The prospect of violence and the inevitability of the fall of my foes didn't thrill me. I recognized that the possession of powers like mine, and the capabilities to enact incredible violence on those I deemed my foes would likely please many mortals, but I didn't relish the idea of slaying my foes.
Well... that wasn't entirely true. There was a part of me, a cruel and malignant part of me, that was thrilled by the idea of violence. It was even more thrilled by the idea of witnessing the aftermath of the sort of battle that I recognized was inevitable if I were to clash with the reptilefolks.
A part of me, introspective and inquisitive in equal measure, wondered which of the domains and subdomains in me were responsible for corrupting the portion of myself that was excited by the inevitability of violence and death. I recognized the possibility that the part of me that was excited by this was a portion of myself that wasn't corrupted by external influence but I didn't want it to be. I wanted this black-hearted part of myself to owe its existence to powerful and subtle external voices.
My assumption was that this part of me was being subtly corrupted by the influence of the domain of evil, and the subdomains of corruption and necromancy. That said it was very possible that this was an internal excitement that I innately felt and wasn't due to the influence of any domain or subdomain. And given that gods were creatures of destruction, I didn't doubt the real possibility that violence and death themselves were what motivated the part of me that was black-hearted.
I was born a creature of chaos. Living in human society tempered this aspect of me, but it was there and it was real. It lurked beneath the surface of my humanlike appearance. It motivated me to want to cause change. And as I listened to Dr. Cortes lecture me on the importance of potions, I recognized a vital truth: death was a form of change.
To distract myself from the bloodiness of what I was to do, I turned away from pondering about the portion of my heart that was dark. Instead I opted to focus on something new and beneficial: readying myself and my allies for a conflict.
My mind turned to the endless natural graves of the world beneath the world. Thanks to my mastery over darkness and my incredible necromantic abilities there was something fun I possessed the power to do: construct an army. An army of the dead.
"I can use these creatures." I told myself, as I pondered the fates of the countless legions of the dead that lurked within the island of Puerto Rico. I could sense billions of corpses that were perfectly suitable to my dark needs. And I was quickly reminded that my mind wasn't a perfectly safe, perfectly isolated place when a dark voice spoke to me, urged on by my menacing musings.
"If you want to create an unstoppable army of the dead... you possess the power to do so. And remember that your undead legions are no longer stagnate. Even now the undead servants you've created are powerful, empowered further by the powers you've gained since you created them." A voice told me, the quiet and scheming voice of the subdomain of necromancy.
I heard a smile in its whispers, a cadence that hinted that the speaker felt delighted. I didn't judge it for that, as I myself felt delighted at this moment. I also felt excited. Excited enough to entertain a number of thoughts about alternative methods of handling the reptilefolk. After all, I recognized this for what it was: an opportunity to unleash my powers. A moment where I could act of my own accord, and proceed how I saw fit.
And so I took a moment to contemplate how my ideas might play out.
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I took a moment to envision myself alone against the reptilefolks. I pictured myself arriving in their settlement, hundreds of them within it at any time and the scenes that'd result from me unleashing my powers in full at them. I saw myself alone in their lair, reptilefolk blood soaking the floors of their homes.
I pictured the feeling of countless rays of arcane, divine, and elemental energies shooting out of me. I pictured the fallen reptilefolk immediately rising up to serve me. I pictured the delight I'd feel in taking and defeating countless reptilefolks alone or with the help of their freshly deceased kin.
But that wasn't the only thing I could picture. I had options, as I was no longer the inexperienced god I had been days ago. And another route came to mind.
If I wanted to stage a miraculous escape for those the reptilefolk enslaved I didn't even need to make myself known to them. I could easily turn the very homes of the reptilefolks against them.
It would be an easy act. I felt the earth under my feet, even in the doctor's laboratory, wish to be used. I could feel the thrum of the world under my feet cry out in need of a command. Instantly freeing the slaves the reptilefolk unjustly kept could be done in an instant.
