Part 1: Sacrifices & Demons
Muscles are overrated. I mused as I set about binding the arms and legs of my mate, the father of my children, Qiloth Darklight.
His thick muscles obstructed me, even and especially in his unconscious state. They boldly defied me, even as I attempted to constrain them, and for that I cursed them, unholy obscenities escaping my lips. The curses were quiet because even in the throes of my zealous annoyance, I never forgot the sort of unholy delights his muscles had once helped me feel.
"Althos, why can't I hurt him?" I wondered aloud, knowing that my dark master had forbidden me from inflicting pain on living creatures in the wake of our first, admittedly disastrous meeting. Not that he'll allow me to deliberately cause pain, even now... I complained internally, Oh shit! No master, I didn't mean to complain-
[Silence. You may not break his bones to make them more... compact.] The same voice, the voice of my dark god, cut me off, chiding me. This time there was mild annoyance in it, a surprisingly mortal emotion for the entity to experience. Though admittedly, one that many demons feel as well.
[Understood, master...] I grumbled, communicating over the mental line Althos had established with me mere hours ago. In response to my labor, even as I began to finally successfully get the manacles I had purchased years ago around Qiloth's thick hands, I heard the dark lord snort in derision at me and immediately realized that he must have been willing for me to hear that.
I huffed, masking my annoyance as exertion at the physical labor I was being asked to perform. I snapped the manacles shut, binding Qiloth's arms together and depriving him of one of his weapons even if he managed to awaken before he was supposed to.
I continued my labor in silence for another few moments while I got his ankles equally contained. That was much quicker than binding his arms.
Seconds later I heard a noise from behind me, the sound of magic activating, and felt a blast of heat rush into the room. Shit... what is it now? I wondered, speedily turning around to face whatever had caused the disturbance.
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When I turned around I was surprised to see three diminutive fungal humanoid step out of a heat-emitting portal.
The portal behind the creatures magically shimmered and radiated purplish light. Within it, I could see a dark landscape of dense trees covered in thick patches of fungi. What is that? I wondered, my eyes speedily assessing the portal and what laid behind it while listening to the sounds that came out of it.
Aside from the sound of the magic which powered the portal, I also heard the faintly familiar sounds of birdsong, the cheeping noises and the sounds of wings fluttering. Does this portal lead to the world above? I questioned, only to immediately receive an answer.
[No. This portal leads to my home, which is located in a private dimension. The... above-ground portion of it anyway. I've dispatched three helpers to store the gift you've provided for me. Three creations of mine, the little ones you see before you.] The voice in my head told me. It was Althos revealing that the strange, verdant, paradise beyond the portal was his home, the realm of a god.
I stopped focusing on the portal and turned my attention to the creations Althos mentioned. The creatures stood only about a meter tall, but they were built like barrels, far wider than they were tall. All three of them were a bright green color, and at a glance they loosely resembled dwarves.
All three of the creatures had a basic humanoid form complete with the appropriate limbs, two short, stubby arms, and two tiny legs. Their heads ended just above their eyes and swiftly became dense mushroom caps that were dark red, with occasional patches of white scales. It contrasted sharply with the rest of their green bodies, but it matched the colors of their eyes.
All three of them had eyes and even had holes in their face that might have served an olfactory purpose, allowing them to detect scents. But their faces were made up solely of their eyes, their nose-holes, and their mushroom cap heads. They lacked ears, mouths, and foreheads, all features that were considered normal among humanoid races.
The creatures approached, and their tiny footfalls produced the odd noise of plantlife slowly overtaking stone. When they were only a few meters away from where I stood they stopped and looked up at me. Their thin red eyes glowed with what might have been bloodlust, perhaps malice, or maybe their eyes were as emotionless as they appeared to be.
Our eyes met and we regarded each other for a few moments, silently studying each other. I watched them, studying their blank faces, and allowed my senses to help paint me a picture of these creatures.
They smelled of the world above, of trees and of fish-filled rivers, of grass and of wood. They made no noise, aside from the sounds of their slight shuffling and it was difficult for me to tell if they were breathing, or even if such a thing were necessary for them.
Do they want me to step aside? I wondered and quickly decided to test if that was why they had stopped. I stepped away from the bound form of my mate, and the creatures paid me no more mind. They quickly walked up and grabbed Qiloth, each of them working in tandem to move the dark elf berserker from his bound position, into a position where he would slump over onto their caps.
