and capable of striking fear into someone's heart. To them, the black unicorn was a majesty creature that looked as though it was capable of inspiring or causing great evil.
In fact, the sight of its dark noblesse stirred a strange and unnatural bloodlust in them. To each of them it sounded slightly different but the warriors, in their proximity to the dark unicorn and their exposure to its malignant aura felt powerful dark desire surging forth from within the wilder and more brutal parts of their hearts.
At this moment the unicorn spoke to Althos, but the orcs were busy dealing with the insidious effects of the equine creature's aura and thus they didn't hear what it said to Althos. Not that they would have understood what it was saying anyway.
Gallow, only you deserve to be by your master's side. The others are either creatures he pities or those who had to be defeated by in order to convince of his greatness. But you? All it took was his mercy! Remember how your proactiveness before resulted in Althos's praise? Be proactive again, cut down those who only respect violence and earn more of his praise.
Ranthor, use your bow and arrows to earn your freedom. Liberate yourself from those whose strength can only manifest itself up-close. Althos may be worth serving thanks to his mighty magic, but must you fight alongside these brutes? Men who can only use knives, or their fists to fight? Althos may forgive you if you do this for him, but it's always easier to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission.
Anthus, is this the life you desire? The life you deserve? A life defined by a single failure, wherein all you do is serve one who defeated you once? Why not secure your freedom the traditional, orcish, way? Fight. Fight!
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Bazur, Althos may have saved your siblings and showed you mercy, but did they deserve it? Anthus fell to a single blow! That is not the orcish way. Killing him is a mercy. And Ranthos would find that true to the orcish path, to orcish thinking.
The strong survive Ragnor. Only the strong. They have forgotten that. But if you rise up right now, no one who survives the day will forget it again. Power is waiting to be seized. If you act now, strike while the iron is hot, then you stand to wake up tomorrow much more powerful than you did today.
Each of the orcs found these nefarious whispers annoying. The orcs weren't shaken by them, and in fact, found them very easy to ignore. This confused the dark unicorn, who strode up to them expecting its power to shake-up their relationships, loosen their hearts, and make them tear each other apart.
There were two reasons why the sinister power of the unicorn's aura didn't work. The most direct and easily understood of the reasons was that the power of the faith domain was still gripping the hearts of the orcs and that that coupled with what strange and distinct faith they each had in their master overcame the predatory nature of the unicorn's aura.
The second reason was harder to explain concretely but was probably more important in the long run. The reality was that each of the orcs, the only people in the party with mortal minds and the strength to not flee or want to flee from the unicorn, had endured events over the last two days which fundamentally altered their minds.
Their understandings of reality and their expectations about their own lives had been both upended and undermined by the mysterious and often random works of Althos. His sudden emergence into their lives, the dramatic nature of the things he did either for them or to them, and even his very presence, had forced them to become mentally flexible.
These two things put together granted them unexpected mental toughness, perhaps the only sort of toughness orcs weren't typically known for having.
Silander for her part in all of this found the massive creature, a creature so tall that the only being taller than it in the party was Raverangos, absolutely terrifying. The dark creature's imposing air made Silander want to run and not look back. It was her proximity to the god who awakened her that granted her the ability to stay still, but the unicorn and its aura was pushing that resilence to its limit.
Althos and Raverangos were simply unaffected by the aura. Both creatures had minds that were immune to such weak mind-altering effects and were thus completely ignorant as to that effect of the strange aura that bathed the unicorn.
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Seconds after taking a step forward, Qut opened its mouth to speak. When the dark creature's open mouth was exposed to Althos's companions they had to stifle their reactions to Qut's broken-looking teeth out of fear of disrespecting the creature. Althos took that moment to try and learn what the creature was feeling by using a touch of mind-magic and mixing it with his own enhanced vision to assess the creature's body language.
The first emotion Althos sensed from the creature before his allies had unknowingly shrugged off the cruel power of the aura, was a level of confidence. There was also a nearly imperceptible bit of fear, or perhaps paranoia, along with the confidence, but the confidence itself was considerably more noticeable and powerful than the paranoia Althos sensed from within the beast.
"Al... Althos is it?"
Althos silently nodded in response to the question.
It was at that moment when the unicorn realized that none of Althos's comrades had turned on their peers. This truly mystified the beast and caused an unexpected emotional shift.
