I swore to myself-- when this began and I realized I could be anyone I ever was again-- to never do it. I promised myself I'd never take that form again. I told myself that no matter what, I wouldn't do it. I swore to myself I would never be that powerless again.
I swore I'd never be that much of a monster again.
Max thought that after the initial blow was struck and healed through, Green would recover.
Max should be used to the flavor of disappointment by now. Green did not, in fact, get better. The blow -- explosion-- had an envelope of evil that delivered a payload of fuckery; it left a lingering metaphysical wound that was splattered to both his soul and the tie to his mound-- it had the spices of greed and rage and rent flesh and gluttony.
Parasitical. It felt parasitical.
Swirmy, wormy, and contagious.
[Diagnose] read a strange tale of a soul-draining almost-curse delivered to Green through his mound anchor via explosion. It didn't even have the decency to be a real curse. It was like garbled computer code that fulfilled a function he couldn't figure out. Made, he was assuming, by fucking amateurs who threw everything at a wall and whatever stuck was called good enough.
Max was pissed and his wings flared.
Max's [Cure Curse], as it was, didn’t touch it, because it wasn't a real curse. How did one cure a faux-curse on a mound and not a person? How did one deliver a faux-curse on a mound instead of a person? The answer, surprisingly, was with a hidden bomb in a discount backpack. What fucked up person thought up such a fucked up mechanism?
Max mentally retraced his steps. It moved slowly at first, like most parasites.
They all held a conversation like everything was going to be okay. Green had shot his shot and everything was going to go back to normal. Green, when the healing spells stopped, lapsed back into unconsciousness within minutes. Leaked more blood into the dirt, even with Max's bleeding counter-debuff active. Even with the healing spells recast and rechanneled, his life still seemed as if it were fading. Screamed some more before going silent as a crypt.
He eventually went into shock and lay in the dirt with his eyes open.
And here Max was, absolutely, blindingly, incandescently enraged.
I promised myself.
Max seethed. He knew, that out of everyone, lying to himself was the easiest trap to ever fall into. Betraying himself was even easier. Mostly when it wasn't in a quest for himself. It was for someone else.
He’s got a mound full of fae that he was so proud of saving. He has plans to save them all, like some home-grown [Hero]. For me to let the ones he has already saved splinter into nothingness in an unmoored mound as he lay dying in the dirt isn’t right.
Max spent a torturous hour carving the ground around Green with amplification runes. Curse-removing runes, bastardized in ways that should work, but didn't. Healing runes. He cycled through several different alternative healing spells he had made and tried different techniques. Nothing. The demesne was saturated with spent and raw mana. Flooded with potential and the desperation of the only god that had been on the planet for a long time. Watered with the tears of his answerless anguish.
His rage was becoming spiced with dread.
I swore I wouldn't, but I have to. They tried to fucking kill him. He's mine and they tried to kill him.
Max was doing his best to hold it together. Dumped more and more mana into Green. It was like pouring water into a colander, both the healing and raw mana just ran through him as if he had a hole ripped in him. He healed more damage to Green than he thought this world was capable of --maybe naively-- and had a constant channel of just dumping raw mana into the Shining King and the betrothal anchor they shared with the other two. All the magic Max could muster flowed into Green and then away. Hundreds of thousands of mana. All flowing into a void as if through a sieve.
When it progressed to a point, Max was afraid to move him; afraid that his favorite butterfly would just disintegrate into nothingness and float away in motes on the wind.
Soul wounds, if that's what this was, were dangerous and horrifying. Green's soul felt to Max, for the lack of a better description, wobbly. Max could sense where the tie to the anchor used to be and could feel the jagged edge of a torn connection that was coated in magic that should not be here, not in this world of tiny evils. It was like Green's soul was a bubble that was bursting in extremely slow motion, the fracture slowly spreading like cracked glass that was painted with filth. The cracks were bunching and splintering, trying to spread, and butted against the only fraying tie Green had left. The betrothal anchor.
The spread of it grated and hurt inside of Max, and Puppy and Princess could probably feel it, too. It was grasping for him and his mound. Wanting to latch on, like a newborn suckles a teat.
Something was attached to this fake curse. Slimy. Filthy. Sucking Green's life, his soul, away. The healing and raw mana negated the pull minutely, but nothing was solving the issue. It was trying to spread to the three of them, too, through their union in the door.
This was [Dark Lord] bullshit in a world that didn't think it had a [Dark Lord].
"Should you go in there and put an anchor in his mound? Is it too late or would that not help?" Puppy asked.
Max cast his cobbled-together diagnosis spell again. And again. Eyeballed the flickering sparks inside of Green with [Manasight] and [Soulsight]. "I think the curse or whatever it is is tied to him through his mound. I'd be afflicted, too, if I did that, I think?" Max recast [Divine Doctor's Touch]. It helped only a little and only for a little while until that healing too got sucked away.