It took them only a moment to successfully move him so that he fell over onto their dense caps. Once he was balanced on top of them, the odd trio proceeded to silently walk back towards their odd portal.
They didn't stop for a second, never needing to balance my mate on their caps, and didn't even stop when they reached the portal. Instead, they continued their silent march until they were beyond the portal, and then the portal abruptly closed, revealing the rest of the dining room that was hidden behind it, where unconscious maids quietly slept.
Those were even more of Althos' creations? I asked myself, before mentally replaying my master's message in my mind. Yes, they were. How... odd. I mused, smiling at no one in particular.
I looked around and spent a moment examining the unconscious residents of my dining room. None of them looked uncomfortable or in any particular danger, and so I gathered my wits and walked out of the dining room and began making my way to the more inhabited parts of the city.
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The walk to the marketplace took about half an hour from my isolated familial home. It was an uneventful trip, and I quickly found myself resting underneath a massive, several meters long, rainbow-colored tarp.
All around me I heard the ignorant masses babble at length.
"What'd you think of the vision?" One dark elf male asked another. There was nervousness in his voice.
"I thought it was scary. A god like that reminds me of the days we were taught about in school. The demon days." His companion, also a male dark elf, responded. There was fear in his voice. I smiled, drinking in the words of the dark elf. I knew that somewhere in the depths of his realm, Althos was probably pleased by statements like this.
Weaklings. I thought a cruel grin etched on my face. Althos would probably love to eat them up since they fear him. I mused, wondering what my master was up too right now, all while I sat in a soft chair and waited.
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The hours passed by slowly. I wasted them away by idly relaxing in my chosen dwelling, the same soft chair I had arrived at earlier when I heard men gossiping about Althos.
I made the choice to laze the hours away, and luxuriously used my family's influence as justification to idly watch the comings and goings of those who had to come to the marketplace.
I was silent while I did this, at least physically. Mentally I was quite loud, and I engaged my master in conversation. I learned a lot doing this and found that now that my task was fulfilled Althos was a surprisingly lively conversationalist. At one point he even appeared before me, evidently invisible to everyone else, for the last few minutes before it was time to go to the temple, to chat since I was peppering him with questions.
Among other things, I learned a few key facts about the nature of my overlord.
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"The first three habitats I made in my realm were a dense forest, an immense labyrinth of subterranean tunnels that existed underneath this forest, and a gigantic cavern that houses a... copy of this city." He revealed, surprising me.
"Wow... why?" I asked, curious as to if he'd share his reasoning with me. He stared at me for a moment, probably considering how much to reveal to me, before he responded.
"In death, the souls of those who worship me will come to my realm. My realm is an infinite expanse that can concurrently contain any sort of habitat or biome I wish it too. I decided to recreate what I knew and what I knew was the first of my birth, the tunnels that led to the world beneath the world, and the city of Undermoon." He told me, his voice calm and careful as he revealed secrets not known to many, if any others, to me.
I was stunned for a few moments while I considered what he said. He grinned at me, probably proud of the fact that he knew things I didn't know. His grin was contagious, but I worked to not grin back because if I did it'd probably annoy him.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, curious as to his reasoning. His response was a fairly simple one, one that caught me off guard.
"Consider it a reward for your obedience. And if we're being honest, I know of no reason to keep this a secret. Knowledge ought to be known, not hoarded. This is not a secret, nor is there any cosmic rule I know of that would punish mortals who learn of what waits after death, especially now since there's probably only one god left in existence. Or one that would punish gods for revealing this." He explained, smiling more sincerely this time.
I was silent, thinking about what he said when he revealed more to me.
"I've created more habitats than the ones I just mentioned. The place you saw in the vision was a plain I created that was loosely modeled after the grasslands that exist outside of the forest of my birth. Originally it was an isolated place that existed within my realm but was inaccessible to anyone but me. I fixed the damages caused by my powers in the wake of the vision and then connected it to the rest of the realm." He said, his voice quiet as he did so.
His face indicated that he was lost in thought as he talked about his realm. It was like he was here with me, while his mind was elsewhere. He also wasn't done talking. But while he spoke, I thought about something he had mentioned.