At that moment Althos's ability to understand the creature's emotions picked up a quick emotional change. The creature, still proud and arrogant, went from being confident to being confused.
Confusion had profound effects on the proud. Normally it caused proud creatures to become irritable and aggressive, but on Qut the effects were more subtle. This confusion awoke the creature's reasoning abilities and they warned it that it was facing something strange, and perhaps even something dangerous. Which made the creature cautious.
Qut may have been named for what its maw would do to meat and other food that entered it. The creature's mouth was filled with innumerable teeth, all of which looked like translucent shards of broken glass and promised to slice up anything unlucky enough to be in Qut's mouth.
Althos took a step towards the creature and began to speak again. His voice was slow and he willed it to wash over the unearthly beast and he hoped that it would placate the strange fear he felt the creature radiate.
"Qut, we are not your enemies. We are merely wanderers in search of something we believe we may be able to find in this part of the forest. But I'm afraid I must repeat myself... what do you mean you 'have our friends'?"
Althos watched as the creature looked straight at him, and as it contemplated his words. It took a step back, as the fear Althos identified earlier began to take a firmer hold in its heart.
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This being's friends were totally unaffected by my aura... that means they must have strong minds. And all of them together could probably force me to flee this area if I wish to remain unharmed.
There must be a way for me to deal with these newcomers that prioritizes my safety... Gah, I guess I have no choice but to deal with them as equals and see if what they want is anything unreasonable.
The unicorn was an intelligent and evil creature, and like many evil creatures, it had a powerful sense of pride. But like even more evil creatures it had strong instincts that prioritized survival. After all, if one survives one can rebuild their pride. In the eyes of the most dangerous evil beings, the only end that was permanent was death.
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Qut spoke just an instant after realizing that it'd probably be best to listen to Althos and his allies. The next words out of Qut's mouth both shocked and relieved the deity.
"Are you not aware that your friends are missing? Or are the goblins not yours?"
Qut received its answer from the deity's body language rather than any words it spoke. The godling breathed a sigh of relief, and then immediately began to grin, after hearing Qut utter the word "goblins".
"Goblins? No, we have no goblin allies. But, I suppose they came across you somewhere closeby. I'm making this guess because we were following their tracks. They may have something to do with some local wildlife... acting aggressively."
Althos was happy to hear that the creatures caught by the dark unicorn were not orcs belonging to the same group of raiders Althos's allies were a part of.
Althos's mistake was his sudden mood shift, the deity's mood led to him being a bit too cavalier with what the wolves had mentioned to him. His voice had changed mid-sentence after he realized the mistake he made, a change that was detected by the unicorn.
The unicorn's curiosity was piqued by Althos's unfortunate slip of the tongue, but the creature did a quick cost-benefit-analysis and figured that that particular bit of forest gossip wasn't worth the risk of agitating the group of adventurers, given how quickly Althos's tone shifted when he realized the mistake he made.
To ensure that the unexpected interlopers to its domain weren't tempted to try and silence someone who may know a bit too much, Qut, in a fit of paranoia, spoke up and made an offer it hoped would placate the travelers.
"Well since they might have knowledge useful to you, would you like to accompany me to them? I'm not keeping them in my lair, just watching over them in an area that's close by."
As the unicorn was making that offer it willed away the rest of the fog and felt the effects of its aura begin to wear off. It mentally readied itself for the unpleasant aftereffects of the period after the ability was used.
The ability was a temporary one, and chatting with the creatures had chewed through the time the ability was able to be active. Qut carefully and stealthily repositioned its legs so that the sudden weakening of its body it knew was coming wouldn't cause it to fall and possibly give away that it was entering a period of serious vulnerability to strangers.
Althos pretended not to notice that the creature had seemingly randomly moved its legs to a closer and tenser position where it could muster more force, and spoke for the group.
"Sure! We'll accompany you to where you're... 'watching over' the goblins."
Althos's voice revealed his skepticism of the dark unicorn's claims, but he was genuinely interested in meeting the creatures that the dark unicorn had, one way or another, acquired.
The godling turned around and explained the gist of what was said to his non-demonic allies. The orcs behind him, his great-frog worshipper, and the demon all felt that this was probably the best course of action so none of them cared to add anything else to what their master said.