Puppy did his best to keep up with Max and emptied his core of all available mana into Green, meditated, and then got back to channeling. Almost an hour of doing the same thing. Like he was the beast Max had accused the girl of being.
Inside, Max seethed a neon fury.
I said I wouldn't, but they tried to fucking kill him. He's mine and they tried to kill him. He's slipping away and healing and inflicting soul wounds is what that form was made for.
The vampire was beside himself. He couldn't heal, he didn't know how to gift mana to someone else, didn't know what to do to keep his bug buddy/enemy/bride alive. He couldn't add anything to the immediate situation, but he didn't get in the way, so that was nice. He did know how to fret and hover like a champ, though. To add the only strength he could to the situation, he kept slicing the palms of his hands with his claws and smearing his blood all over the anchor. And when that didn't give him the immediate resolution that he wanted; when he realized he could do nothing but be a powerless bystander and only bleed on a door to feed it power to keep it open, Princess pulled his flip phone out of his pocket and began making calls in whispered angry tones. And kept bleeding on the door. With every self-inflicted slice, his whispers got sharper and fiercer. Meaner.
Max could sense in his periphery people slipping through the betrothal anchor, on silent feet and whimpering whispers; gathering far enough away from the bleeding elder vampire, staying far enough away that they weren't in the way of healing, but close enough that Max, Puppy, and Princess could hear them gathering. Dozens and dozens of them. Here to witness the fall of their king. Here to get a jump start on mourning. Beginning their funeral dirge early before his last breath even took place.
He heard Hadrian crying and trying to keep the people --and people adjacent creatures-- from swarming them. It only added to his rage. His wings spread to their fullest in a threat display and stayed spread. He cast and cast and drained his mana, and when it was gone, he spent his health while the mana regenerated. The blue of his wings leached lighter and lighter-- from warm ocean blue to cornflower, from cornflower to baby-- as if to document how Max drained and bled himself into his butterfly paramour.
All the while, Green lay lifelessly in Max's arms and stared glassy-eyed at the night-dark sky. He was fading quietly and slowly. Draining away. His lungs filled with blood-bubbled air and he sputtered and coughed up red phlegm. His eyes had trails of bloody tracks down his the sides of his face, his cracking cheeks bloodless and bone-white.
I swore I wouldn't, but I have to. He's slipping away. I can stop it.
Max clenched his jaw.
Fine. Fucking fine.
"I have a form I could use that would maybe be of help. This one I'm wearing now can heal but is better suited to cybernization. The other one is more suited for soul trauma, but it's extremely dangerous. For me and everyone else." He grunted at Puppy and Princess. "I will need protection. I'm going to be delicate and vulnerable. My aura will have a compulsion to injure me, and if there are a lot of others around, they will try to stampede and it will destroy me. I will be highly venomous. If I think I'll be captured or hurt, I'll automatically attack all the souls in the area. Even yours. I won't be able to help myself. If I get captured by anyone I don't know, I will sting and it will kill both the captor and me." Max gritted his teeth and yelled over his shoulder to Hadrian, "Get your people back!"
He turned his face to Princess but kept his hands gingerly on Green's slowing chest. "I'll recover from death. Puppy will, too. Everyone else will just die. Keep feeding the door, keep everyone away, and I'll do my best to repair him and not kill us all by trying."
Hadrian called back, "Our Court is collapsing. We request sanctuary!"
Max ripped a hole in reality; tore a portal from the clearing in front of the vampire's tower to the clearing in front of the fucking huge elven hometree. "Get ready, Puppy. When I shift, I want you to give it a ten count, and then you need to spin around to keep people away. I'll be on his chest. If I get too scared or a threat gets close, I'm going to hide in his hair. I need you to flex all the self-control that I know you have to not attack me, either."
Max roared back to Hadrian, "Run! Go through the portal to my other demesne! Get them out! A monster is coming!"
Mound-wide message: Please assist Greenleaf evacuees in Hometree. Try to keep them contained. They have no [Bargain] in place to be here. Kill anyone who won't follow commands if you have to. Kill anything you think needs to die.
Friendly fire will be punished with court exile.
********DO NOT ATTACK OR TRY TO CAPTURE ANY UNREASONABLY CUTE INSECTS IN THE BASEMENT, IT MAY BE ME********
As the seconds passed, Green became more and more unresponsive. People weren't moving out fast enough.
Hadrian shouted and corralled the slow-moving stragglers, some looking back to their bleeding king. Princess hovered threateningly between the ones that didn't move fast enough and Green, only to turn every few moments to bleed more on their wedding anchor. Some fae from the Shining Court had run for the horizon the second they passed through the anchor from Green's mound and saw they had an elder vampire in residence.
That people were stinking up the princess's realm wasn't Max's problem. Max was sure Princess would sort it out himself when this was over.