And even then there were other options. The most dramatic option for me was to raise the army of the dead I knew I wanted to raise. Or rather I knew I wanted to continue raising. I commanded countless legions of sapient ant-exoskeletons. They worshipped me, and they clamored for orders.
"What if instead of just giving them orders, I gave them brethren?" I asked myself, a cruel grin on my face.
I pictured an unstoppable legion of the walking dead descending upon the reptilefolks. I pictured settlements crushed under a horde of the shambling dead, and I envisioned the slaves of the reptilefolks staring at their unusual saviors in confusion before I appear and declare that the slaves are to be freed.
Those images were hauntingly beautiful. I felt them cause a stir in my soul. I wanted to do that. I wanted to create a true horde of the dead. If I felt like rationalizing it, I could say something poetic like that I wanted to show those who had long been taken from their homes that justice took on a myriad of forms, many unexpected.
That said I wasn't in the business of self-deception. The truth was that I just liked the idea of a horde of the dead obeying my commands. I liked the idea of a horde of servants who worshipped me as their creator and as their master. And the undead did just that.
I knew in my heart that this was the option I wanted to pick. I had no way of knowing that even as I settled on this option that I was about to be handed a brilliant excuse to enact it. And the form that excuse took, was a pair of my servants finally asking for their rewards.
"Master, days ago you informed us that you sought to reward us. You told us that you wanted us to ask for a reward for our assistance in the accomplishment of your goals." Whispered an unexpected voice. It was the voice of Imbrosa, the beautiful drider on whom Sombra's physical body is partially based. Her voice was songlike, but it was a quiet song. One unlike any I had ever heard before.
I was quiet while I waited for her to speak more. She didn't keep me waiting.
"I have an idea for my reward. I wish for you to reanimate my mate." She told me. I was surprised by this, but more surprised by the fact that I didn't detect any sort of love in her voice. She spoke of her mate, flatly revealed that he had perished, and she didn't sound saddened by it. It was odd to hear her make such a request, without sounding emotionally affected by the passing of her mate.
I didn't respond to her. I would do as she wished, and the truth was that I suspected that if I looked internally I'd find a part of me that was relieved that that was her wish. The timing of her wish felt like an indication that I was on the right path, even though I knew that it was no such thing and was just a happy coincidence.
I stayed silent for a moment longer, and right as I was about to reply to Imbrosa she spoke once more. This time she began with a sigh, a careful and measured one. It was a curious thing to hear and made me chuckle.
"If you're gonna be silent, I'm assuming you're waiting for more information. My memories were foggy when I was reanimated. My mate and I clashed with others of our kind, for reasons that escape me, and he died before I did. The fool was always weaker than I was. And he paid for that. And then, later on, so did I." She said, sighing between sentences. Now, this I replied to.
"Imbrosa, I will fulfill your wish. And... you shall soon find many more like you fighting alongside you." I told her, hinting at the darkness of my ambitions. I heard a peal of soft and satisfied laughter emanate from her, as well as quiet feelings of gratitude.
A moment later I received a message from Nivar, the grave giant. Her voice was a powerful one, and very curiously her voice was colored by emotion.
"Master! I have a request I'd like you to consider." She said, excitement audible in her voice. I replied to her, though I had a feeling I knew what she'd ask me.
"Hello Nivar. Yes? What is this request you'd like for me to consider?" I asked, curiously.
"Master, I have told you of the strange qualities of my people. I would like for you to reanimate my kind. I can sense that they are still not reanimated. Which is... intriguing." Nivar said, purposefully leaving out details that were almost certainly important.
For a moment I considered not pressing the giant on this. That said the truth was that her people's physiology was odd and I was curious about her kind's circumstances.
"What are you not telling me Nivar? I have no qualms about reanimating your kin, but if you withhold information from me you will be held accountable for it. And you don't want that. Tell me what you are hiding." I commanded, revealing that I was on board with reanimating her tribe but also promising to punish her if she tried to hide information from me. I heard her hiss in annoyance, probably directed in equal parts towards myself and herself. That caused me to laugh softly.