"I also made some... weirder ones too. You probably knew about oceans, but I didn't. Qu'Ren even has memories of these things even in the world beneath the world! I made two oceans, one above the surface and one below it, and made those part of my realm. They have trenches, coral reefs, kelp forests, and more! And that's not all-" He said, an oblivious and almost goofy grin on his face as he told me about his world.
At this point I interrupted him, ready to apologize if necessary, but still spoke up. "Earlier you said that if someone worships you their soul goes to your realm when they die. I worship you. What would happen to my soul, when I die?" I asked, my voice unusually high-pitched as I asked him that.
He chuckled and looked at me. There was a flash in his eyes, a thought he must have needed some time to unfold and contemplate. And then he began to speak.
"I can manipulate souls Hagitha. I can transform your soul as I see fit at any point. If you serve me well, I will transform you into a demon when you die. But only if your service exceeds my expectations." He said, his voice low and eerie. He grinned at me, and there was a malicious glint in his eyes. I shivered at both his words and the gleam in his eyes, but nodded childishly, accepting his judgment, and feeling powerless to resist it.
"Good girl..." He whispered, smiling evilly at me. There was something eerie about him, compared to the deity I met hours ago. He seemed older somehow, more confident.
"Are you really the same creature I met so recently?" I asked, knowing the dreadful truth by the way he had responded to my question, but still wanting to confirm it, to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. His grin widened while he prepared to speak.
"Yes, I am Hagitha. I've just spent the last few hours growing in power and knowledge. I have so many memories within me, deep in my soul. Drow's memories... Qu'Ren's memories... orcish memories... the memories of animals. even your memories." He said, his voice growing colder with each source of memories that he mentioned.
"It is in fact by combining your knowledge and memories and Qu'Ren's knowledge and memories that I came up with the idea to sacrifice Qiloth. Qu'Ren has a fascination with demons and has spent many fortunes researching them, and you have knowledge that exceeds entire collections of encyclopedias on demons stored in your brain. I can barely imagine the sort of creature we could summon by sacrificing Qiloth's blood..." He said dreamily, and for a moment he and I were on the same wavelength. I too could only imagine the sort of monster that my mate's blood would call forth.
I smiled at him. He still denies it, but he is a lord of demons. I thought, his fascination with them giving me some level of comfort about the future and about his true nature.
"In fact, there's a part of me that wants to thank you. Well... not just you, but you and Qu'Ren alike. It is because of the two of you that I can more properly appreciate the power of demons." Althos confessed, smiling. He closed his eyes, and for a moment I wondered what he was imagining. And then I got a glimpse of it. Althos' mind invaded my own, and his thoughts became mine for an instant.
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I was instantly transported from my comfortable seat to the final resting place of a grand army. Spread out before me was a flatland of infinite, bloody sand.
Bodies littered this flatland, bodies belonging to demons and humanoids alike. The smell of guts, blood, and defecation filled my nostrils, causing even me to feel sick for a second. The gross noises of the dead filled my ears, as stomachs were emptied, as bugs zipped too and from rotting corpses, and as biological death took hold of the newly deceased.
I studied this scene and examined the bodies that Althos was showing me. Most of the humanoid bodies belonged to humans and dwarves. The demonic bodies ran the gamut.
I saw sentinel demons, wrath demons, nightmarish warriors, pride demons, and countless other types littering the ruined battlefield. And then Althos abruptly pulled me from the scene he had transmitted into my brain.
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"What... what was that?" I breathlessly asked, looking at him in an alarmed manner. He studied me for a moment, a neutral expression on his face.
"That was one of the memories of my pet, the sentinel demon Drow told you about. What you just saw was a snapshot of one of its more... recent memories." Althos said, his face still oddly neutral.
"I decided to explore its memories after I began studying yours. It turns out that in my godly realm I am so powerful I can even thoroughly study more than one person or thing's memories at the same time! I'm actively relieving yours and those of other people right now in fact." He said, slowly beginning to smile.
And then he began to slowly fade away, his body dematerializing, slowly turning to some sort of sickly dust, before my very eyes. But as he was fading away he looked at me with his eyes fully open and spoke once more.
"Looks like it's almost time for the big show. Run along to the temple Hagitha, you're needed there. And believe me, you won't want to miss what's about to happen." He told me, as he left this place.
