Yuther knew he had made a terrible mistake. From the moment he slipped the tiger’s eye amulet over his head, he was in an instant losing battle for control over his own body. This power being exercised against him must be from the same family as his Legion skill, but it was leagues more powerful.

“You begged me for help, why resist so foolishly now?” Kutris inquired.

“You promised me power!” Yuther shouted in accusation, realizing the battle was futile.

“I’ve only ever shown you the path to your desires. Whether you were involved in those outcomes was never really discussed, was it? Don’t worry, you’ll have a front row seat to enjoy the show I have been preparing for centuries.”

“This is a good body” Yuther’s mouth spoke, but in a very different accent than normal. “I have waited a long time for someone that shares the blood of my great ancestor.” Kutris smiled physically for the first time in ages, relishing in the sensations of living flesh once more.

“Release me!” Yuther mentally screamed, now locked within the amulet.

“I could, but then your soul would disperse and you would cease to exist. I don’t mind, I’m only keeping your soul as a pet because I feel pity for you. If you’d rather just die that’s fine too.” Kutris in Yuther’s body spelled out the helpless situation. “Once I’ve finished my work, I’ll even let you have this body back.”

”...It seems I have little choice.” Yuther’s pragmatic response made Kutris chuckle.

“Good boy.” Kutris praised sarcastically as he flexed his fingers in front of his eyes and spoke a few words in the primal language of magic.

The next moment, he stood on the roof of the palace where the twin Almiraj artifacts that maintained this artificial oasis worked eternally. Kutris spoke a word which dispelled the barrier that had thwarted an endless number of thieves, sorcerers, and even kings over the centuries. He brushed his fingers across the intricately carved black metal cubes and smiled widely.

“Fully charged at last.” Kutris beamed wickedly at the strange things.

“What are you doing with those?” Yuther’s spirit was beginning to recoil in fear at the dark ambition he felt in Kutris’ words.

“Only finishing what I began.” Kutris answered, seizing both of the cubes, one in each hand. “The spirits within these Almiraj dimensional prisons were once the guardians of this land, coaxing storms from the sea and crying ‘grow’ over every sapling and blade of grass. I trapped them at the bidding of a fiend, one who made me a promise I couldn’t ignore. He lied to me of course, and the fairy queen’s rampage did the rest.”

Kutris took a deep, steadying breath, and suddenly smashed the artifacts together violently. They shattered and the energy contained within them exploded upward into the sky. Day turned to night as clouds rapidly formed overhead. The sweltering temperature plummeted, and two enormous figures began to take shape within the clouds.

“The Great Dryads of Rakashi.” Kutris said with respect. “My most worthy of prey, come and fight me for your freedom!”

A piercing shriek, like a hurricane tearing through a canyon answered his challenge. A spiraling web of lightning came arcing down from the clouds towards Kutris, and Yuther would have flinched if he had any control over his body.

The lightning fizzled and vanished as it neared Kutris. The great mage inverted every spell by speaking its primal incantation backwards, a feat that no modern magic user would even believe possible. The next onslaught came in the form of a summoned army of wind spirits, hundreds of sylphs appeared and swarmed around Kutris. Each fired a barrage of wind blades that could rend flesh and bone. Kutris only laughed.

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“You’ll need to do much better than that to be of use to me!” Kutris spoke a word of magic and closed his fist in front of him.

A dark orb appeared around his fist and all of the sylphs were pulled into it like a black hole. The vaguely humanoid clouds above let out another shriek of outrage and two tornadoes descended, merging to become one as they neared Kutris.

The twister shredded the palace in an instant, and sucked the debris up into the sky. Priceless artifacts and ancient works of art were scattered across the sand for miles around, and the jewel oasis became a shredded waste in a blink.

Kutris floated unbothered in the chaos. More than unbothered, he was laughing.

“Spirits, gods, elementals... you’re all so careless with your energy. We mortals must scrimp and hoard and struggle, while you steal from everything around you. And that’s why you all hate me so. I learned to play your game better than you.” Kutris chanted another reverse incantation, and the energy of the raging tornado suddenly disappeared.

No, it didn’t disappear. Yuther realized something impossible. Inverting a spell didn’t just erase the effects, Kutris was stealing the expended energy for himself.