"Master..." She began. I felt a spark of resistance, or hesitation emanate from her. And that spark provoked a reaction from me, my expression sharpening cruelly for a second. But as quickly as the spark appeared it vanished.
"Master, please accept my sincerest apologies. I did not wish to embrass myself, is all." She started, humbling herself by apologizing. I calmed myself, and waited for her to continue speaking.
"I was part of a group of... runaways from a tribe of grave-giants. When we fled we said that one of us was supposed to survive a ritual we'd perform and ensure that the others were reanimated as intelligent, free-willed undead creatures. I was chosen for that honor, but I was set upon by a massive monster and killed in the wake of ritual sacrifice my peers performed on themselves." Nivar explained, revealing the humiliating circumstances behind her death.
Upon hearing that, I could feel a pang of sympathetic understanding for her plight. That didn't stop me from being annoyed that she took so long to tell me this though. Something I made quite clear with my next remark.
"You should have told me sooner. Nothing has happened to the corpses of the grave giants, but if I had known about this earlier I would have reanimated your kin far earlier. Do not repeat this mistake. Keeping secrets like this may deprive me of opportunities to gain more power." I told her, making my displeasure with her selfishness clear. I heard her sigh, disappointed in herself and felt her anger towards her sense of pride. And it resulted in me feeling even more sympathy towards her.
"Hmm... What can I do here?" I asked myself, wondering if I could find a way to use this moment to turn Nivar into a pious adherent of mine. I sensed a vague and ill-defined opportunity, but I wasn't sure how to use it.
The grave giants were an unusual race. They were gigantic humanoids and had a striking physiology that empowered them when they came back from the dead instead of weakening them. As a god of necromancy that made them powerful and ideal servants. I could sense the endless applications of their strange powers and adaptable bodies, and that made me want them.
If I transformed Nivar into a champion of mine, I could easily lure in more grave giants. The real question was how could I do that most effectively?
I spent the next minute or so recalling the list of necromantic subdomain abilities at my disposal, and in doing so came across a detail that had slipped my mind. And it brought a smile to my face. But first I had preparations to make.
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So that I could begin to inch closer to the completion of my dark goals I recalled the finer aspects of a particular ability. "Darkness manipulation", a darkness domain ability that let me manipulate the dark and cast spells on things as if I was in contact with them if they were shrouded in darkness was incredibly valuable.
So far in my life, I had never been more grateful to that ability as I was now. Thanks to it I had access to millions of medium corpses, billions of smaller ones, and hundreds of thousands of larger corpses. I was able to use one other power in particular in tandem to create an endless parade of nightmarish undead. "Fleshcrafter" my ability to restore forms to creates whose bodies had decayed to almost nothingness, came in clutch and granted me access to even more corpses to reanimate.
My magic flooded the world beneath the surface of Puerto Rico. And as corpses began to rise, as an assortment of undead monstrosities, I received the first flood of notifications I had received today. I didn't doubt that it wouldn't be the only flood of notifications I'd get before the day was done.
And I turned my attention in full to my grave giant servant.
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"Nivar, listen to me." I commanded, mentally speaking to my grave giant servant. She fell silent mentally and waited for my next statement.
"Do you wish to redeem yourself in my eyes?" I asked her, curious as to how she'd respond. I was sure she'd say some variation of "Yes", but it was the amount of excitement in her response that I was curious to hear. She didn't keep me in suspense.
"Yes! Yes, I do my master. Do you have an idea of how I may go about doing this?" She asked, pleading with me to give her an answer. I chuckled the sound heavy with excitement.
"I am willing to offer you a test. You are a necromancer. You possess the greatest suitability of all of my servants to lead the undead legions I am even now creating. But I will boost you further. In exchange, you are to lead this unstoppable legion, and convert my enemies into its newest soldiers." I commanded her, speaking with the authority I imagined an older god of necromancy would speak.