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The temple wasn't far from the marketplace and arriving there, even amid the throngs of people who were also making their way there wasn't difficult. It took perhaps a quarter of an hour to get there, and the whole time I was walking I was impressed at the crowds who were making their way to the city's second heart, behind the grand marketplace.
When I reached the temple there was already a crowd gathered around it. The temple of the city of Undermoon was built rather peculiarly, and I was one of many people who came to a stop at the edge of a pit as a consequence of its odd design.
Undermoon's massive temple was located inside of a gigantic pit in the city's winding streets and alleyways. Staircases allowed visitors and clergy to descend into the temple, but no one did so at this moment. The numerous staircases that surrounded the temple were empty at the moment that I arrived, and they stayed empty even as the people of the city crowded around the temple.
The temple's roof was the only thing we could see from the outside. It was a flat surface a few dozen meters across made of some darkened metal, perhaps of Elysium or even some non-dark metal that was dyed that way for the sake of aesthetics.
Not long after I arrived I noticed something odd: there was a thin blue vapor that covered the entire area around the temple. It covered the area just outside of the temple as far as I could see, and it clung very closely to the ground but it was visible. No one else, or at least no one near me, appeared to notice the vapor.
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Minutes after I arrived the event began without fanfare and without a dramatic announcement of some sort. Instead, the chatty crowd fell silent when a shimmering portal appeared at the far end of the temple's roof. Whatever the portal revealed was too distant for me to see from where I stood. But when figures began to walk out of it, a massive projection appeared high in the sky above the roof's temple, giving everyone present and even those who weren't a view of the action.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The projection was displaying the figures walking out of the portal. One of the figures was Althos, whose form resembled a male dark elf, but more muscular, built more like a brawler or monk than a ranger. All at once everyone who was unfamiliar with Althos gasped as they were reminded that this too was one of the forms of the tyrant lord, Althos.
I could imagine the shock they felt suddenly hearing the mechanical voice of the system as they were paying close attention to the scene before them. It made me chuckle softly.
Other figures with Althos included a few robed figures wearing eyeless masks who held long, cruel-looking knives in their hands, my mate Qiloth stripped of his armor, and even a pair of eyeless creatures I recognized as pain-mongers, a sort of extraplanar creatures who roamed the dimensions. The pair of eyeless things were floating orbs that each served as the core of a network of chained flails, known informally as brain-beaters, the pain-monger familiar.
The figures walked quietly to the center of the temple's roof, with Althos bringing up the rear of the odd party. Just in front of him floated the brain-beaters, heavy-looking things that appeared to be made of metal, which casually pulled their armaments with them as they magically floated around their master.
And in front of both the familiars and their master walked the servants Althos had brought with them and my mate, a robed figure in front of him and one behind him. The whole party marched for a few moments. They eventually came to a stop directly on top of the center of the temple and the robed figures stopped Qiloth by brushing their blades against him.
One of the blades was positioned directly in front of him, threatening to slice him if he attempted to dash forward, and the other was positioned directly behind him, threatening to cut him if he tried to run behind him. The two figures took positions on his left and his right respectively, cutting off any possibility of him dashing sideways to escape.
The projected image suddenly focused on Althos' face and he waited a few seconds before speaking.
"Hello, people of Undermoon!" He said, his voice exploding across the city. Between the projected image and his explosive voice, he was clearly doing his best to ensure that everyone in the city had access to the show he was about to put on.
No one spoke in response but he was responded too. All at once, thunderous applause erupted from the gathered crowd of hundreds, possibly even a few thousand people. The projected image revealed Althos' response to the applause: a wide grin that appeared on his godly face.
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Moments after the applause died down, Althos began to speak again. The same grin from before remained locked on his face, his eyes reflecting the elation he was experiencing.
"We are here today to make our presence known!" He said, his voice once again exploding across the city. He was met with silence, and he made a gesture to his companions, both of whom were facing him and watching him through their odd masks. They nodded, and as one tossed the knives in their hands into the air and skillfully caught the weapons but by the blades, not by the hilts.
The two figures then lifted the blades up so and onto Qiloth's shoulders. Then the dark elf berserker was forced to his knees before them, gritting his teeth. The projected image then switched to focus on Qiloth, projecting his prideful irritation and fear at the cloaked figures before him to the entire city, which would have humiliated him if he were unfocused and not scared for his life at the moment.