Max looked around. He gently lifted Green's head from his lap and carefully put it on the ground equidistant to all the engraved runes for the maximum boost available. He threw a quick and dirty ward around the two of them as a fail-safe from physical attackers and protectively placed his body over Green, chest to chest.
He was pissed at the world.
Pissed at these people who ran into his demesne and stood around, doing nothing to help. Not even doing the simplest thing Max told them to do.
Pissed that the same stupid fuckers who had asked for sanctuary with tears in their eyes would be the ones that would try to attack him in a moment.
Pissed at whoever thought they could lace a bomb with a soul-killing and poorly constructed, fake curse.
Pissed at the humans that he and Puppy were killing themselves for, trying to make their stupid and short lives better. You know, so they wouldn't do fucked up shit like this when their greedy little toddler hands couldn't grasp everything their greedy little toddler hearts wanted.
Mostly, pissed at the flags that made him lie to himself.
"Fuck it, go time, Puppy! Protect me!" he shouted and shifted.
Be Yourself Again [Skill]:[Hidden]
Assume the form of any of your past selves. [500-hour duration, No cooldown, Instant Cast, 5 mana]
*Your past selves learned things in their lives. The lessons they taught can now be applied to the form you assume.*
Current Form: Max 8010342 [Shrine of N̴̨̨̛̙͍͎͈͇͖͚͎̰͚͖̠͔̔ͯ̽͂̆̍̿͒̂ͭ̃ͣ̐̈̒̓̓ͣͤ͂̕͜͡U̸͚̰͐̌̓͌L̆L̶̵̨̰̬̯̤̯̹̖̦̮̘̟̯̒̓́ͯ̿̾͆̏̆̎̿͑͗ͮ̏ͩ͑̊ͨͨ́̉̕̕͢͡'̢͇͔̙̞̲͍̱ͯͤ͗ͬͣ̈́̊͗̄͛ͣ͢_̣s̸̞̦͙̱͉̹͔̣̬̼̰͂ͨ́ͫ̆͊͒͊́̍̕͜͠ Guardian (Gravid Red Honey Bee-ar(Nascent Queen))] [N̴̨̨̛̙͍͎͈͇͖͚͎̰͚͖̠͔̔ͯ̽͂̆̍̿͒̂ͭ̃ͣ̐̈̒̓̓ͣͤ͂̕͜͡U̸͚̰͐̌̓͌L̆L̶̵̨̰̬̯̤̯̹̖̦̮̘̟̯̒̓́ͯ̿̾͆̏̆̎̿͑͗ͮ̏ͩ͑̊ͨͨ́̉̕̕͢͡'̢͇͔̙̞̲͍̱ͯͤ͗ͬͣ̈́̊͗̄͛ͣ͢_̣s̸̞̦͙̱͉̹͔̣̬̼̰͂ͨ́ͫ̆͊͒͊́̍̕͜͠ Soul Tender/Taker]
-1000 Stamina
-1000 Strength
Constitution reset to zero + 1
+1000 Intelligence
+1000 Wisdom
+1000 mp/s
+ @꙲)꙲)꙲)꙲%꙲^꙲ (MAX) Charisma [Hidden Stat]
+80% Evasion
+ 5 (int+soul*3) to Direct Healing Spells and Effects when Aura is active
+ 5 (soul+wis*2) to Direct Soul (Damage or Healing) Spells when Aura is active
[Buzzy Bee-ar Healing Aura]: (Area of Effect: 20 meters: Autocast if negative health is in range, 1000 Mana, 1 Second Cooldown)