"I will make you a powerful warrior of death and despair. You will cut down my enemies, a settlement of reptilefolk who are keeping slaves. You and the army that even now crawls to its feet shall defeat, and reanimate the reptilefolk and them alone. If you do this successfully, bolstered by the powers and soldiers I give you to command, then you shall become a chief lieutenant of mine." I declared to the grave giant.
I heard her silence. It was quite loud in its own very peculiar way. It brought a smile to my face. She was silent for a full minute before she finally replied to my offer.
"Althos... There is nothing more in this world that I want than to be a chief lieutenant of yours. If you believe I am a suitable tool for you to use to strike out against your enemies than please test me to your heart's delight." She responded, speaking eloquently. I grinned at her. And without a word I extracted the spark that was animating her.
"If you truly are to be a chief lieutenant of mine, I suppose I should make you something stronger than a ghoul." I mused, a wide grin on my face. I didn't share that thought with her. And as I mused about what to do to her, I received a message from the system that brought a smile to my face.
[Althos, there's a particular type of creature she's suited to being. Can you remember what the necromancy subdomain once you told you about magicians and insects?] The system asked me.
"I do, actually." I muttered. And so I set about creating a particular type of servant, by remaking one I had already acquired. And to start it all off I had to go and dominate some worms.
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In the tower of the eerie god, the giantess suddenly collapsed. She was dead, and not the same kind of dead she had been moments ago. She was well and truly deceased this time. But that was destined to change.
The first worms arrived a number of minutes after the giant keeled over. They were teleported directly onto the corpse, and they were grateful that their master provided them with this delicious meal. They immediately began to eat the corpse's healthy amount of skin.
Every few seconds Althos teleported more and more worms onto the body. Within ten minutes there were enough worms and they had had enough time to eat that the body was visibly losing mass.
By the time half an hour had passed the body was gone, and the worms were satisfied and full. And their master had gained access to two new subdomains. It was when the body was gone that the fun began in full.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The worms, in their dominated state, hadn't thought through the consequences of their actions. Mostly because they lacked the intelligence they'd need to do so. Perhaps surprising some, when Nivar's spirit returned and found her body gone she angrily opted to use the next best thing. Backed by Althos' control over the worms, Nivar quietly began an assault on those who devoured her body.
The worms were swiftly dominated by a singular intelligence that wiped them clean of any memories or feelings they had had. And that angry intelligence used her arcane intelligence to bring the worms together in a very literal sense with a single magically powered and divinely aided attack. Shortly thereafter Nivar's spirt forcibly bound them into a single semi-solid mass in the shape of a massive humanoid.
Althos aided the youthful giant by empowering her spirit and going ahead with his plan to make her into a champion. To do this he silently gave her a blessing she could leverage against her foes. Without a word of warning to anyone, including the giant, Althos blessed her.
At the moment she received the blessing she was struggling to dominate and control the hundreds of worms who'd unwillingly given her their bodies in exchange for hers. And that was the final push that she needed to be able to surge into her new body and seize control of it.
On that day, for the time time, Althos elevated one of his undead servants. In doing so he took an ordinary but cognizant ghoul and transformed her into a powerful worm that walks. As he studied the strange sight of the tomb giant who was no longer an ordinary tomb giant, he was satisfied with the work he had done on her.
He sensed the radiant hatred she had for life. And the not at all contained contempt she had for undead who couldn't use magic. Both of these emotions radiated out of the new and unsettling, writhing body of the undead magician.
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"He is... inscrutable." Remarked one of the domains. It spoke to a gathering of its peers, within the vast mind of the god who was perpetually pursuing power.
"He is not inscrutable. He is young. With youth comes flexibility." Said another, rebutting the silliness of its peer's confusion about the moral flexibility of the young god. To that domain, it was clear how the god was so easily able to accept what it needed to do.
"He is ambitious is what he is. He delights in the acquisition of power. It guides him as surely as any sort of defined moral code could. He doesn't possess a defined moral code. He isn't evil, nor is he good. Though in fairness... applying such terms to a god has always been tricky, long before he came into being." Quipped a subdomain, one of the few that he had had influence over for a while.