And then I was suddenly whisked away from the scene before me.
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In an instant I went from being at the edge of the pit leading to the temple, to a strange, white, place. I was alone, but there was something heavy suddenly in my hand. I looked down at the object in my hand and found that there was a strange mask in it.
The mask in my hand was made of metal, modeled after an infamous burrowing worm, a giant and devastating type of monster that ravaged the world beneath the world, and lacked eyeholes. It was heavy and dense, but not heavy enough for me to struggle with it, instead it was heavy enough to come with a noticeable heft.
[It's time for you to join the show. Come. Your people are waiting. Put on your mask and join us. I'll tell you what to say and what to do.] Althos' voice told me, him suddenly filling my mind with his presence and his dark voice. I smiled as I lifted the mask to my face, and when I put it on, I was shocked to feel it meld instantly with my skin, surprisingly painlessly.
Instead of going blind, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to see through the mask, as if it weren't on in the first place. I only had a second to adjust my expectations to this odd reality, before I was suddenly yanked from this odd place and placed safely and comfortably in front of my mate and in the presence of the crowd who had gathered to watch the sacrifice.
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[Repeat after me. "I am the grand necromancer! I shall oversee this and all the other blood sacrifices to our great, dark, lord!"] Althos' voice whispered into my mind. I did as I was told, excitement rushing to my face, which I was suddenly thankful was hidden behind a mask.
["This dark elf has failed our dark master! The lord has told me that for him to atone he must sacrifice. He must give himself to our dark liege."] He told me, no doubt grinning internally. Again, I repeated after him.
["But even this failure need not be afraid of death, because Althos is merciful. Those of us who die for the sake of appeasing our mighty lord will come back from death. Not as a punishment, but as a reward!"] Althos said, his mental voice smug. I smiled and uttered what he told me to utter.
["Watch, as our lord demonstrates his mastery over death! As he defeats the one thing promised to us all! As he delivers even the least worthy of us into a glorious new day!"] Althos mentally shouted, his voice filling my mind with some of the dark elation he felt, a sliver of the praise and worship that was surging into him from the gathered dark elves.
When I shouted into the crowd gathered around me, around us, what I was told to say, the other masked figures moved in unison and swung their blades into Qiloth.
I listened, delighting in the lovely sound of sharpened metal effortlessly piercing into and sliding into flesh and the soft dripping caused by blood hitting the roof beneath our feet. One knife was thrust into the dark elf's skull, and the other was swung into his heart, both penetrated skin and bone to get to their destinations.
I suddenly felt my feet grow warmer as a huge, blue, magical circle appeared underneath Qiloth's still standing body. At once two things happened. Qiloth fell. First to his knees, and then he fell face forward, his body still within the large arcane geometry.
The second thing to happen was that the entire city of Undermoon received a notification. The mechanical voice of the system surged into my mind, powerfully summarizing what had just happened.
[Alert!
The grand temple of the city of Undermoon has been the site of a public, blood, sacrifice to a living god. This act of religious devotion, overseen by both the god himself and a number of his worshipers, fulfills the requirements for converting a temple and as a consequence of that has converted the temple from a temple to the faith of the ancient, deceased demon-lord Morthos, to the living faith of Althos.
Everyone in the city is going to receive a new feat once they've willed away this notification.
New Feat acquired: In The Company Of Althos
Benefit & Flavor Text: Those who witnessed the first-ever act of ritual sacrifice to the god Althos joined him in overseeing a sacrifice. As a consequence of that, he grants them enhanced memory, enhanced ability to learn languages, and increased mental resistance. A historic moment deserves a unique reward. For your devotion to your divine master, he smiles upon you and grants you increased mental prowess.
Method of acquisition: This is a unique feat that is only granted because this was a historic event. Join the god Althos as someone is sacrificed to him.]
I smiled and willed away the notification. I instantly struggled to stay on my feet as my mind was rocked. My mental abilities were increasing, but it felt like I was receiving electric shocks directly to my brain, which was an odd and unpleasant feeling. I struggled but ultimately succeeded in my mission to stay on my feet.
