Asha wakes to an unusual level of noise. She had always been an early riser, but usually there would be some form of noise when she woke. The snoring of other orcs a tent or two away, the silent murmuring of lovers awakening in each other's embrace somewhere close, or just people waking up in general.
Right now it is eerily quiet, except for the sound of a single person dressing themselves.
Groggily Asha opens her eyes, taking a moment to rub the sleep out of them. She is in a spacious tent, somewhere near a central pole. It takes her sleep-addled mind a moment to notice, but she is incredibly comfortable. Almost swaddled in between a heap of blankets and pillows.
As her mind pulls itself together, Asha notices the other person in the tent with her.
A few steps away, stands a vision of divine beauty. Completely naked, Lady Lucifer stands in the middle of her tent, with her back turned towards Asha. Higher brain functions that had just started to kick in, immediately shut down as ashas gaze travels across Lucifer's back.
Her back looks like ropes of corded steel wire beneath a thin layer of skin. With every minute twitch they shift, seemingly ready to explode outwards. Her sides are covered in scars, as numerous as stretch marks. Crisscrossing relics of some fight the woman must have had adorn her body. Some being just barely a few millimeters long, while others go from the small of her back all the way to her shoulders. Thousands of scars litter her back alone. Neither her thighs and calves, nor her neck are free of little reminders of battles once fought. Two prominent scars adorn her shoulder blades. Instead of the straight lines of bladed weapons, or the circular scars of puncture wounds, these look jagged and uneven, as if something has been ripped from her body.
The last of the prominent scars is what looks like a bite wound on the back of her right thigh.
Ashas attention is ripped from the glorious backside she had been admiring, when an eye opens along one of the scars on Lady Lucifer's back. As if the scar had been just a closed eyelid, it opens up exposing the slitted eye of a snake, but with undeniable intelligence behind it.
While Lucifer continues to stretch, the eye swivels around the tent, until it locks itself onto ashas gaze.
A sultry but clearly teasing voice echoes through the tent.
“Like what you see?”
A searing heat creeps up Ashas neck, covering her face while Lucifer continues to stretch.
“I did not know where your tent was, and your brother had left, so I took you to mine. I hope that is not uncomfortable for you?”
It takes Asha a moment to realize that an answer would be the proper reaction and that she should probably stop staring.
“Ehm… yeah it's alright”
“Wonderful!” Lucifer exclaims, before a tiny flame flickers at her feet. The tiny flame turns into a blazing inferno for a tiny moment, engulfing Lucifer's entire body, before winking out again just as quickly.
As Asha presses herself back into the pile of blankets in shock, the slitted eye on Lucifer's back looks at her with clear amusement.
“Now that I am clean, I'm going to get dressed, you are welcome to continue staring, but I would recommend you get going and look for your brother. He must wonder where you are.”
At the reminder that she was still staring, the heat across her face intensified, causing Asha to finally look away. Embarrassed, she hurriedly stood, before immediately rushing out of the tent, while squealing “I'm sorry!”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------
As soon as Asha is out of the tent, Aindaeth in her bipedal form enters, probably having stood there for a while.
“Don't you look shiny!” Lucifer exclaims. Aindaeths normally severe looks are replaced by a relaxed and content smile.
“Oh you wouldn't believe what those shamans can do with their hands.” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, something Lucifer regrets having taught the moody lizard.
“Having my scales properly waxed and shined after so long has truly scratched an itch. Those cowering Kobolds were always too scared of me to even try. And sadly when I'm in my true form, they would have burst into flames if they tried. Thanks again for the lesson in humanoid body plans.”
“I assume you did not purposely leave your cozy dragon cave this early in the morning, just to brag about all the action you're getting? As much as I enjoy your company, I do not need to know more about those wrinkly shamans and how dexterous their hands are.”
Chuckling Aindaeth replies; “No do not worry. It's just that they talk when they think I'm asleep. And I coincidentally overheard them talk about the gathering they held yesterday.”