+5000 Health
+2000 hp/s for 30 seconds
+1000 Soul hp/s for 30 seconds
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[N̴̨̨̛̙͍͎͈͇͖͚͎̰͚͖̠͔̔ͯ̽͂̆̍̿͒̂ͭ̃ͣ̐̈̒̓̓ͣͤ͂̕͜͡U̸͚̰͐̌̓͌L̆L̶̵̨̰̬̯̤̯̹̖̦̮̘̟̯̒̓́ͯ̿̾͆̏̆̎̿͑͗ͮ̏ͩ͑̊ͨͨ́̉̕̕͢͡'̢͇͔̙̞̲͍̱ͯͤ͗ͬͣ̈́̊͗̄͛ͣ͢_̣s̸̞̦͙̱͉̹͔̣̬̼̰͂ͨ́ͫ̆͊͒͊́̍̕͜͠ Amazing Curse Removal!]: Autocast: Aura Range
[N̴̨̨̛̙͍͎͈͇͖͚͎̰͚͖̠͔̔ͯ̽͂̆̍̿͒̂ͭ̃ͣ̐̈̒̓̓ͣͤ͂̕͜͡U̸͚̰͐̌̓͌L̆L̶̵̨̰̬̯̤̯̹̖̦̮̘̟̯̒̓́ͯ̿̾͆̏̆̎̿͑͗ͮ̏ͩ͑̊ͨͨ́̉̕̕͢͡'̢͇͔̙̞̲͍̱ͯͤ͗ͬͣ̈́̊͗̄͛ͣ͢_̣s̸̞̦͙̱͉̹͔̣̬̼̰͂ͨ́ͫ̆͊͒͊́̍̕͜͠ Amazing Cure!]: Autocast: Aura Range
[Soul Destroying Aura]: (Area of Effect: 20 meters: Autocast at 9 hp (or sufficient threat display), 1 Mana, 1 Second Cooldown)
Damage on hit: [Affliction: Dysentery]: 100 Damage to Health, 100 Damage to Soul, + 10% per second Damage over Time (24 Hours), Stacking
[Honey Production]: May produce 2(wis+soul^2) milligrams of [N̴̨̨̛̙͍͎͈͇͖͚͎̰͚͖̠͔̔ͯ̽͂̆̍̿͒̂ͭ̃ͣ̐̈̒̓̓ͣͤ͂̕͜͡U̸͚̰͐̌̓͌L̆L̶̵̨̰̬̯̤̯̹̖̦̮̘̟̯̒̓́ͯ̿̾͆̏̆̎̿͑͗ͮ̏ͩ͑̊ͨͨ́̉̕̕͢͡'̢͇͔̙̞̲͍̱ͯͤ͗ͬͣ̈́̊͗̄͛ͣ͢_̣s̸̞̦͙̱͉̹͔̣̬̼̰͂ͨ́ͫ̆͊͒͊́̍̕͜͠ Honey "Cure-All"]/ day if >90% mana
[Taunt]: "CUTENESS OVERWHELMING!": Sound/Sight Based: Area of Effect: 20 meters: Autocast when enemies within range and caster is <99.9% mana
-75% Control [Hidden Stat] Within Aura Area of Effect, Stacking
+20% to Rage Effects Within Aura Area of Effect, Stacking
One Hour Duration Within Aura Area of Effect, Stacking
Caster is immune to [Taunt] effects.
Quest Re̴̡̧̟̺̼̍̽̊ͬ̅́ͮ̔͘w̸̳̻ͩͫ̔͞a̧̙̤̣̬̩̍ͬ̋́̉́̾̕͜͢͠r̡̯̱̲̯̮͓̗̲̎͛̅ͩ̈ͮ̊̑̂ͫ̔ͮͦ̂ͧ̉͟͢͟ͅḋ̮̳͚̰͈̫̇̈̑ͦͥͩ̃͗̋͞ę͕̰͔̳̪̺̩̠́̒̀̉̄̾ͫ̋͋̐̉ḑ̨̨̪̜͙̳͓̥͖͍͈̲̀̍̃ͪ̿̐͌ͤͫ̇̓́ͩ̾̕͠͝ͅ: [L̸̤͓̖ͪ̂́ͪͭ͛͌̈́Ą̡̡̛͎̻̫̽̑ͦͨ́ͤ̊͂̅͗͑̃ͤ̚͟͞S̴̸̶̡̟͔͍̲̯͔͍͚̘̐̃̉̂ͨ̎ͥ̈́̓͋̆̚͜Ť͖͒͑͘ M̴̰̪̘̦̮̀̒̚͠ͅA̷̧̝̼̣͓͔͋͐́̉̑̂͂ͭ̈́ͨ̇͟͡͠N͎͎̞̟͙̣̞ͯ͑͂̎͝_̷̴̡̯̣̪̺̖̜́ͪ̈́͆ͭ̾̏̐͌̂ͮ͘͞ S̶̯̜̹̬̣̹̠̺̥̹̠̙͉̻̲̭̟̒ͧ̽̄̓̄̏̎ͮ̎́͑ͧͤ̈́ͨ̾̄̍̿́̚͘̚͞ͅT̷̨̧̢̜̫̫͙̦͓̙͙̹̹͖ͮ͑̿ͦ̍̎̀̏͐ͤ̇͌̌͂̆̕̕̚͜͟͢͡ͅ_̴̹̠̯͒͋A̷̛̗͇͚͎̠̥̭̝̜͔͛̈ͭ̾͊̆̈̅̔͌͢Ņ̠̮̪͍ͪ͐ͣ̒͘͘͟Ḓ̶̨͙͍͙̺̳͔̳̯͓̦̤̫̫̬͒ͨͣ̍́ͦͥ͒̊̓͒̉ͩ̓̿ͯ̃ͥ̑̃̊̋̇͘̚͜͢͞͠I̵͉͍̠͚͔̱̟͈̽ͥ͒ͤ̽̎ͦ́̍̂͂̂̂̍͗͠͡ͅN̲̤_̢̱̺̮̦̼̲͓̖̹͕̼̬̭ͨ̽ͩ̄̊ͣ̄̎̓̆̍ͩͭ͊̇ͨͯ̑͐ͫ͘͜͢͠͞͞ͅG̸̲̖̻̦͈̫̮͕͂ͭ͑̓̐͂͊̃͋ͦ̈́͟: L̶̶̵̴̡̛̟̠̖̬͔̫̻̮̬̠̺̰ͤ̃̄͒ͬ́ͥͮͣ̈́͊͆͗̓ͭ̈̉͂ͣ̒ͨ͘ͅͅä̴̵̡̮̃ͧ́ͮͦ͜_̴̵̭͔̞͖̼͍̭͔̬̙ͩ̔̏̏̓̄̈̂̋̌ͨ̓͘_̸͍̍ͮ̔͆s̷̴̡̲̲̩̪̬͇̼̻̜̘̻̲̮̱͋ͯ͑̈́͆ͨͧͭͦ̽ͫ̽ͤ͑̓̓͂́͐̍́̂̕̕t̆͊ G̸̨̨̤̩͋͆͘_̡̧͓̥̹̝̗̻͎̙͍̏̃͌̈̐ͤ͂͂ͯ͞͞͝ͅu̢̙͔ͭͦ́͑̚̕ͅá̶̴̙̩̘̱̺̬̻͈̞̯̼̯̥͚̺͎̂̑͌̊̏̽ͪͦ̿͂ͬͬ͑ͨ̇̃̃ͦ͂̔͟ŗ̗̹̞̮͉̯̤̜̤̓̿̓̅ͪͩ͆̀̋̋͢͝ͅͅd̷̛̻̭̠͔̘̤̼̦͉͌̽̇ͩ̓̑͋̓̅̊͑ͬͬ̈̿̕͘͘͟͝͠i̧̩̭̠̱̝̱̖͇͗͋̍ͬ̌̅̋̂̿͜͠a̶͚̥̫̰̥̝̱̠ͩ̊͒̓̐̐ͫ̐ͤͫ̅̾ͤ̉̍̚͢͢͠͝ñ̸̵̸̢̖̝̖̯̩̞͙͚̗̼͇̮̼͔̐̀̄ͧ̾͋ͫͪ̉ͩ͘̕̚͝ͅ of ₦ɄⱠⱠ (D̸̸͓̮̤̮̲͉̜̥̭̲̄ͫ͛̋̒͆ͨ̏͡͞a͂r͇̈́k̵̨̢̹̬̝̤͈̘̝͇͍̩͎̔ͣͨͮ̀̈̍̎̍͐̀̕̕͜͝ͅ Á̵̸̵̢̢̡̢̦̯̺̪͉̭̘̬̜͚̱̘̀ͨ̑͋ͣͬ́ͦ͆̌̒ͥͧ̾ͧͦͣ̈ͤ̓͢͢͝s̸̷̷̨̡͎̺̭͚̠̼͎͔̓̇ͪͭ̋ͣͮ̾ͨ̓̿͞ṕ̵̵͓͖͎̭͙͚̈́ͫ̽͒͂̉̅̽ͤ̿͠ẽ̶͙̔c̬͉̝ẗ̸̸̵̢̧͍̝͈͚̺̦̤̳͎͕̣̯́́̂̏͌̈́́ͦ͒̓͗̉̀͒͗ͤ̍̓͟͞)]