[Now! Use this.] Althos' voice suddenly roared in my mind, at the same time as knowledge of a new spell filled my mind. I grinned wickedly at the sudden notification, willed it away, and rose my hand.
I aimed it at the lazy corpse of my mate, bleeding onto the floor around us. I focused on the spell that had just entered my mental repertoire and willed it to take effect. Come on... spell, activate! I mentally shouted, an instant before magical energy left my body and radiated outward in the form of a transparent wave that collided with the close corpse.
The magic took hold instantly. Qiloth began to move, slowly. Painfully slowly really. But then again he must have been in far more pain than I was. His corpse began to struggle to stand up, first succeeding at lifting his deceased head up off the ground and staring blankly ahead. The knives were still embedded within him, and his eyes were now milky white orbs.
"Uhh..." He moaned, vacantly as he began to more violently struggle to stand up. His dark skin was rapidly taking on a lighter tone as the magic coursed through him.
And then the sound of dense wings filled the air above the temple, coming from up high, above the projection even. A powerful gust of wind slammed into the temple, but not before Althos wordlessly enhanced myself and his other gathered followers with a potent spell of some sort. We all stood our ground as the wind slammed into us from above, harmlessly hammering at us in an attempt to make us kneel.
"Look at that beauty." Althos said, in the language of the demonic homeland his head staring at the thing that was coming to the top of the temple from high above it. It sounds beautiful coming out of his mouth. I thought, about the demonic language, even as I turned to look up above us and identify whatever we had just summoned.
At first, all I could see was a distant dot, a red-colored dot in the distance that was flying at us from incredibly high up. Before it came into view or at least came into view in a way that allowed me to identify it, it screeched at the gathered worshipers. The noise was primal, anger-filled, and joyless. And to many other people, it would have served as the warning sign of the oncoming terror and violence. But not to the people of Undermoon.
The Althonians of Undermoon, myself included, immediately recognized the cries of a wrath demon. Many of us fearlessly looked up above the city and smiled. And as one, we rose our hands to the cavern's sky. And magically readied ourselves to grab a communal gift, a communal offering to give to our new overlord.
I chuckled as I heard Qiloth's animate corpse moan pathetically once more. "I look forward to dealing with you, my dear." I said to the thing, only paying it even the slightest mind since it was right next to me.
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Part 2: The Dark Lord's Army
[Wake up your allies. I have... a gift. A violent one. You'll like it. Wake up your friends and head to the clearing.] Althos' voice spoke into my mind in the middle of the night. And it roused me from my sleep effortlessly. I awoke in a darkened tent, in the middle of the even darker forest.
Althos' command was sudden and dangerous. And promised violence. So it wasn't unlike how Althos came into my life, abrupt and with the promise of violence. I never disliked that.
I wordlessly exited my tent and took stock of where we were.
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We were not far from a natural clearing in the same forest Althos had come to life in. All of us but a single one of the archers who had stayed with us were asleep. The lone archer was fulfilling his weekly shift keeping watch, a truly unenviable task in the dark. Fortunately for me, awakening the camp was only as difficult as shouting.
"Oy! Wake up you lot! The dark lord has got a gift for us." I shouted, intentionally using simplistic language to get even the less-witty members of the raiding party awake quickly. My tent was one of several, and within seconds of shouting, I heard muffled whispers come from the assorted tents spread throughout our camp.
The first orcs to fully wake up and exit their tents were the brawlers, which was unsurprising. One of them came up to me, Bazur, Althos' second oldest servant, and began to speak.
"Althos? He's giving us something?" The orc asked shock and concern etched on his face as he questioned me. I grinned at him, and I didn't doubt that the look on my face was one someone less blessed than myself would call "fanatical".
"Yes. The dark lord has a 'violent' gift for us. Who knows what he has prepared for us to use." I told my friend, grinning madly at him. He gave me a long, worried look, and I could tell that he was curious but also afraid of whatever Althos was going to give us.
It took less than a minute for everyone to be out of their tents. When they looked at me quizzically I smiled and spoke.
"Come. Our dark lord has a present for us, in the clearing." I told them, and then immediately turned around and began to lead the way towards the nearby clearing.