Lucifer pulls a loose top from the pile of clothes at the edge of the tent. It's similar to the loose pants the orcs favor, having an elastic band of sinew across the midsection and at the wrists, while the rest is incredibly loose. Laying the top to the side, she begins to wrap her chest with a roll of fabric before speaking.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“The important one with the chiefs?” at Aindaeth’s nod, Lucifer continues “Please spare me talks of politics. I've spent millenia as queen of my own realm, I don't want to return to that life.”
“It doesn't look like you have much of a choice. Daranturn apparently did something to rile up the chiefs. I don't understand the relations these mortals have to each other, but my shamans spoke of political upheaval, and that Daranturn was seizing power. Quote “As it should be.” unquote.”
A tired groan escapes Lucifer's lips, before she let herself fall face first into a pile of blankets.
With her main mouth still groaning tiredly into the pile of blankets, she forms a second one on her shoulder before continuing their conversation.
“NO! I will not get involved. Let the mortals figure it out. We're just guests, they'll have to keep that shit to themselves. We're going to be leaving sooner or later anyway.”
Aindaeth levels a pointed gaze at Lucifer's back, and the two eyes that opened along the scars on her back. Raising her voice over the still groaning Lucifer she adds; “To reiterate; It doesn't look like you have much of a choice. We promised a boon in exchange for the orcs' hospitality. As much as I'd like to see you skirt the rules again, I'd hate to see you crippled for the next thousand years because you broke a promise.”
“Alright alright! Guess we have to.”
“As an additional motivation, it also affects your little student.”
“Asha? What about her?”
“Daranturn told the chiefs that you are her patron. Now I do not know how the tribes handle patronage, but no matter what you will be dragged into this mess.”
Lucifer bristled at the shit eating grin on Aindaeths face, before sagging back into the blankets, the fire gone.
“Ugh! Well I'm going to talk to the old man soon, see what he wants.”
Lucifer pouted into the pile of blankets.
“And I was just starting to enjoy my time here.”
—-----------------------------------------
Lucifer stands alone in the training field. Her feet dig into the rough sand and a gentle wind ruffles her loose clothes.
All of her eyes are closed and she breathes deeply. Technically she did not need to breathe, but it helped with meditation. Not only in the ritualistic sense, or the sense that it calmed the mind, no it also helped with the absorption of mana.
With every purposeful breath, the wings she keeps hidden inside her body vibrate as ambient mana rushes in. The wings on their own absorb mana from the surroundings, but when she meditates and breathes with intent, they start to absorb even more. Different flavors of mana rush into her body, flowing through her channels in a raging river. If she breathes too deep, it feels like ehr channels will burst from the pressure. But once the ambient mana enters the space her core inhabits, the pressure lessens as torrents of mana flow inwards.
It's an unusual feeling, but at the same time it feels so right. Lucifer wonders how she could have ever lived without mana. Likely something her father kept from her, as he did with so many other things.
In her old world “Mana” was mentioned often enough that someone had to at least have stumbled across the mystical energy. Instead it was only ever used in her fathers “holy book”. Before modern times at least.
Turning her attention back towards her core space, Lucifer observes the massive amount of ambient mana floating around her core.
The usual black space is filled with a riot of colors, reminiscent of a nebula. It moves and flows around in the empty space, sometimes like a liquid, other times like a gas. Lucifer could spend thousands of years just watching the random movements. Instead she flexes her mind, in a now somewhat familiar motion, causing the deep red star core to slowly start turning.
As the star picks up speed, the riot of colorful mana is slowly pulled inwards, similar to the gravity of a star. As the mana slowly starts to orbit around her core, similar to the stars of a galaxy, the north and south “poles” of her core start to emit a deep red, highly concentrated mana that flows into her body.
While she keeps the star slowly spinning, she moves the mixture of fire and force mana through her body.
With every moment the scorching hot mixture of mana travels through her body, Lucifer feels herself growing stronger.
She had always continued to grow. Over her millions of years, she grew and grew. New eyes, new wings, new mouths. With every new addition to her form, her control over fire grew, as did her ability to handle the souls of mortals.
