Never would I have thought it would be so easy to transport so many people across such a vast distance at once. Then again, the power of godhood was... incredible. I could see through the eyes of my followers in more than just the literal sense. And one more so than anyone else in all the Legions. A fact that would make my plans proceed flawlessly. For the most part.
The founders of my guild- the Primes were sent far and wide across the peninsula- and not by themselves. For the most part. The largest group saw over fifteen hundred souls and three undead transported to a single location. The land of Rauven in the Rhar Kingdom. Specifically, at the junction where Salisterley Creek broke off from the Towceshambe River, which themselves sat between the slum town of Gribredth, to the west, and the bustling wood-elven city of Cryshandohl.
Though there was an endless supply of towering evergreens around us, the vampires weren't as comfortable with traversing a rope bridge over a running stream as their followers so hoped. Instead, they spent days riding- caravaning just over a hundred fifty kilometers to the northwest at a crawl. At least until the forest cleared out to a frost-encrusted grassland that dominated the two hundred kilometers to the mountain's base. It was there that they met the river's mouth- a goblin-sized hole in the stone, gushing water out by the ton- and sidestepped it. Turning due west to the place my silver eye guided them to. Our current destination.
112 kilometers. That was what it took to put the tundra behind them. Another 80 so put them at our destination. Even with untiring feet, they gave thanks to see the journey's end. Or, at least one of them saw their journey's end. The other two would disperse in opposing directions. Zakira and the hundreds of acolytes to her Order of Worlds would climb nearly three kilometers of mountain passes in order to build Mani's temple, my first on the Mortal Plane. An arduous journey compared to the uncountable tons of rock that stood between the surface and the site of Opal's Nest of the Black Plume in the deepest depths of the Darkworld.
Meanwhile, Elijah would remain on the surface; at the place I held my gaze upon. The origin of Gloom's rise; preceded by the birth of something more... obscure.
Through the dissimilar traces of twilight within them, I felt the anxiousness of Opal's sigh just as much as my thoughts were pulled to Opal's alongside Elijah's.
"Well." She huffed, birthing hints of solemnity in Elijah's visage. "I suppose this is where we part ways."
"Not so, Madame." Elijah teased, then moved down the left fork of the tail to find the object of his visions- an obscure cave that widened into a hidden grove large enough to fit a small village.
It had, at one point in time. Bathed in the golden radiance and long shadows of dusk were the remnants of a small community tucked within and covered by a lip of moss-covered stone. No road or path was visible below the field of flowers and weeds and few buildings remained either. Only a cluster of semi-broken walls survived in the middle of the area- the largest of them being an old chapel or perhaps a castle standing alone at the northern end. A particularly overgrown patch of thickets sat to the west. A former garden perhaps. And off to the east was a fenced-off area that could've only been a cemetery, though the stench of death was missing from it entirely.
Raised by my ancestors, Elijah guessed.
After that came his presence opening up on the networks. His mind went to work after the initial survey immediately, forming a map of what the place was to be. The former cemetery would dug out to form the barracks. The dilapidated buildings would be reconstructed to be quarters for his subordinates. The overgrown garden would become the Twilight Sanctuary's access chute. The rugged stone on the northern wall opposing the entrance would become caves and caverns for the sake of the class he was meant to debut.
The church would become the first surface lair for the Exalted Gloom.
For my assistance, he gave thanks and then relayed his designs using the same method rather than the default method through the networks. An action that saw Opal approach him with a wide smile. "I'm overjoyed to see your faith is strong."
"I am a devoted feather of the Plume as well, Madame." He curtly bowed, and she smiled softly as she nodded.
"Precisely the reasoning for our talk," she said, beckoning Elijah to one of the least broken-down buildings in the grove.
Of course, he knew the true nature of their 'talk.' Yet, I could feel his anxiety grow more and more as he followed her instructions to sit. And yet more as he watched her bite the inside of her wrist and dripped her rich, dark blood into a porcelain cup.