+50% Luck [Hidden Stat]
Apotheosis Y/N (₦ɄⱠⱠ, E̶̶̞͖̐̓̏̆̎̃͜ff̴̶̵̢̺̖̙̺̬͉͙̟̯̠̜͉̆̍ͥ̄ͤͫ͋ͨ̈́̽̈ͭ̔ͥ̀ͭ̀ͮ͒͢͠͠ͅȩ̶̢̡̻͓͈͍̣̖͎̜͖͌͂ͤ̈́̃̽̈ͣ̈́͒ͮͪ̀ͨ̔ͨ͐̚̚͢͞ͅc̷̶̷̢̢̬̝̗̺̯̿̔ͪ͊̏̊͛̋͆̀͋͐͐̔̃̂̿̆̚ͅt͒͞_̶̢̻̥̜̞̩͙̫̘̲ͬ̍̅ͪ͊͠ṡ̴̘͌ͩ̈́ͬ͢ Ȃ̢_̴̢̨̣̱̗̹̖̹̘̘̘̗̗̼̗͉̟͛͂̍̾͆ͯ̐̓̂̊͂͋ͤ̉̀̐͂̂ͫͪ̇̾̚̕̚͜ç̴̴̡̙͎͙̺͉̞̮͕̪̘̮͕̜̺̟͙̱ͯͭ͛͛̈́ͬ̎ͫͥ̏̀͑ͩͯ̑̔́̾͑͆̍ͮ͢͟t̪͒_̵̢̛̮̞̯̠͕͇̪̺̱̗͑ͪ̆ͣ̽͐̀͊̏ͥ͊̈͛̍̓͂͛͐̌̚͘͞ͅͅͅí̙̰͓̊v_͚̘ͮ̓̏̽͐e̸̜̝̻͖̍ͭ͆̃̓̀̾̈́ͪ͌̊̔̚͢)
Ç̷̶̜̣̗̞̩̹̭̜̩̫͕͓̣̯̙͎̞̳̻̖ͦͣ͒͋̒͑͌͆̓ͯ͐ͮ̽ͭ̍̚͟ļ̸̸̨̛̦̜̲̗̼̞͓͙̙͉̯̹̻͈͕͍̺̲͉̃́͋̿̏̾̃ͭ̊͊̓ͮͣͦ̓̂ͬ̆͘͜͟á̳ͬ͐͝i̛̛̱̗̪̪̥̼̻̣ͥ̔̽̍̔̊̾ͦͧͥ̒̅̈́͐͊̿̔͘͟͝͠͞͝͠͞m̡̡̝̭̰̺̖̦͍̖̝̗͒͑͒͆̄̀ͨ̀̓ͨͦ͂͜ D̴͇̼̻͕̱̝̟̮͈̀̌̓̆̒̀͌ͩ̈́ͫ͐̊͢͠_̶̶̨̡̛͓̝̙͍̱͓̱͙̇̊͊͋̀͋̔͑̿ò̷̫͍͚̯̈̽̓͗̑͐͠m̰̼̎_̸̶̡̤̪̣͙̙̠͎̝̻̀͌̔͊͐ͥ̉͊ͩ̒̀ͭ̕͡ͅa̶̡̛͔̺̰͕̲̜̦͎̦̬̤̭̼̬ͧ͒͂ͩ̃ͧ͆ͣͤ̍͑̚͟͝͝ͅiͮṇ̴͈̝̙̿̌̈ͣ̂͜(s): [[SPRING]] Y/N, [[SUMMER]] Y/N, [[FALL]] Y/N, [[WINTER]] Y/N > No rivals detected, autoaccepted
Granted: Lesser Ability: [Shrine Builder] (Soul Bound)
I'm trapped. I'm trapped here. The never-ending tide of sickness and rage.
Their greedy, careless hands gripping and tearing.
Their tears of exultation while they shred me to ribbons.
I don't want to hurt them but they won't stop.
They are innocent.
I'm a monster.
They won't stop.
Ripping me apart for just a piece of me.
It would come as no surprise to anyone that the god who commanded in the shrine that she guarded so long ago as a summoned soul was a trickster god, and he took his tricks out on friend and foe alike.
They are coming.
They will get me this time.
I don't want to hurt them.
Please just make them go away.
Case in point: the honey she could make was indeed a Cure-All and was supplied, unguarded, open to all, at the community shrine. When she hid well enough that they left her alone long enough for her mana to remain full, she made that and the locals partook. Great system. No one bothered her and she didn't buzz [Taunt] at the fuckers. It could Cure everything-- anything that anyone had.
They are coming.
They will tear me apart.