But with mana it was something entirely different. It flowed through her body, both the mortal shell she wore like clothes and the ever shifting mass of wings, mouths and eyes. It flowed from the tiniest wing tips all the way through her soul. And wherever the volatile mix of pure energy passed, it left behind a better version of herself.
Once the mixture of ambient mana was completely absorbed, her core spat out a last wave of red mana, before growing still again. It still moved, but only as fast as a normal star did. If she left it alone, it would complete a single rotation maybe once a month.
As the last wave of mana washed through Lucifer's body, she opened her eyes, to see the sun just cresting the horizon. With a single exhale, a puff of smoke left her lips. It was completely black and denser than it had any right to be. It also stank to high heaven. Luckily it dispersed quickly.
Keeping the rhythm of her breathing steady, Lucifer begins to move. Slowly she brings her hands forward. Smooth movements flow from one into the other as lucifer goes through forms of tai-chi. At first only the flowing movements of her arms, then she begins to step forward. Slowly her movements grow more intense.
With a sudden step forward, she stomps into the ground, yet no sand gets displaced. A small wave of kinetic energy flows from her foot, upwards through her body and into her right hand.
Instantly Lucifer changes her stance as she moves into a forceful punch forward. The kinetic energy accelerates her arm and the thrown punch causes a small crack as it displaces the air.
As the motion of the punch ends, she switches back into softer movements. A mixture of tai-chi and wing-chun make up her soft, almost flowing footwork, until she raises her right leg. Bringing her knee up to her chest she stomps down hard, repeating the motion with her other leg.
The kinetic energy travels through her body again, as Lucifer spins and lashes out with a lightning fast elbow. She follows the movement, the rotation carrying her into a heavy low kick that would have destroyed an opponent's thigh. Immediately she pivots and switches her stance, lashing out with a high heel kick that would shatter jaws. Between her soft flowing movements she absorbs excess kinetic energy that gets released through her legs in kicks similar to muay-thai and taekwondo.
As the last of the rotational energy is spent, Lucifer ends with a single straight punch that spends the excess energy.
Opening her eyes she sees flames licking along her forearm and her fist, before immediately dispersing.
“Still can't do it” Lucifer mutters to herself.
She had been intending to combine both her fires and the movements of kinetic energy into a cohesive whole. The only success she had was the single sword form she had demonstrated yesterday. The movement of kinetic energy through her body, while using martial arts was easy. The use of fire while using martial arts was easy. But both at the same time refused to work.
If she could use marble as a sword, she could have practiced the sword forms, but the silly sphere was constantly running off to who knows where. He also did not enjoy having to shift his form so intensely. And every sword she had tried, apart from the one she turned into liquid, broke after a few swings.
With a sigh, Lucifer pulled up the information on her paths.
Name: Samael
Tier: 1
Race: True blood celestial
Racial skills:
Mortal guise
Endless growth
True Sight
Soul manipulation
Promethean
Class 1: Acolyte of the first flame
Class skills:
Pureflame manipulation (10)
Heat absorption (8)
Star core (2)
Dawnbringer (1)
(empty)
(empty)
Class 2: Autokinetic
Class skills:
Kinetic Absorption (6)
Kinetic Release (6)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
General skills:
Swordsmanship (89)
Dragon Bond (15)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
(empty)
Sunrise sword arts:
First Light(1)
Lucifer stared at the new column. Sunrise sword arts sounded incredibly pretentious, but also pretty cool.
Her hands still itched to return to that form, to figure out how to make it better. She wanted to spend a few years just repeating that single movement over and over, until it was as easy as breathing, but something always had to get in her way.
“Lady Lucifer!” came an exhausted exclamation from her side.
With a sigh Lucifer turned to an out of breath Asha. Her face no longer held the bashful expression it had when she woke up, instead a fiery gaze burns behind heavy set eyes.
Lucifer could see the red haze bubbling in the young woman's soul.
“What is it?” Lucifer asked intrigued.
“It's my home, it got destroyed!"