Twenty days after I returned to Torus from the war-torn world of Salifinos I found myself inside the one place I could loosely consider my home: the eerie tower I had long-ago constructed to serve as a strange base of operations.
I was inside of a loosely occupied chamber, accompanied by Ava. We were silently watching a flurry of strange, cult-related activity. There were a number of humans tied to stone slabs, their faces wracked with fear, anxiety, and in a few cases unbecoming anticipations for what was to come. They were entirely naked and were both male and female. They weren't the only occupants of the strange room.
A number of strange creatures, slavish worshipers of mine who worshiped me as in an unsettling way, were running around and preparing for something. The creatures were demons, devils, and pain-bringers, all of whom were evil-extraplanar entities who worshiped me as a powerful god of evil and pain.
Succubi, incubi, humanoid devils, and even some of my newer worshipers, humanlike pain-bringers, were frantically moving about the strange chamber. They were grabbing an assortment of weapons and other tools that could easily cause pain, in preparation for a ritual that I was slowly coming to enjoy.
Over the course of the last few days, the odd extraplanar entities had come together to form something odd: an organic cult dedicated to me. I had summoned all of them myself, but merely to test and familiarize myself with my own powers related to conjugation and alignment. After summoning them, I had largely let them have free roam of my tower. I had been curious to see what they would do if I left them to their own devices. It turned out that their inclinations to obey powerful, evil entities superseded their innate dislike for each other.
The chamber was filled with the sounds of their feet pounding the floor beneath them. And the quieter sound of humans straining against the bounds that left them stuck to the slabs. Each of the humans was carefully tied to the slabs they were on top of. Their hands and legs were bound to the slabs with spider-silk I had created and gifted to the cult days ago.
Ava was beside me. She enthusiastically watched this, her eyes glued to both the bound humans and to the extraplanars who were about to ritualistically maim them. She enjoyed the theatrics of this and came to watch it on a daily basis, even when I wasn't here with her.
The bound victims were a number of humans I had created for the purpose of giving my cult victims on which they could be sadistic without care. I had done this days ago, fully expecting them to kill them the day I created them. Much to my surprise, the decidedly evil cult had kept them alive for days thanks to the leadership of a surprisingly charismatic pain-bringer who was in essence this cult's high-priest. He had managed to convince even the least patient demons in the cult to draw out the suffering of their victims as a tribute to me and what he deemed my "dark glory".
The humans themselves were now covered in vicious scars, and in a few cases possessed still-bleeding wounds from days of torture. Their pain was something I had begun to feed on, and a few of them were slowly turning into masochists who legitimately enjoyed the suffering they were forced to endure every day. I fully suspected this was due to my relative proximity and the effects of my multitude of auras, but especially my corruptive, painful, and lustful auras.
A powerful smell filled the air of the chamber. It mixed the scents of sweat, blood, and other bodily fluids into a toxic cocktail of a smell. It would have been nauseating to many mortals, and even Ava was only unaffected by it thanks to a quiet intervention on my part. I kept her from being affected by it, by targeting her with a persistent illusion that only targeted her sense of smell. The smell did nauseate the humans but was fully ignored by the extraplanars.
I watched, silently, as the extraplanars began to enter the final phase of preparation for their dark ritual. Those of them that aided in this phase ran to the far end of the chamber we were in.
This chamber wasn't an especially large or tall one, it was built for creatures of humanoid size, and was only so long. A number of open entrances and exits led in and out of this place, gigantic openings in the marble-like walls that surrounded us. At one end of the chamber was a collection of supplies for the ritual.
Among the collection of supplies were things like blades to cut into foes, scalpels for surgical purposes, and even dark buckets meant to collect drained blood. The extraplanars grabbed these tools and transported them to their allies and fellow cultists.
I watched, mildly entertained, as imps and other devils aided in the efforts to supply their evil-kin with the assorted instruments they had grown accustomed to using during this ritual. In a few minutes, each of the dozens of extraplanar beings was beside a bound human and carrying a sharpened, perpetually heated, but not to the extent that it reduced the suffering their victims underwent, tool meant to mutilate and maim.
Every single extraplanar had a dark grin on their faces as they stared at their victims. The facial expressions of their victims differed from person to person, but some had almost lewd expressions on their faces. It was at this point that their high priest approached me.
The high priest of one of the newest cults devoted to me was a strange individual. He was a pain-knight, a member of a medium-tiered species within the strange hierarchy of races collectively known as the "Pain-Bringers". He wore light-blue robes that covered his sickeningly scarred body, and only his thoroughly scarred face was exposed to anyone who laid their eyes on him. He had pale skin, honey-colored eyes, and was bald.
He carried no weapons and was the only member of the cult to make use of his unarmed body to inflict pain. He was also a devoted worshiper of mine who gave me his heart and soul in exchange for power and for chances to inflict pain on anyone who I deemed deserving of either suffering or pleasure, including himself. The man was a sadomasochist, as were many members of his species.
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"Master... We present this macabre display to you, in hopes that it pleases you." The man told me, his voice soft and reverential. He then humbly fell to his knees before me, eager to debase himself if it meant that I was pleased.
When he fell to his knees, the other extraplanar entities in the room rose their blades high above their heads. They then brought their weapons screaming down and into the bodies of the bound humans. Ava grinned as she watched this, enthralled by the violence in front of her.