This comment generated mutterings of agreement. The subdomain would have smiled if it could since it seemed that the others recognized the wisdom of its comment. It felt that it was correct, that more than anything else what drove Althos at the moment was ambition.
Althos' actions so far were driven more than anything else by a desire to acquire more power. His willingness to feed mortals and to heal them always resulted in him acquiring more servants. While withholding much judgment he forgave a demon who possessed a servant of his and turned it into his servant. He pulled off remarkable deceptions that resulted in him acquiring more servants.
All of that pointed to a simple fact: Althos was ambitious. It was an understated but noticeable ambition that the youthful god himself might not have perceived just yet.
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Deep underneath the surface of the world, dark energies were at work.
The energies that surged through the unlit tunnels beneath Puerto Rico corrupted and corroded that which they couldn't control. They poisoned the poisonable, dissolved the dissolvable, and largely ignored what powerful living entities could endure them without succumbing.
These dark, indiscriminate energies were hard at work. They crept along and through every centimeter of the world beneath the world. The energies were searching for something. They were searching for bodies. And they were finding them, left and right.
Althos grinned as he felt the number of undead under his control swell. And he grinned, even more, when he realized the diversity of the newly risen. It was a healthy group containing members of every type. And that was what Althos loved to see.
Every second his preparation drew nearer and nearer to completion. And the hour to strike down his foes grew ever closer. He found that realization to be quite exciting. Almost as exciting as the two subdomains he read the dual subdomain notification for.
Dr. Cortes examined my latest creation with a scrutinizing stare. I could tell that he remained shocked by my natural abilities with regard to alchemy, and I didn't mind that. I enjoyed how impressed he was by my work to date.
His eyes examined every corner of the bomb I held. It was a small thing, frankly, it was tinier than I anticipated it being. That said, while I had been interacting with Nivar and Imbrosa he had been instructing me on how to craft both the potion he set out for me to make, and then this.
"Hmm..." He muttered, studying the ball I held in both hands. It was a small thing made of iron and filled with something called gunpowder. The inside of it was hollow by necessity, and the gunpowder it was filled with could be caused to explode from a distance, using magic.
Dr. Cortes had explained the value of this invention to me while I was using my immense necromantic powers to fill the world beneath Puerto Rico with undead beings. And the reality was that bombs were incredibly useful for me but not for the same reasons as they were for him.
If an enemy had the same type of bomb that I held in my hands right now I could cause it to explode remotely. I could do this by generating a flame within the bomb from a distance, through my ability to manipulate flames. And without this lesson, I never would have learned that. I was grateful that I had been allowed to learn from Dr. Cortes, even though I was more present elsewhere than here.
I was also grateful that thanks to it I was able to acquire the first tier of influence over alchemy. Incidentally, I had also acquired a new quest and subsequently completed that quest, while I was raising my army of undead creatures and transforming Nivar into a massive worm that walks. The quest gave me the first tier of influence over the annelid subdomain.
As I read over the dual subdomain notification I had received I was surprised and impressed at the diversity of powers I gained, powers I was grateful to gain.
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[Dual subdomain descriptions:
Alchemy is the magical science of transforming something from one state into another. Annelids are a type of lifeform that includes earthworms, leeches, and many sorts of marine worms.
Granting the lowest tier of influence over alchemy grants you powers related to creation, deconstruction, and transformation. Granting the lowest tier of influence over annelids grants you a worms physiology and command over worms, both of which are more impressive than you may realize upon hearing that.
To gain further influence over the subdomain of alchemy continue to build your alchemical knowledge and create a cult of alchemists that worship you as their muse and master. To gain further influence over the annelid subdomain use your newfound powers over annelids to turn them to your worship.
Dual subdomain passive powers:
Alchemical creation (Low level): You can create an assortment of alchemical items from nothing. You can instantly create potions of healing and lesser poisons.
You can use this to ensure that your troops are never in need of supplies. You can import these items into other people's inventories, and the items won't even take up space. Instead space will be created specifically for them. You can also decide whether or not to inform people that they've acquired these items.