She said nothing as she poured and mixed a crimson liquid with a silvery hue into the mix. Or even as she handed Elijah the cup. She stared, almost somberly, with her crimson orbs until he grasped the warm cup in both hands.
With a final nod of approval from Madame Opal, she scratched his thumb and withdrew a thin strand of blood that thickened with each passing second, merged with her and Carbury's blood, and returned to his body through a cut in his opposing thumb.
The power of the divine was incredible.
I could feel that blood flowing through Elijah's body as if it were my own. It was like silken honey from a candy spider, flooding the mouth with a rich sweetness and filling the heart with potent heat that smacked an intangible weight- shackles from the body, replacing it with a surging strength and a bounty of knowledge never thought possible to exist in the mind.
With that small but not insignificant experience, Elijah no longer saw Opal in a light- nearly the same light in which I saw me. Although there would always be a radiance to her he would recognize.
"There was no malice in my heart when I killed you. When I turned you," she finally said. "Though it is no excuse, I raised you out of pure necessity. I needed your help to save my dearest friend."
"I blame you not, Madame." Elijah quickly shook my head. Though, he wasn't compelled to. "I was the one who attacked you. More so, I would have done the same, were I had one so close to me. Although." He chortled dryly. "I suppose I do now. Many, many of them. And more soon enough. But out of everyone in the Legions; past and future- out of every soul in Eotrom. Minus our God. You, Madame Opal, have my utmost respect."
"You are free now," She said after a short pause, accepting Elijah's words with a regal bow. "More so, you are now Elijah of the Blackblood. An honorary Vampyr, with a 'Y' and no 'E.' You and one other will be given the power of the Blackblood. All for the glory of the Elven Devil."
He began to offer his thanks but alas, the wailings of those behind me fell to his ears as a subtle shriek that pierced the night, bringing his eyes to the half-lidded eye of the moon in ways that drowned my senses in the waters of vertigo.
I used this newfound link to linger in Elijah's senses long enough to sense him discern two feminine voices coming from the four points of silver above before I returned my scattered consciousness back to my body and bled Hogaz, Vexx, and Lily to a halt above the mountains of Rhar, where many zealous eyes remained on us for several moments.
Lily aside, Vexx was a half-elf who wore her profession on her sleeve. She wore black, thigh-high boots and tan trousers held up by a pair of belts holding flintlocks and cutlasses alike. A proud, plumed coat was placed upon her shoulders, and a similar hat- of blue and white- was placed atop her curled locks of rusted hair. Vibrant eyes that seemed as blue as the sea peered from behind her matted hair, intently ignoring the bemused gazes in favor of watching me guide everyone out of the grove and spread my temporal domain over the expanse.
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"I'm doing this a lot these days." I snorted once the undead got to work with Elijah's creation. "Not that I'm complaining."
"So, who's your friend?"
I held back an amused snicker at Elijah's response to Zakira's accusatory tone after the thought. While he wasn't the only one, his reaction was the loudest to my ears and was exacerbated by him turning to me and the succubus as we both shrugged. "Lily."
"Why is she here?" She asked, seemingly annoyed by Lily's very presence.
Seemingly.
"The former King of the Shadeforge had a scroll. It summoned her." I shrugged again. "She'll be making brothels."
"Oh? Zakira rolled her eyes mockingly. "Fancy."
"Yeah." I nodded, motioning to the half-elven pirate. "And this is Captain Vexx. Hogaz's quartermaster. She knows my dad, apparently."
"We were classmates." She said. "Us and Stronghull."
"Quartermaster?" Elijah asked the half-orc, who seemed well better off than he had before.
"I am to be the Fleet Admiral of the Legions."
"The naval Fleet Admiral." Elijah corrected him with a sly smile.
"Until then, she's Hogaz's lieutenant. Or she will be after tomorrow." I knowingly laughed, then paused to allow Pora Bora's daughter and mate to perch on my shoulders. "Anyway." I waved, scattering my thoughts to the auras scattered across the Peninsula. "Let's issue the recall."