It just happened to also be brain-meltingly hallucinogenic and a pants-shittingly effective laxative. Mildly addictive, to boot. It tasted great, though, and when facing down a terminal disease, if your choices are shitting yourself and talking to shadow people at the public shrine, or death, 100% of case studies say that shitting yourself and talking to shadow people at the shrine is the answer. The ones that got the taste for it and returned again and again after they were Cured were the most trouble. They would steal what the locals needed and the cycle of violence would begin anew.
They are coming.
I'm going to have to kill them.
I will melt their souls for something they can't help.
I'm a monster.
Another case in point: she was fragile in this form and a stiff breeze could possibly kill her. She had ten health. TEN. She was a heart-stoppingly adorable hybrid between a bumbling bumble bee and a red panda. She was small enough to fit into a child's fist. Absolutely, irrevocably fucking adorable. Even without any additional, magical compulsions, of fucking course people would want to pick her up and coddle her. SHE WAS ADORABLE! She had the best soul healing spells in this form she’d ever seen in all her lives, but that fucking asshole god gave her an automatically cast [Taunt] and then automatically flipped healing to soul-melting destruction if she got a little too scared. If anyone close needed healing, [Taunt] compelled them to pick her up, and if others were around, they'd get into a tug-of-war fight to be the one to possess her-- and here she was, as strong as a paper doll, with her fucking ten health, and a deathray aura.
They are coming.
And if anyone did catch her and didn't die fast enough with her soul melters, her venomous stinger that was filled with poison almost had a mind of its own. Flashing, flashing, flashing a threat. Not only did it threaten the captor, but it threatened her life, too, because that was how self-defense happened for a bee-ar. The venom didn’t even kill immediately or cleanly— for minutes, the paralyzed victim experienced ego and then soul death before dying in a puddle of dysentery. Then she would follow because her stinger was a one-time-use weapon and was built to rip out her guts upon use.
They are coming.
It was nasty.