A rumbling from below preceded an explosion that sent sand and a few remaining bits of the palace high into the air. A huge form was moving within the cloud. An enormous bipedal tree was growing rapidly in size below.

“Now you’re catching on.” Kutris said. “If you had begun with this, I might have been in for a struggle. A greater treant uses physical attacks and can’t be unsummoned by inverting an incantation. Let’s see if my little puppet’s body is up to the task.”

Two rods of dark energy appeared in Kutris’ stolen hands, and he flew down at the treant even as it swung a great arm up to intercept.

The treant was deceptively fast, and could grow a seemingly unlimited number of limbs with which to attack. One managed to land a hit, and Kutris grunted. He responded with a flurry of sweeping attacks as he tumbled through the air, every place the strange rods impacted turned black and useless.

“I had forgotten what that felt like, refreshing in a way.” Kutris said before spitting out a bit of blood.

The treant had fared far worse in the exchange, more than half of its bulk was lifeless and it listed badly to one side. A low hum, as though the world itself had begun to vibrate like a great disturbed beehive began at that moment.

“A fair attempt.” Kutris apparently read some signal within the low hum and relaxed as his weapons disappeared. “But it seems you failed to stop me in time.”

A magic circle three kilometers in diameter flared violently to life then, with Kutris at its center. Ethereal chains, glowing with a dark purple light burst from the circle by the thousand and snaked up into the clouds.

“I have not been idle, you see.” Kutris watched with satisfaction as the chains began to restrain the mighty twin dryads. “Over a thousand years I spent crafting this single magic circle just for you.”

The sky itself roared and shrieked in violent denial. Kutris’ bindings were perfect, however, and the struggle was ultimately in vain.

“Don’t make such a fuss.” He admonished the churning sky as it crackled with impotent lightning and thunder. “Such dramatic little spirits.”

The chains bound the storm tighter and tighter, and soon vaguely humanoid forms could be seen. Moments later, the physical manifestations of the great dryads finally stood on the blasted foundations of the House of Dreams. They were small, the size of human children with flowing manes of forest green hair and green eyes filled with violence and venom. They were sharp featured with long pointed ears and nearly translucent skin. The otherwise identical spirits had one difference. They each had a single fairy wing, one with a left wing and one with a right wing.

“I’d love to give you my brand, but that would be beyond even me.” Kutris lamented before continuing. “I have a single task for you, and if you fulfill it I shall release you on the condition that you do not interfere with me or my plans.”

The dryads looked to each other with disgusted expressions and as one hissed out their denial. The chains tightened and they shrieked in agony.

“Refusal will only bring suffering, but I can sweeten the deal. Do my bidding this one time, and I shall tell you where your queen has fallen.” Kutris relaxed the binding chains and allowed them to stand.

“What does it want?” The question came from everywhere around them, echoing with varying tones.

“You will finish the ritual that was denied to me. ” Kutris proclaimed. “Fenrir’s Feast shall commence this very night.”

“There is no Fenrir. There is no Feast.” The dryads’ voices snickered with pleasure as they delivered the news. “Beyond the reach of blood. Beyond the reach of worms. It fails.”

Kutris’ upper lip curled into a snarl. They wouldn’t be able to lie to him while bound by his chains. Fenrir could manifest from anywhere, including the depths of the hells. He couldn’t have been destroyed as a divine beast, so what could this mean?

“Tell me what you know. Why is there no Fenrir?” He commanded, holding a hand out and squeezing the chains ever so slightly. “I’m aware that Ariel’s champion took his host, but what does that matter? The ritual can force his manifestation from all of the beastkin as a collective from anywhere in this world.”

“Not this world.” The answer was glib and infuriating.

“So the one called Gray has found a way to hide my dear Fenrir from his destiny.” Kutris reasoned. “I’ve waited this long, what’s one more little chore? I’ll simply have to destroy the kingdom and pluck the host from its ashes.”

“What is the meaning of all of this? What is your real goal?” Yuther asked, afraid of the answer.

“I am Kutris, the mightiest magic user to ever breathe upon this world. My name is a curse, forbidden to be spoken by the long lived and the wise. This world has grown still and stagnant, new life chokes and fades in the shade and miasma of the old growth. I am the enemy of all that is, and the father of all that shall be. Let the gods and ancient things rain their hatred upon me. Let the kingdoms crumble, and the empires burn. And when my work is through, let the Worm disappear with his enemies.”