Alchemical detection: You can detect alchemical items on your mini or not-so-mini maps.
Alchemical manipulation (Low level): Thanks to a combination of other domains and subdomains you can influence, you can manipulate the properties of low-level alchemical creations. This means you can edit potions and poisons, thanks to your healing, alteration, and poisonous powers.
This power can even allow you to transform what looks like a potion of healing into a poison or vice-versa.
Annelid anatomy: You can transform yourself into an annelid. You become an incredible example of annelid prowess, and retain your other powers while doing so. You become a gigantic, earthworm like monstrosity while able to tunnel through the earth.
Annelid mastery: You gain immediate and undeniable mastery over all annelids. This power is strengthened by your mastery over vermin and parasites which is why it functions even on sapient or evolved annelids like subterranean death worms, or flame-breathing tunnelers.
This power is boosted by your influence over the biology domain and thanks to that you can also trigger immediate evolution or devolution in annelids. You can do that at will.
Annelid awakening: Annelids who become aware of you are automatically awoken and utterly and permanently enthralled by you. Sapient annelids experience further enhancement to their intelligence.
Dual subdomain active powers:
Curse of the annelid: You can forcibly transform another creature into an annelid. You can use this power twice per three and a half-day period and you can decide if it's permanent or not or change your mind and edit it one way or the other.
When you use this power you decide what kind of annelid they become and if they retain their intelligence. If you transform someone into an unintelligent annelid you can also assign them a quest to do that will become their priority.
Alchemical destruction: You can destroy an alchemical creation or tool with a sharp glance. No alchemical creation aside from a wonderous item like a philosopher's stone possesses even a chance of surviving this destruction. You can use this twice per twelve-hour period.
Dual subdomain blessing and curse details:
Blessing someone with the alchemical subdomain grants them enhanced natural healing, increases their lifespan, and grants them easier access to wealth. Cursing someone with the alchemical subdomain does the opposite.
Blessing a non-annelid with the annelid subdomain makes annelids friendly towards them and likely to serve them willingly. Cursing a non-annelid with the annelid subdomain makes annelids, leeches in particular, aggressive towards them and causes them to be attacked on sight by annelids.
Blessing an annelid with the subdomain enlarges and strengthens it. It grants it nobility recognized by other annelids. Cursing an annelid with the subdomain shrinks and weakens it, and causes it to be considered an enemy by other annelids, or at least strongly disliked if surrounded by sapient annelids.]
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Nearly three hours passed between the time I entered Dr. Cortes' house and laboratory and the time I left it. I left the good doctor's home feeling quite satisfied. Not only had I gained new skills, but I had also gained new powers as well. I had learned the barest basics of alchemy.
Moments after I closed the door leading into or out of my teacher's home I scanned my environment. When I was satisfied that there was no one who could see me I did away with my physical form and sank into the earth beneath my feet.
I found myself in an airless space and was grateful for the fact that I didn't need to breathe. It gave me so many options when it came to travel. I immediately warped to the encampment I was determined to destroy, and set about performing reconnaissance.
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I found myself standing undetected and undetectably in the center of the encampment. All around me I could see new sights.
I stood on a flat area, surrounded by resettled ruins. The ruins took on the form of clearly ancient and weathered stone buildings and inside of those stone buildings labored a number of people. Some of the people were human beings, but most weren't.
I saw slaves of countless types, some of which were both surface and dark elves, some of which were dwarves, others of which were rarer creatures like gnomes, and strange creatures that vaguely resembled humans but with arachnid features such as a spiderlike lower-body, or even a scorpion's tail.
The slaves of the encampment were the majority of what I saw here. But I detected the reptilefolk. I knew they were close, deeper in the ruin-centered encampment. This area was a pair of interconnected caverns that housed thousands of reptilefolks. Where I was was the outermost cavern where guards watched over slaves who performed menial and manual labor.
I set off to lay my eyes on reptilefolk guards.