As was the norm, the Commanders appeared in flashes of silver and golden light, opening the floodgates to praises from the followers of my cloth for giving them a glimpse of my power. Curiously enough, those same whispers came from many of my classmates. They spoke of glimpses. That was all they'd ever seen. Glimpses. Fractions of the seemingly limitless power I contained. It was why so many chose to be in the Plume. It was why Elijah chose his path. To see a glimpse of that power in battle. To see me, a sovereign of death, the Elven Devil, stay true to my titles. And while he was the subject of today, he wasn't the only one.
"Do you mind if I indulge your peers a bit?"
Elijah turned to the winged Dragonborne with surprise shortly after I asked, bringing Urshure into sight just as he responded with a low growl and a subtle nod.
"Having wings, Urshure is a paragon of his kind," I explained while leading those gathered to the still decrepit but elegant cathedral. "Despite that, he was shunned by his clan and exiled for not just revering dragons but for making a pact with Tiamat. Clan is everything to Dragoneborne, thus it was a severe blow to him. Now, however, he has a new clan. And, a new dragon to revere. And Elijah," I grasped him by the shoulder after halting by the gloomy entrance, "is her envoy to the surface. The Rider- not of her, of her unconceived hatchling.
"Elijah of the Blackblood is the first Gloom Knight."
Shockingly or not, there were more cheers of support from the crowd than there were jeers of disbelief. Everyone that I could see was either awed, proud, or anxious to see what came next. Including, of course, Elijah.
"Before you go in." I turned to him. "I want to make sure this is the path you wish to take."
He responded with a silent prayer, thanking me for the boundless freedom I granted them, and accompanied the gesture with a stoic nod. Smiling, I stretched his arm to his side, gesturing for him to walk deeper into the Exalted Gloom. "Remember what I taught you."
He disappeared through the shadows, leaving me to peer through either this three-way link or the shadows to see him disappear with only a few steps inside the suddenly vast place. Through one eye, the doorless entry replaced any ambiance with a haunting darkness that seemed to reach behind him threateningly. Through the other, Vampiric, eye, the room was still bathed in color while the glowing visions of beating hearts and coursing blood floated in the far distance behind him. Through these combined sights, I saw rows upon rows of terraced pews made from blackened wood arranged in an octagonal arrangement around a golden dais- much like the one in my home.
Before it, on a smaller dais of stone, sat a diminished pile of blackened blood and carrion. Remnants of a feast, Elijah remembered from Amun's teachings and subsequently began scanning. Even with his vampiric sight, he couldn't see it, however. But he could see around it. He could feel her. Snaking and climbing and jumping around and between the heaping piles of coin and the gilded terraces and platforms and broken pillars of her new environment. And then, a thunderous roar caused the stone all around him to rumble tremendously.
"YOU CALL THIS A LAIR!?"
An intense wave of wicked pressure accompanied the haunting demand, yet Elijah remained undeterred and on his feet, bowing at the waist. "I call this a satellite lair, Exalted One. The first a thousand thrones spread across the Mortal Plane. One of a thousand hoards. One of a thousand lairs for the Exalted Gloom!"
From the shadows behind Elijah, I withdrew a pile of rotting meat. The surrounding gloom descended on it immediately. Both me and Elijah watched her voraciousness in morbid awe, staring, open-mouthed at the magnificent sight of the rapidly shrinking carrion mountain until, suddenly, the chomping ceased. A deep growl reverberated through the room and soon, a pair of draconic eyes suddenly lifted above the mound.
Starry orbs of pure malice, they were. The deepest and most cunningly vile embodiment of hatred I've ever witnessed. And it bored right into Elijah. Stared at his suddenly fragile being with pure contempt; and roared. "YOU CALL THIS MY ENVOY!?!"
A great crash of wind signaled the dragon's ascent to a nearby pillar and Elijah spun to face her, seeing instead a cone of black flames spreading from her jagged maw.