Did the god who set it in motion care? No. He didn’t live full-time at the shrine, so why would tripping and sobbing pilgrims-- sometimes pregnant women and children, covered in shit-- bother him? Shouts for mercy from imaginary abyssal gods didn’t reach his ears. The love-rage and swinging fists and greedy hands and the tearing off legs or wings weren't directed at him. And in the rare instances when he deigned to appear and it was directed at him, he just POOF! left again. He thought it was a delight to save and torture the beastkin locals with the same stroke. After all, the only thing living at the shrine was his disposable guardian bee-ar.
And surely, a bee/bear hybrid —who, one would assume, couldn’t read its status page so it wouldn’t know it wasn’t long for the world— wouldn’t care about the suffering of children, right? She wouldn't always try to heal them and always end up [Taunt]ing everything that moved in the surrounding area, right? She wouldn't have the intelligence to mourn seeing their souls oozing out their backsides.
They are coming.
I can already hear the phantom screams.
She was gripped in a fist of panic and helplessness. She was back at the shrine. She wasn't ever getting out.
They are going to kill me. They come here sick and always want to kill the cute healer with overwhelming love.
Screams. They are screaming. Enraged they can't find me.
She buzzed her wings.
No. She wasn't there. She wasn't there! She died! She got out!
Rage and empathy and helplessness.
No.
She thought of a sinuous golden body and sparkly, beautiful legs. Gemstone eyes.
Hopelessness neverending.
She had Miles. Miles was here with her. She didn't have him before.
[BUZZ]
He will never leave her.
Enraged screaming. Calling for me to appear. They are coming. I should hide!
No.
She had a son with soulful eyes and delicate bones who would take a punch from a ghost if he thought he was saving her.
Screaming. It was smaller and further away. Are the shrine's supplicants going back to town?
No. She wasn't there. She was here. That life was over a long time ago.
Now, she had a daughter who was clever and questioning and could dream up a way to save a little bee-ar from grasping greedy hands.
She had Puppy and he wouldn't let them get to her. He would protect her. He wouldn't let them rip her apart.
Her stupidly named [Healing Aura] unfolded from her like a flower. She buzzed a second time and it brought her fully back to the present. It was also the first full [Taunt]. She fell off of Green's chest and shook her overwhelmingly adorable body. She targeted Green, directly cast into his soul, and kept casting as hard as she could. She flew back up to keep an eye on her surroundings.
She focused on Green's soul and trusted the devourer and vampire to sort the dumbfuck fae out. If all else failed, the ward would melt the stupid fuckers who didn't leave when they were told to. The price for admission to witness the near death of their king was to be mind-controlled to capture a bee-ar and go toe to toe with monsters, she guessed.
Fuck'em.
The taint inside Green was spreading, insidious and draining. Trying to claim him and his mound and funnel everything that made a Lord or King through a hidden straw and into the mouth of a .. what? A void? It felt like an endless hunger for emptiness. The fake curse took all the delightful, whimsical magic and the wild mana forged inside of Green's being-- all the energy that built a pocket dimension to give his fae a world of safety and home-- and redirected it elsewhere. Through his mound, through him, down a dark and open path. Down the gullet of some mystery.
[BUZZ]
RAGE.
This was something EATING him, his world, and his court, one monstrous slurp at a time.
No.
Whatever this was couldn't have him.
He was hers for as long as the possibility said he was.
FURY.
Fuck this fucking fake curse.
Fuck this stupid mystery monster.
Fuck these gods awful humans with their counterfeit [Dark Lord] imposter fuckery.
In her anger, she permitted herself to become unleashed.
She sharpened her soul magic into a dagger, condensed it to be as hard as a diamond and as relentless as a merciless backwoods healing trickster god, and thrust it into the mouth on the other side of the straw. If it wanted something to eat, how's about some condensed madness from eons of strife and suffering? [BUZZ] How's about a taste of her crystallized, impotent rage? [BUZZ] How's about a reflection of the fucking audacity to take what was hers? She took all the anger, all the writhing heat and fury, the tormented agony and cutting, slicing panic, and crammed that in there, too. Her magical fist shoved its way into a bottomless, malevolent maw, grabbed everything it could, and ripped it. The fuck. Out. She dragged everything she caught back through the straw and left meaty soul chunks of whatever the fuck it was by the wayside. She scoured the mystery's insides with her rage and set fire to the path that she took to get inside. Melted everything within her reach. She scraped and clawed it back and then, when she returned to herself with her plundered fucking magic and with her rage abated somewhat, she swallowed the remains whole.
It was delicious.
She sent her magic back up the scarred path for more. She would do it again and again until whatever was on the other side closed the pathway.