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The trip to the clearing, even in the dark, wasn't difficult. We were close by, and even in the dark my vision was able to lead us there without any difficulty. When we walked out of the bush and into the clearing what I saw before us was something truly beautiful. The gift our dark lord had prepared for us was an army. Or perhaps a horde. And even he was present among the gathered horde, in his human-looking form, accompanied by animals.
A force faced us, turning to look at us as we departed from the trees that surrounded the clearing. This was a diverse group, made up of humans, orcs, ogres, goblins, a single, tall hag, and more. They watched us as we approached them, and I felt my facial expression ease into a relaxed smile as I approached my master and god.
He looked back at me and smiled as warmly as I had, which helped settle the few lingering doubts I felt as I approached the odd-looking group. My allies stopped walking before I did, but I continued to approach my master, excited to see him for the first time since I left his party to aid and lead my fellow orcs. When I neared him he began to approach me himself, drawing away from the rest of the creatures he had brought with him.
He reached me and pulled me into a tight hug, greeting me like an old friend. "Ranthor!" He said, his voice warm and filled with genuine joy at the sight of me.
"Althos..." I said, having wondered if he had heard my prayers and my requests. When he released me a few seconds after pulling me into a powerful hug, he looked me up and down. And then he had a quizzical expression on his face.
"Ranthor... I know you've been inching for a fight. I can feel it in you." He told me, nodding as he spoke. It was as if he was confirming a truth only he knew.
"My friend, I plan to give you plenty of chances to fight. That said... there are things that need to be done." He said, his expression becoming more neutral as he considered what he had just said.
"Though before even all of that, I hope you'll allow me to introduce you to the rest of your army." He told me, a huge grin emerging on his face. His voice was confident and filled with mirth. And I felt my confidence soar.
The rest of my army? I thought, shocked. And Althos turned to the gathered mass behind him. The creatures stepped forward and began to approach me.
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The diverse group walked forward at their own pace. I saw over a dozen humans and goblins each, over two dozen orcs, twenty seven oddly docile looking ogres, a small number of crocodile-headed humanoids, and a single raisin-skinned hag, all approached me at different paces. Not to mention a number of animals, the most notable of which were three large bears that wore barding on their sides and back, and two flaming wolves of bearlike proportions.
The first group of people to reach me was the tiny horde of goblins. They were small things, only a meter tall each. They had a number of different complexions, but their most notable feature was that each of the twelve of them had a number of tattoos that covered their bodies in arcane formulae. They eagerly ran in my direction though they were actually running at Althos, shouting and gasping excitedly.
I chuckled at them and Althos turned to face the eager little ones. He began to speak, not facing me but facing them, despite his words being addressed towards me.
"These are the 'wiz-haters'. They are a tribe of goblins that, despite their name, are natural magic-users, and weirdly skilled ones at that." He explained, smiling as one of the goblins ran at him and leaped onto him. He caught the thing easily and chuckled as the thing began to hug him.
"They, like everyone else here aside from the animals, were just freed from a prison in Infernius. I freed them. And I want them to join an army under your command." Althos told me, gently patting the goblin who had hugged him on the head, as the thing babbled at him.
"They are adults, but they are goblins from a world far from here, where goblins don't develop the same sort of faculties as the ones here do. Originally, I mean. Before they got stuck in Infernius." He said, clarifying what he meant.
Moments later the second group arrived. The humans. Two dozen of them. One dozen were men and one dozen were women.
They were dressed in armor, and each had swords at their sides. They stared at me cautiously, their hands defensively on their sword sheaths, in case they needed to draw their swords. I looked at them and readied myself to conjure my soul-bow if necessary. Althos was watching this and hissed annoyedly. And then he began to snap at them in a language I didn't know.
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After snapping at them and causing them to take their hands off of their sheaths, Althos began to speak the common language of humanoids in this world again.
"Relax. They aren't used to seeing... a four-armed Orc. I told them to calm down and stop acting defensive. These are fighters, knights specifically, who were imprisoned in Infernius in an attempt to reclaim the soul of their knight-commander, who... I suspect might be an infernal knight in my service. But that's neither here nor there." Althos said, smiling.
"When I leave you'll be granted the linguistic ability to communicate with them." He told me. "You are the commander, probationally anyway, of this army so you need to be able to speak to your soldiers." He explained, a grin almost audible in his voice.