The unicorn nodded at them and then slowly turned around, weakened in the moments after its ability was used up. When it finished its slow turn, it began to walk at a moderate pace in the same direction Althos and his allies had been wandering in when the encounter began.
Althos was curious as to what awaited them deeper in the forest, and he was far from alone. Qut, for its part in all of this, was feeling rather conflicted. The intelligent dark unicorn was frustrated that its auric powers were useless, but the creature was glad that it was still alive and that the goblins it acquired might be of some use to it after all.
At that moment Althos received a handy notification.
[New Species Knowledge Gained: Dark Unicorns
Dark Unicorns are a demonic corruption of powerful celestial creatures known to mortals as Unicorns. Their celestial counterparts are famous for their kindness, dignity, mercy, and hope, but Dark Unicorns are lustful creatures who are the dark embodiments of the fury at the heart of a stampede and the belligerent pride of a mighty lion. Their horns are potent magical items that can be used as part of deadly magical rituals or as the foundation of sinister weapons. That said acquiring a Dark Unicorn's horn is a foolhardy task as the Dark Unicorn will fight hunters seeking their horns to the death.
Known Dark Unicorns: Qut.]
After Althos read through the notification he willed it away and pursued Qut who had just begun to wander in the direction of where it was keeping the goblins.
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As the party wandered off with the unicorn, Althos reestablished his mental connection to the infernal allies he had made during his short and unwilling trip there. He tested it by asking a quick question.
[Tristan and Salifinos, can you hear me?]
He got a response within seconds.
[Althos, this is Tristan. I can hear you. What is it, are you on your way back?]
Tristan's tone revealed that the half-devil was evidently quite excited by the idea of Althos returning. In the heat of the moment, the deity was unsure if that was due to her being stuck in a tomb without him, or because she now wanted to serve him, but he was inclined to think it was a healthy mixture of the two.
And then an instant later he received a response from Salifinos.
[This is Salifinos, you are heard. What's up?]
Salifinos' casual tone slightly annoyed the deity, but Althos was quite excited to realize that his mental powers and mental magic could have an effect even over cosmic distances.
[Sit tight for a bit. I may attempt to summon the two of you out of the tomb in a bit. I just need to be in a better place to try something like that. If it doesn't work, within the next few hours I may just teleport back to you and the orbs, grab you and then teleport out of the tomb. I'm currently where I came to life, and I'm trying to solve a mystery. Your powers, and the powers of the orbs, would be more useful here, than there, but I have a demon, my demon, here and I honestly don't know how it'd react to you since you're devils.]
After Althos finished explaining his rationale he waited to hear their reactions. Within seconds both creatures telepathically sighed and mentally grumbled quiet complaints but didn't try to persuade the deity to do anything else. Then there was a silence as no member of the trio said anything over their connection. Both of the devils quickly corrected that.
Salifinos's message must have been finished quicker than Tristan's because it was the first Althos received.
[I'd love to be back in the mortal world. If you can bring me there that'd be awesome. It'd give me a chance to test out my poison.]
Salifinos's message was simple and to the point. At the end of it the imp also revealed some of the excitement he felt about the possibility of having targets on which he could finally use his stinger.
Tristan's message came through a second later.
[I've never been to the mortal plane. That makes it neat, exciting, and probably filled with things to corrupt. If you can bring me there that'd be awesome. Plus I'd rather be there, being useful, than be stuck here. I hope to see you soon, Althos.]
Tristan's mental tone shifted a bit at the end there. All of her thoughts were respectful, but the thought at the end was more than that. There was a bit of giddiness to it. Althos pondered it for a bit and then focused on where the unicorn was leading them. Behind him, his companions wondered what had taken his attention away from the immediate surroundings but none of them felt like asking directly.
That was when Althos received a new notification.
[Feat gained: Long Distance.
Benefit: Range is less of an obstacle to you now. Range limits applied to ranged weapons are now doubled for you.
Method of Acquisition: Perform a spell or attack that crosses dimensions to reach its target. Spell can be of any type.
Note: Given your nature as a god, range limits for magic that would apply to mortals are effectively disregarded for you for no other reason than your limitless magical power allowing you to fuel magical spells infinitely. This feat is for ranged weapons like bows, guns, cannons, and other things like that.]