***
It took a whole thirty seconds for the slow-moving fae assholes to come for her fuzzy little butt, enraged and snarling like the beastkin of yore. This would be hilarious, considering all these same sprinters moved like geriatric patients when asked by three dudes covered in blood who were panic shouting for them to move thier asses and flee for their lives, but the [Taunt] made them bolt to her like professional runners just so they could squish the cute-as-fuck, 'defenseless' bear-bug with love and cuddles. Probably squish their dying, [Hero]-passing king as well while they were at it.
All the while, they were reaping the healing benefits from the same aura that made them fucking rabid.
Princess brutally drained a few who got too close too early, threw them in the dirt, and returned to the door to bleed himself on the frame when the door started pulsing with Max's destruction of whatever was draining it. His whispered words into his phone became lower pitched and smoother, and his eyes glinted a solid, glowing red. He did not look at the bee-ar creature on Green's chest more than fleetingly, and when he did, his eyes melted and then hardened, and he just grew angrier and angrier.
Puppy begged the charging fae to stop at first. He held the line. They didn’t stop. They didn't even slow. At first, to stop them, he body-checked them. They'd crash to the ground and scrabble back up. He eventually resorted to breaking legs, wings, or other means of locomotion, and leaving them on the ground while he moved to the next comer, breaking and discarding all, while Max moved her fuzzy self to Green’s hair to chain cast as many health-healing and soul-healing spells as she could. After seconds, the shitty fucking fae healed broken appendages in her aura enough to get up and return to love her dead, just like the slavering, deaf-acting assholes they were. Puppy’s solution was to break more legs or wings or other again, and toss them roughly and head first through the still-open portal to Hometree.
Max thought those few were probably dead from landing with the force that he threw them. But fuck’em.
One made it all the way to the ward, melted his fists and face on it, and screamed at her in rage and love. He didn't notice when he was brutally picked up by Princess, supped upon, and thrown through the Hometree portal, no more softly than Puppy's deposits. The vampire, not glancing her way (thankfully), picked up his discarded phone, went back to the anchor, and slathered more of his blood on it.
Gods and monsters, she hated the life she lived as a Shrine Guardian. Buzzing fucking bullshit [Taunt]. Shitty, shitting supplicants. Capricious forest trickster god. Beastkin shitting themselves to life or death. Fuck, it was abysmal.
Fuck you from a different plane of existence, Growwel, you shit-focused, shit stain of a healing god. I hope your legs break off into your own asshole so you have to make your own honey to shit them out again.
***
It took an hour. Only an hour to stabilize Green after she ate enough pieces of whatever was eating Green to slam the door closed— she, the conquering [Hero] in her form as the miraculous but professional victim, the captive bee/bear abomination. After the hundreds of healing spells/de-Curse spells/ Rejuvenate spells, a panic attack for the ages, Princess bleeding all over their anchor, and Puppy having to rough up the refugees and talk himself out of turning around to find her.
Hundreds and hundreds of millions of mana. Probably billions. Enough to explode the nearest star.
All it took to save him was reliving one of the worst lives and biggest fears she ever had.
***
It took another hour for her mana to max out and for the [Taunt] to stop being auto-cast.
"Is it over?" Puppy fell into the blood-soaked dirt. He gasped for air and wiped his sweaty forehead with the collar of a t-shirt he had pulled out of storage to wear.
"I want them alive, Othis. Alive." Princess hung up his phone. He was on his knees next to the door, still bleeding and red eyes seething. He looked at her gloriously adorable face and said, "I have never seen anything as monstrous as that. Looking like that and able to attack souls?” He tiredly shook his head in disbelief. “You are all my dreams come true."
She gathered her courage, checked Green one last time, and flew away. She flew as far as her bumbly body could get. Miles away, probably. She turned around and could plainly see the tower. Less than a mile. Probably less than half a mile. Whatever. She was so tired that it didn't matter.
The next horrible part, the part that was the price to pay, was arriving soon, and she wanted to get it over with. She got the feeling that bad things would happen if she shifted back before doing it. She started gathering fallen leaves from her forest floor and chewing them up to make them into a paste.
"Max?"
Max: Give me a minute, Puppy.
Merrick: What's going on?
Max: Go watch over Green, please?
Merrick: Why are you over here, though? The huggy-angry magic stopped.
Max: I'm about to lay a dozen or so eggs and need to make a shrine to nest them in. I am a GRAVID Red Honey Bee-ar. I am quickly becoming ungravid, pup.
Merrick: Okay... uh. Are all your babies going to have that thing that makes people want to fight to hug you?
Max: I don't know. Probably?
Max: They will be very fucking cute. [Taunt] only happens if someone isn't in full health and comes into aura range. No one but Princess lives here and the honey is a Cure-All. I see this as a win. He can be our bee-ar keeper! He kept excellent control and does nothing but brood and swoon anyway, so let's give him a job. I should probably anchor him to the realm, first, though.
Max: Maybe I can get the honey to not be so extremely hallucinogenic and less of a laxative with alchemy? We could sell it for millions!
Miles: I hate even to ask what you guys are doing down there. What babies!?