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It didn't take me long to lay my eyes on a reptilefolk. Thanks to my enhanced vision, and my awareness of where they were hiding, I was able to quickly glimpse one before I took even a hundred incorporeal steps towards where they were.
The thing was a strange creature. It stood just under two meters tall and was bipedally trotting out of a small opening in a distant wall. It had a natural armor composed of azure-colored scales but still wore artificial armor made out of a fusion of metal and scales that further hid and protected its most sensitive body parts.
The creature clutched a primitive-looking spear in one hand and a thin shield in another. It opened its mouth and inhaled roughly as if it were suffering from some sort of bizarre condition. When it opened its mouth I noticed the row upon row of sharp teeth that lined the inside of the thing's maw. I studied the thing for a moment longer, before I felt satisfied.
"It is time." I told myself, quietly.
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Throughout the hollowed interior of Puerto Rico undead ambled about. But it wasn't just a horde of mindless zombies or vaguely sapient skeletons that the dark god had raised when he infused the earth itself with his necromantic powers.
All manner of undead hungrily waited for their master's command. The only thing that kept them from turning on each other was the fact that they served a single master. His will unified them and directed their anger towards a single target: reptilefolk.
The more intelligent undead, not the ghouls or the skeletons but the wrights and the vampires, arose feeling a deep-seated hatred towards the enemy their master unconsciously urged them to despise. They arose feeling a powerful urge to annihilate not all of life, but to extinguish the lives of their creator's foes. Althos was unaware of this, but he was destined to see it play out soon enough.
Vampires and wrights were naturally violent creatures anyway, but the dark-hearted part of the master of the teeming horde of undead fed into this natural bloodlust and amplified it. And it wasn't just them who felt it either.
There was something odd about the movements of even the least of the undead, the zombies. The zombies that made up this horde were unusually active and their eyes burned with something resembling a simple intelligence. Zombies weren't supposed to be intelligent, so had any living creatures been around to look at the zombies in question they'd have felt considerable fear.
Some of the undead situated underneath Puerto Rico, awaiting the dark commands of their terrifying creator defied common classification. These were odd abominations that were made entirely of bones. The closest thing they resembled were skeletons, but the bones that made up their bodies were mismatched and damaged. That said, they were colossal entities the length of buildings that dripped poison thanks to the mutative powers of their creator.
The countless undead weren't just physical creatures either. An innumerable horde of the spiritual undead, entities like wraiths and shadows, were also created by the titanic flood of unlife energy that had surged into the subterranean portion of the island. For every skeleton and zombie, at least one shadow or wraith had been created.
This mob of bodiless monsters sought nothing more than to bring about the violence their creator had created them for. Each of them was a fully intelligent entity, and they sprung into existence with a specific understanding of their shadowy sovereign.
Their understanding of Althos was that he was at his core a creature like them. They believed him to be a sort of incorporeal monstrosity that could temporarily give himself a physical form with which he would enact devastation and spread darkness.
They came into being possessing a hope that not only were they correct, but that if they served him well then they'd be granted bodies of their own with which they could go out and commit atrocities against the living. They didn't know it yet, but their creator was an accomodating sort. The truth was that he'd likely grant them their desires, so long as they vowed to obey him.
"Greetings little ones. The time for you to fulfill your first dark purpose has come. In moments you will witness a portal opening up before you. When you do, step through it and join your comrades. You have one mission and one mission alone: annihilate the reptilefolk that you find beyond the portals you step through." A dark voice whispered, speaking to each of the creatures it had created.
The faces of the endless hordes of the undead that Althos had created changed when they received the message their creator had sent them. Almost at once macabre and often broken smiles spread out across the faces of the crawling and unstoppable horde of undead Althos' titanic unlife energy wave had created.
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The first undead creature I summoned to the encampment was a lone warrior. The nameless gug I had reanimated days ago, now not the only undead gug in my service, stepped through a portal I conjured in my tower that I connected to the encampment.
The gigantic ghoul appeared in the eyes of the reptilefolk anyway, seemingly from nowhere because I opted to make the portal a one-way device. It found itself staring at the much smaller reptilefolk warrior, with a broken, vertical smile spread across its face.
