There was a red dot in the sky. Normally it would be hidden, secreted away by virtue of the many stars that decorated the night, just one more twinkle up above to be mistaken for any other. Yet this tiny red dot was now visible during the day. Weak, a little glimmer that might be lost under the thinnest of clouds, yet ever so slowly growing.

For now, this tiny speck was ignored by the common folk, a curiosity to be noted that lingered. Yet this was not the case for priests and scholars, as they would realize this was not normal. They would pour over texts carefully preserved for millions of years, people lost within libraries that were kept by entire bloodlines.

All around the world, each empire, each culture, and each continent, they all looked upon the red dot and asked a simple question: What was it? And what did it mean? It was a question that was growing louder every passing day, and even the Gods had begun to take notice of it.

Out of everyone in the pantheon, the Sentinel had been the only one to see it before anyone else even heard of it. The Sentinel’s self-imposed duties were to keep an eye on the threats that lingered in the firmament. Monsters, rogue moons, and a myriad other threats that they might require the Triumvirate Throne to handle. It was his job to track, and predict, when these threats would reach the mortal world.

To better fulfill this task, the Sentinel had created a list of all cosmic threats, and the expected timeframe of their arrival.

The “RS554690002134” was never meant to reach the mortal world. In accordance with every calculation the Sentinel had made, the gigantic asteroid would miss by a healthy margin. The calculations showed that the asteroid was likely to break and have some of its pieces drift into the mortal world’s orbit, yet that would be as far as this threat would go. It was for this reason that, when prompted and asked by the other deities, he curtly and coldly told them his calculations had not been wrong. Yet a quick verification of the asteroid’s trajectory confirmed as much, and thus he returned to identifying and mapping out other celestial objects and entities.

With this reassurance, the deities delivered divine messages out to every temple throughout the world. They had nothing to fear, the red light would come and go before spring arrived, and all that it would bring would be a slight resurgence of monster activity.

Up in space, millions upon millions of kilometers away, a voice screamed out in fury, the vacuum of space rendering the entity mute. It’d long since forgotten its name, its past, anything and everything that wasn’t its billowing anger. It knew nothing else, it cared for nothing else.

And as it spotted a glimmer within its dark world, a faint mostly forgotten memory bubbled up.

Just enough, just barely enough for it to ever so slowly steer itself.

The moon-sized relic glimmered with power. It’d taken an unfathomable amount of time to grow the relic to such a size, even by the standards of normal Gods. It was the singular largest and densest concentration of mana in the universe, and now it had its target in sight.

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Liam’s fingers crackled with electricity as he caressed the rope-knot, trying to soothe it into a proper position, one soft touch at a time. “Odd.” He muttered as he watched the trail of lightning that was left in his touch’s wake, crackling once and vanishing.

As far as he knew it was a purely visual effect, but suspected there was potentially more to it. Monster-germs tended to adapt to the user’s habits and needs during their growth-phase. And the past month Liam had spent most of his time switching between spell-knot practice and physical training.

Apparently the rate of growth in either was above average, or at least that’s what Maridah had told him. To Liam it just felt like he wasn’t completely poofed after a dead sprint, and it was becoming easier to hold the spell-knot in place for longer.

“Am I using mana of electric nature?” He wondered out loud as he stared at the black rope. “What do you think?”

“I don’t sense any mana coming from you.” Aisha spoke, head resting on his shoulder. “But then again, it might be too small an amount. Has the Whisperer mentioned anything?”

“Just that it’s too soon to know, and would rather not guess.” He grumbled, adjusting the strokes of his fingers under the guidance of Aisha’s hands. “How about you?”

“The merchants have taken to using the Emir against me.” With a heavy sigh, she rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. “That man now seeks to burn every bridge. At this rate it will be impossible for Doeta to be prepared in time.”

“Maybe the Whisperer should help.”

“I’ve been reluctant to ask, but I do see your point.” She sighed. “Has she made her stance on the matter clear?”

“She’s annoyed that the Emir’s doing his best to block recruitment of laborers and mercenaries.” Liam mumbled. “Though most of her effort’s been in doing some memory-leeching of the merchants and priests leaving Doeta.”