And seconds after that, the two dozen orcs arrived. They each held massive weapons, be it bastard swords, war-axes or war-hammers, and massive maces. They were also heavily armored, wearing inexpertly forged but dense suits of armor.
"I was originally worried about adding the ogres to your camp, but these orcs were there too. These are the 'widow-maker' orcs, orcs from Infernius who were imprisoned in the prison I took over, where I got everyone else here. They are huge fans of heavy weapons. Use them wisely. In exchange for their freedom, I gained their service, their souls, and they swore to follow my commands. Which means they're going to follow your commands." Althos explained as the things fell to their knees in front of Althos, their broad forms meek as they supplicated him.
Some of the animals were the next things to arrive, with the first being two large snakes who had stealthy slithered through the grass of the clearing, and the large, flaming wolves arriving shortly thereafter. "I'm either giving you the animals or lending them to you. It depends on how well your first raid goes. And the wolves are not wolves. Treat them as you would treat a man, or else they will remember." Althos warned me.
The ogres arrived next. Twenty-seven huge brutes, each of whom held boulders or assorted detritus in their hands as weapons. They were lightly armored, in crudely and obviously home-made leather armor that was designed to fit their massive forms.
"These fellows don't have a group name. They're a tribe, they just never named themselves. I appeared, beat up one of them, and told them they were my servants now. I've checked their memories, they are fierce fighters. Use them as needed. Oh, and a few of them are female. They just aren't a very sexually dimorphic species." The god explained to me, chuckling as he said the last two sentences.
The scaled humanoids and the hag appeared at the same time. The crocodile-creatures walked up to me and introduced themselves.
"Hello! We're Sobeks. We're a sort of... hybrid, in the words of your master. We are hunters who like to fight either with simple wooden weapons or our fists." One of them said, introducing the group to me instead of making or expecting Althos to do it.
The hag approached me and did the same thing as soon as the Sobeks stepped away. Her name was Magda and she told me she was eager to spread pain and use magic to buff my forces. Now that put a grin on my face.
The last animals arrived shortly after that, and aside from the armored bears, their numbers included a number of stealthy insects that silently showed themselves after getting uncomfortably close to me, especially since they had done so undetected. They were a small number of huge insects, a pair of army ants the size of small dogs, a gigantic centipede that creepily skittered across the floor, and a single massive dragonfly that revealed itself by dropping from up above me.
"These are things that I created within my godly realm. They will obey you without hesitation." Althos revealed, smiling proudly at his creations. And finally, he explained his plan to me.
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"I am creating an empire and I need you Ranthor." He said simply.
"I'm in. What do you need me to do?" I responded, not hesitating for a second. He chuckled as he looked at me and there was a look of genuine joy in his gaze.
"First, I need you to go to Golden-Gate." He told me, after he finished chuckling. I looked at him in confusion, and he sighed and began to speak again.
"Your forces have increased in number exponentially. I could just give you the resources to get by using my godly powers, but no one knows that you're part of an empire yet. Going to Golden-Gate is the first step in changing that." He explained, confidence burning in his eyes.
"I want you to go to Golden-Gate, settle the place and repair it. I'll send you things to aid you in repairing it and improving it, and after you've improved it a bit, set up some rules, and trained a bit, you're going to begin to build my empire. By going out and conquering nearby settlements." He told me, pride audible in his voice.
Now filled with understanding, I smiled broadly at my master and nodded energetically. "Yes... Yes! That's the sort of conquest-filled, violence-heavy plan I like to hear!" I boldly exclaimed, excitement filling me at the thought of my monstrous army going out and conquering new places in the name of the dark lord.
"Good. I am going to be closely following your progress. When you have your first bodies, I'll tell you what to do with them. Don't burn them if you can help it. You'll enjoy what happens to them a lot more than you'd enjoy seeing them burn. They'll serve you." He said, tempting me with new servants, new monstrous additions to the army he had given me.
"Now Ranthor... I name you the commander of my army. Go out and spread my empire. Go out and conquer in the name of your dark lord." Althos told me, his voice exploding across the forest and beyond, declaring the existence of his empire and giving me the audacious task of increasing its borders beyond a forest, a tunnel, a ghost town, or even a single city.
"I will not fail you." I told him, filled with the confidence of a creature chosen by the new dark lord himself. I smiled and my mind filled with visions of battle, conquest, and empire-building.