The reptilefolk warrior was stunned for a moment by my warrior's size and abrupt appearance. And before it could turn around to alert its allies in the cave I allowed myself to be detected by retaking on my corporeal, human form and abruptly used my mastery over stones to close off the cave in which the creature's allies were located.
I looked at my servant and spoke. "Devour him." I commanded the thing, my eyes locked on my servant.
My creation didn't turn to look at me, but it did open its horrifying vertical mouth. A bit of drool leaked out and began the long trek to the floor at the gug's feet. And then the gug took another step forward. This caused the reptilefolk warrior to react.
The monster let out a fierce roar and chucked its spear at my servant. For a moment I considered intercepting the spear, but I ultimately wanted to see the fight play out without interference. The spear flew through the air between the two warriors, and the nameless giant lazily reached out a single gigantic hand to block the spear.
The spear crashed into the monster's hand, but bounced off of the thick fur and muscles my servant possessed. It spun around in the air before landing sideways between the two warriors. I audibly chuckled at this. And after the spear was back on the ground my servant finally decided to truly engage in the battle.
The gug had always looked slow until now. It had always been ponderous, and somewhat awkward-looking. That ended when the thing took decisive action.
The creature sped towards the reptilefolk with a speed I hadn't believed the thing could possess. It made full use of its incredibly long legs and each stride it took significantly closed the distance between the two foes.
The warrior my monster was intent on devouring didn't even have enough time to plan his next action before the gug was upon him. Two massive fists, both stemming from the same arm, speedily lashed out from the creature's body and slammed with bone-crushing force into the reptilefolk warrior.
The warrior would have been sent sailing if not for the gug's incredibly speedy reflexes. The creature's other arm snaked out and caught the reptilefolk warrior in a two-handed bone-crushing grip. The battle was over, but the gug wasn't done.
The hand that held the warrior lazily lifted him to the gug's maw. The vertical mouth opened and then the warrior's arm was placed gingerly into it. The gug bit down with incredible speed, snapping its maw shut and slashing the arm off uncleanly while also cutting through the armor that the warrior was wearing with the same ease as the warrior's arm.
Blood matted the gug's face and began to grip down from the bloodied stump the reptilefolk warrior now possessed in lieu of an arm. The reptilefolk cried out in agony, and I studied the sight before me.
My servant was idly chewing on the warrior's arm, savoring the taste of it. I saw something new in its eyes: joy. It was an odd emotion to see in the absentminded gaze of a ghoul, but I also sensed the pleasure coursing through my ghoulish creation. And I chuckled as I imagined a horde of the undead feeling the same sense of bloody pleasure.
I took a second to do two things at once. I targeted and teleported all of the hundreds of slaves out of the cave, and near my tower. That was done in an instant. At the same time I created hundreds of one-way portals into the encampment, a wide cavern with a considerably high natural ceiling which made it perfect for housing my hordes of the undead.
The sound of thunderous footfalls filled the cavern that housed the encampment, as billions of corporeal and incorporeal undead charged into the encampment in a mad rush to obey me. I had to work to resist the cruel sense of pleasure I felt knowing that the gigantic horde that was rushing into this cavern was mine alone to command.
I was able to keep a calm expression on my face as I summoned my original undead creations to my side, and as I felt a portion of the incredible delight my undead horde was feeling.
The cavern behind me was filling up quickly. Since I was in front of my army, I was at the head of an army on their way to a decisive battle. And I couldn't deny that that felt... right. I quietly unsealed the same tunnel that I had previously blocked to allow my warriors and my enemies to see each other.
At first, the only sounds we could hear were the silent footfalls of the undead hordes. But when they stepped through their portals and drew closer to me, I began to hear some of them shout excitedly and unintelligibly. They recognized me and were excited to see me.
It was at this point that the bravest of the reptilefolk stepped out of their unsealed tunnel and began to investigate the commotion. The time had come for battle to begin in full.