“Why?”

“To keep news of the Weaver’s failure from reaching her temples further south… well, more like delay. Eventually she’ll find out, but the longer that takes the better for us.”

“I still find it uncomfortable to speak of Gods as if they are people one can fight against.” Aisha whispered under her breath. “Liam, I have a question.”

“Yeah?”

“You mentioned that, in your world, you wrote about this one.”

“Yes.”

“And it was your idea, or at least you thought it to be so?”

Liam nodded a little, raising a brow. “Yeah?”

“Then it was your idea to make the humans of this world the way they are?” Her tone gained a teasing huskiness to it that implied exactly what kind of ‘way’ she meant.

His face gained a layer of flush and heat, and he desperately tried to summon up an explanation or an excuse.

“I see.” She laughed, making him blush deeper.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

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Bunny leaned back and let out a slow breath, finding the gesture in of itself rather novel. Expanding her ribcage, she sucked in breath, and immediately after grimaced when several of her ribs snapped open. A flick of her wrist and a wave of power patched her body back into place as she slowly knelt, looking downwards. “So something like… this…” She whispered, working off of memories that were not her own. There were so many details to keep in mind, so many little things in her body going on and off at exactly the same time.

Leaning her head back, she let out a faux moan that shattered the piece of ceramic near the table. A grind of her hips tore the cloth underneath her, ripping it apart as slight scorch-marks were followed by the scent of smoke. “Hot, but not too hot. Strong, but not too strong…” She reminded herself as she followed the gestures.

She knew that Origin had something to do with this. She could’ve imbued Bunny with perfect knowledge and perfect capacity to perfectly control her vessel. Yet she had not, claiming this was a necessary experience.

But for what?

Frustrated, and not feeling as relieved as she would’ve thought a forced orgasm would’ve given her, Bunny sat down, crossing her legs, and pondering on the problem. Glancing down at her own body, she realized that one part of what was going on was that her body could output too much mana too quickly. This was what allowed her to crush rocks with a punch, but it also meant she’d crunch spines with a hump. The second problem was that it was all conscious effort. She’d seen it countless times, how mortals did things without thought of any sort.

Thinking back on why Origin wouldn’t just put the knowledge into her regarding what the answer was, Bunny opted to switch tracks. Sure, her current status meant that she could just go out to town and fuck anyone. But it wouldn’t be fun if having a romp meant leaving a corpse behind.

Sex was meant to be the opposite of that.

Wait.

“A body designed for…” Cocking her head and scratching her ear, she remembered the little memory loop Origin had provided that first night Liam had shared with that coin-pig.

Now that she looked at it again, there’d been something about Liam’s physiology that hadn’t quite worked as it should have.

Why?

“Human, but not quite human.”

She felt like this was, perhaps, what Origin wanted her to do. Bunny poured over her memories of humans, and began to map out the normal responses that their physiologies went through. Heart rate, blood pressure, the flow of mana within their body, the way nerves lit up and went out, heat, breathing… all of it. Then compared them to Liam’s.

It was like getting slapped in the face.

The normal human’s body was a symphony, it prepared and flowed, nothing got in the way, every neuron and every facet priming the mortal to experience a mind-blowing deluge of pleasure. It was as if watching a trap tightening itself up, and then letting loose all at once, literally knocking their breath away and leaving them near catatonic for a minute.

It was efficient and elegant.

Contrasted with that was Liam’s own body.

A barely functional wreck.

WHY were there so many things getting in the way? Who’d been insane enough to design a body in such a way!? The bigger picture might have been similar, but the details were all over the place, some worked in favor, and others against.

If Bunny didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought the experience had been not too different from dying.

But… then again, maybe that was the answer?

Focusing on her own hand, she grasped a rock and squeezed. Yet rather than make a perfect crushing force, she pushed her body to get in its own way. Much to her surprise, it took her five seconds longer to destroy the stone.

“This warrants further experimentation.” She proclaimed with an overly serious tone and a devious grin.