The humans in the chamber wailed out in agony as their bodies were penetrated by the sickeningly hot weapons. The extraplanars were all incredibly strong, at least relative to their frail victims and the blades they wielded stabbed deep into their victims. Blood splattered the blades, the victims, and in the cases of the strongest extraplanars, shot forth so violently that the perpetrators of the violence were themselves coated in the scarlet fluids.
A sound of twisted laughter filled the chamber. The noise was at least as loud as the sound of the agonized wails that sounded out from the victims of the cruel and routine sacrifice. The extraplanar entities were delighting in the violence and pain they were inflicting on their victims. Each of them was visibly smiling, and their grins weren't unlike those of children who just got a new toy. They weren't the only people smiling though.
Ava was grinning, fully enthralled by the violence she was seeing. There was an excitement in her eyes that was unlike any other emotion she ever showed. I sensed her approval of this, and not for the first time I wondered if she'd make a good leader of a pain-based cult.
A few other mortals were also grinning, and in some cases even looking at the blades embedded in them, with delight. They too had cried out in pain but their cries also contained a hint of delight and euphoric, almost sexual joy. Their faces were flushed, and even the blood that poured out of them seemed to pour out slowly as if to ensure they had more time to enjoy this.
The perpetrators of the violence quickly grabbed and pulled out their blades, indelicately yanking them out of their victims. The wicked weapons were cruelly designed and as they slid out of the bodies of their victims they inflicted greater pain on the mortals the demons had used as living sheaths. I shivered, feeling a strange sense of delight as the mortals cried out again, in greater pain this time.
One of the strange changes that had occurred to me over the course of these last few weeks was that I had acquired a greater sensitivity to things. I had begun to develop a much stronger awareness of reality, and especially of the sacrifices worshipers of mine had given to me. This was a consequence of my acquisition of the second tier of influence over the knowledge domain and was a single component of a power intersecting the domains of faith and knowledge.
This manifested itself in two ways: the first was a sort of physical sense, a delight that I felt at being given things by my worshipers, and the second was that I began to receive notifications informing me of sacrifices. I received the notification alerting me to this sacrifice, while I shivered. It was a simple one, but one that I liked to see nonetheless.
Alert: The Order of the Heated Blade is performing another of its daily rituals to you. Their entire membership is currently mutilating nearly forty human victims. These human victims are humans you created. The human victims are becoming more and more corrupted, and a small number of them are becoming aware of their secret masochistic desires.
The Order of the Heated Blade summary: This is one of your newer Torunian cults. It is a strange, public cult that is situated in your tower.
It worships you as a god of fire, pain, and evil. It has almost fifty members and is led by a pain-knight. This cult is the first cult of yours that mixes different types of extraplanars in its membership and is currently composed entirely of extraplanars.
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As the creatures continued the ritual before me, I began to walk among them. I took my first steps forward and quickly found myself beside on the other side of an incubus and his victim.
The demon's victim was a tanned-skinned man who was doing his best to suppress a smile, working hard to look like he was in agony. His eyes were wide open, and there was a conflict clearly visible within them. I chuckled as I looked at him, studying him for a moment.
I gazed into his pain-wracked eyes for a moment, and immediately learned his most "shameful" secret, thanks to a new, passive power of mine that synergized the subdomains of pain and truth and the knowledge domain. The secret was whispered into my mind by the voice of the subdomain of truth, and learning it was a delightful experience.
The man was a masochist and he secretly enjoyed these rituals. It was, in his mind anyway, an embarrassing and terrible source of shame for him. But it didn't have to be.
"Don't be ashamed." I told him, smiling at the man. My smile was serene. "I am a god of life, pain, and pleasure. I created you for the purpose of being a perpetual sacrifice. It is your destiny to be here, in what for you might well be a paradise, forever. Embrace your desires. Delight in your agony." I told the man, telling him the truth. The incubus on the other side of him smiled savagely at the man.
In terms of my overall morality, a significant shift had occurred during the time that I was in this tower. I had grown used to the idea of using my power over life to create lifeforms that would exist solely to be sacrificed.
This was a natural consequence of my increased awareness of sacrifices to me and to the rise of a number of different types of cults appearing throughout Torus and beyond. It was also decisively evil, as was the fact that I had actually begun to create living beings fully intending for them to be sacrificed. That said, because of this change to my morality, my powers over life and pain had actually begun to expand.
The power I had activated earlier was called "Confession" and with it, I could learn a person's secrets by gazing into their eyes while they were in pain. With it, under the right circumstances, I could learn any dark and hated secret a person possessed. It was a truly and deliciously evil power that I was actually quite fond of. It was far from the only power I had gained that I liked, though it was certainly a flashier one.
I mulled over my new powers, all while the extraplanars around me continued their savage ritual. Many of my new powers were wide-spread ones rather than personal abilities. And more than a few of the knowledge-based powers I had acquired were linked to me sharing my knowledge with others. Among other things I could now sap someone's sanity all while whispering eldritch truths in their ears, and I could inspire someone by sharing possible futures with them.
I could also target someone who is willing to share their memories with me and create copies of their memories to infuse myself with or to share with others. My newest powers, especially those tied to knowledge were a strange array of abilities. My new abilities were quite fun to mess around with, and in doing so while in my tower I had gained an incredible amount of new knowledge.