Remembering again my words, Elijah stood firm with his arms held up, cupping a massive bowl filled with mithral while the waves of black fire dissimilar to the Flames of Moil rolled over him, enveloping him in the comforting gloom of shadow-powered fire. Yet, knowing fully well the nature of her breath, he couldn't help but feel as if he were walking into the deepest pit of despair and thus called to me for strength, opening up a proverbial window that allowed me to meld with his senses more.
As he could, I could feel the breath of Shadowfire fall over me in a whirlwind of haunting screams, torrid whispers, and a deathly cold that was like the heat of a campfire and the jovial song of a bard to his once-human body. While I danced to it, he fought against getting lost in that song and thus failed to see the curved talons reaching through the impenetrable night to lance his chest through. The world tipped and he soon found himself clamped between the unyielding stone of the ground and the impenetrable scales of a great claw.
Wincing only from phantom pain, he peered stoically through the fading darkness to see the mightiest and most graceful creature he and in turn I had ever laid eyes on. Cononthoth, The Exalted Gloom, was larger than an overgrown warhorse, with great wings of billowing darkness and nightly scales that melded into the abyss behind her. Great horns spiraled out the back of her head, swiping threateningly toward the ceiling as she reeled back as if preparing to bite.
Instead, however, her claws dug deeper into Elijah's chest and bit further into the stone below him. Then the mountain atop his flesh heaved, sending him hurtling on an intercept course with a blacker-than-black trunk of scales and spines.
Elijah crossed his arms to block at once. But being in midair, he could only allow her tail to swipe him clear across the room.
One of the many pillars within the space turned into a vertical cloud of dust and rubble as he passed through it. So too did most of the pews and even the stone wall beyond. But Elijah came up running, spinning to heave a chest thrown to him by me. He was almost done.
Cononthoth cared not for the chest, however, she came forward in a snaking rush of darkness to attack with claws, tail, and maw alike. And, following my instructions, Elijah used every bit of his newfound Vampyric freedom and the potent unicorn blood within him to dodge and block as best as he could, keeping intense care to show no fear and, more importantly, to never outshine his master.
The game continued for many moments until, suddenly, Cononthoth reeled back, somehow exuding a look of curiosity more than outrage or even amusement. On that cue, Elijah ripped the top of a cheap rucksack and chucked it near the first chest he threw.
It sailed true through the air, yet Elijah kept my eyes trained on the gilded irises of the Exalted Gloom while hers remained on him until the moment the chest crashed open, spreading a not-so-paltry sum of onyx, black opals, and other dark gems before her.
"The Tiny Devil has educated you greatly." An eerily smooth and feminine voice suddenly spread through the darkness, though the dragon's mouth didn't move. Only the gloom surrounding her did. It crept and crawled steadily towards Elijah as if it were alive, reaching his feet to then crawl up his knees, thighs, and torso like maddened serpents. "You shall serve nicely as my envoy, young rider."
The dark tendrils reached his shoulders finally. And from then, turned sour. One became three, then three multiplied into clusters of the snaking forms of darkness that reached for the eyes nose, and mouth, causing the arcane words to coalesce into words shared only between him, his master, and me, the one to which her soul was linked.
[Prestige Fighter: Exalted Gloom's Knight. Step 1: Complete.]
[Evolution: [Draconic Pheromone Gland] - With this gland, you excrete a pheromone that marks you as the first Knight of the Exalted Gloom, acting to attract all draconic creatures outside of the designation {True Dragon} and make them act in a friendly manner towards you.]
[Mutation: [Draconian Vestige] - This sliver of draconic power serves as your reward for your devotion to the Exalted Gloom. With it, your draconic master may pass knowledge into your mind, and draconic power into your body and spirit.]
"Now go, young rider. Hatch your mount." Gloom's voice echoed in my mind while she erupted in a mighty roar that strode like silk in the night, whispering her presence into the ears of the peninsula herself.