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Maridah watched Bunny as the aspect began to perform experimentations on the magical construct that was her body and let out a sigh. Sometimes she wondered whether it’d be better to just leave plain instructions or not… but when she thought about it, she knew it would ultimately backfire.

Sometimes it was better to allow things to develop organically. Even if it meant a few Mistake along the way.

Which appeared to be the case regarding Liam’s own body.

Turning her attention to their mortal-of-interest, Liam was repeating the knot-magic basics, his fingers tracing over the rope as the enchanted item fought him to compress into a tight ball. Liam’s brows were furrowed, sweat drenching his body as he focused every ounce of attention into prolonging the collapse for as much as he could.

Outwardly, there was nothing amiss, not even anything noteworthy.

Inside, however, the parts of his body that’d integrated with the monster cells were pulsating. It was invisible to mortal eyes, but Maridah could see it plain as day, how he wasn’t pushing mana out, but pulling it from the divine tool, forcing it into knots of electric nature before it had even entered his body, a rather novel thing.

The development was intriguing, though she wouldn’t make assumptions as to what it might mean just yet.

Instead, she turned her attention towards a certain dwarf that had set up a laboratory in Cracked Bay.

Hassim Daal, the warden of the draxani elder brother, and a mortal with an avaricious thirst for knowledge in curses. Maridah had been more than happy to provide him with the standard fare, knowledge for loyalty, and the dwarf had all but plunged into the cult of secrets with zeal.

Nowadays, he walked around with a heavy black cloak, a hood covering his face and depicting the three eyes that marked him as a follower. Though the knowledge he’d been given was extensive, most of it was also non-applicable at the current time.

It would not do for a deity to permit their own followers to be cursed needlessly.

“Hassim.”

She called out to him, pushing her awareness into Snake, the aspect uncoiling from around the dwarf’s shoulder.

“My Goddess.” He immediately fell to his knees, bowing low. “How may this humble servant be of use?”

“You are many things, humble is not one of them.” She chided without any fire to her words. “Have you progressed any with the monster-cell process?”

“Unfortunately not, my Goddess. Without access to the raw materials, I am at an impasse.” He bemoaned. “Perhaps if I could gather some… volunteers?”

Maridah pondered this, and sighed. “There will be a group of mercenaries that will reach Cracked Bay within a few days. Offer ten times the salary to whoever volunteers, pick only one.” She instructed. “But remember that the donor host needs to be a freshly killed monster. That was the baseline for the process Liam took.”

The mortal’s aura twinkled with curiosity. “Would I get a chance to inspect him properly? Would-”

“Consider him your superior, Hassim, and be wary of what you offer.” She warned him, tightening her coils in slight irritation. “If he wishes to let you take a closer look, then he will. Personally, I’d recommend engaging him in conversation and asking more about the process itself.”

“He… knows?”

“He has more knowledge on the potential this process holds than even I.”

The surprise was obvious, but left unspoken.

“It shall be done.”

Maridah left him to the devices of his own experimentation and the watchful eye of her aspect. The Goddess of Secrets was no newcomer to the teachings of warfare, and one thing she’d learned was that the side with the most advanced and available weaponry would have better chances to win.

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Imani Sharpclaw twirled the bident, marveling at how light it felt in her hands. The weapon was made out of two pieces of ruby-like metal, starting at a harsh geometric shaft and then twisting and splitting into two extremely sharp prongs. The weapon was fearsome, like a needle or a stinger, waiting for prey to pierce through. Better yet, it was the perfect length for her fighting style, and its durability was without peer.

With a mighty roar, she flung it forward, watching it sail towards a spot where there was nothing at all.

The target, a hapless piece of fruit, shuddered in its podium as if on its own accord before toppling over, falling into exactly the right place so that the spear would pierce through. The next instant, the weapon was once more in Imani’s hands, and the fruit listlessly dropped, rotten.

“With this…” She whispered to herself, looking upon the weapon with a mix of awe, reverence, and hope.

Hope… because this just might be a way to free her people of the demons that had tormented them for so long.