Author’s Note
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed Immortal Soul. If I knew how well obnoxiously asking people to do things in author’s notes would work, I probably would have done it much sooner.
Anyway, someone mentioned that I introduce a lot of characters and then leave them behind, never to be seen or heard from again, in a hellish oblivion where all foils go to die. Okay, maybe I embellished a little bit on what they actually said, but still… I haven’t forgotten about anyone on the ridiculously long list of seemingly insignificant characters, that I’ve created over the course of this story.
If a character is dead, then they probably weren’t very important anyway, (though in this story, death is kinda ambiguous lol.) if they’re alive… then they’re out there somewhere, doing something. Each Act or Volume of this story, usually has a specific purpose, and revolves around certain characters who are fairly important to the overall plot.
Thus far, Michael and Raelin have had the most screen-time, but that doesn’t mean everyone else is just a ‘side’ character, because I can guarantee that anyone who gets their own PoV chapter, is definitely one of the ‘main’ characters.
Anyone who hasn’t been able to tell their story, either I haven’t gotten around to writing it yet(I have a list of about 20 or so planned PoV chapters, that have been collecting in my gdoc since I started writing this story lol.) or maybe they just couldn’t or didn’t want to tell their story for whatever reason.
Try to think about it this way, as technology advances, travel and communication become far more mundane and easy. In a world with magic, everything is even more dramatic, and if guided in the proper direction… well, sooner or later, it won’t be that difficult for the characters to talk to or meet with each-other more often.
I’ve actually been saying all of this stuff for a while now, in response to people’s questions in the form of comments, but I guess I have to put it at the beginning of a chapter for people to actually read it.
Oh, by the way, I’ll be writing up a character sheet at the end of this volume. I would do it now, but it would be a lot more constructive if I just worked on the story lol.
Chapter 3: Communication
A high-pitched, squeaky voice resounded through my mind “Mikey! You’re alive!? Or maybe you’re actually just a ghost, coming back to haunt me for letting you die a virgin?! Ah, don’t worry, I’ve saved myself for you! You look kinda different though… maybe it’s the hair? Anyway, so many things happened since I last saw you!” as I opened my eyes.
When Amber and I returned to the pixie village, it had already gotten pretty dark; so we cuddled up next to each-other on the shimmering golden sands, and each drifted off into a deep slumber. My internal mana-pool was nearly full, so it wasn’t surprising that my unconscious telepathy had managed to kick in automatically; especially since the person who was calling out to me, was Lorelei.
That tiny mouse-girl had always been pretty small compared to me, even when we had first met; though I was still growing at a steady pace, while she had stopped at only three feet. The top of her head, was right below my waist; I wasn’t even floating in the air, just standing in front of her.
Before she got too excited, and wasted all of my mana, I sternly told her “I’m not a ghost, but my time to speak with you is definitely limited… so if you have something really important, that I absolutely have to know; if it’s physically possible, try to say it in less than ten hours… that was sarcasm by the way, I probably only have a few minutes.” while glaring at her.
Lorelei was wearing a nearly transparent pink nightgown, and in front of a very familiar looking vine-like bed. There was a dark-dwarven girl sleeping behind her, who I easily recognized as Ailyn; it had been years since the last time I saw her, but she looked exactly the same: her white hair was a little longer though.
The adorable mouse-girl’s snake-like blue eyes, glowed in the darkness with beautiful luster; then she used her long serpentine tongue, to lick her left-side whiskers. She crossed her arms and loudly asked “Where the hell are you anyway?” while gazing up at me.
I sighed loudly, then replied “Do you know where The Eye of Lorthon is? Well, I’m on the gigantic island, that’s on top of those three super-trees. Actually, are you in Ael Tol? Wait a second, this place looks eerily similar to my house…” but she cut me off with a high-pitched laugh.
She stopped, took a deep breath, then shouted “Wrong! Since you didn’t technically own this property, I was able to legally buy it! I bought the entire city! Lorelei Incorporated is Alfirin! Muhuahahahaha I am the richest person in the whole world!” while grinning; her fangs were exposed and she was making a pose, with her fists against her hips. Then she yelped, as Ailyn grabbed her tail: which had been obnoxiously smacking against the bed.
The drowsy dark-dwarf yelled “Shut up! You begged me to come over and spend the night with you, now lay down and go to sleep! I have to wake up in a few hours, and go work with that crazy bitch; all because you kept complaining that you wanted a giant…” as she yanked on pink, tentacle-like appendage.
When she saw my astral form, she tilted her head and squinted for a few seconds; then she asked the whimpering white mouse “Am I hallucinating, or is there actually a very large, naked, glowing, demonic man standing in the middle of the room, and leering at us?” Lorelei quickly escaped her deathly grip, and cowered behind me.
I sighed dramatically, and replied “It’s me, Michael, I grew a bit taller since the last time we met. Actually, my body has gone through a lot more changes than just height, but that’s not really important. I’m glad you’re here, cause there was something I thought you might be interested in knowing.” nonchalantly.
Ailyn glared at me skeptically, then calmly said “Well, you do slightly resemble the images that Yuri has in her... records. Anyway, what did you want to- Ah!?” before screaming, as a pink and white mouse-girl erupted from my chest. Her face contorted from shock, relief, then anger, as the two of them collided on the bed and slammed into the wall, with enough force to make a rather loud noise.
Ignoring the nonsense that I had just witnessed, I answered “About a hundred miles south of here, is a swamp that’s filled with giant amoebas that are practically made out of petroleum; at least that’s where it should be. I remember seeing it a few times before entering the fourth ring, but I didn’t realize its significance until I encountered the creatures there. I’m sure that by now you’re probably up to the part of that book, where you need to create plastics or rubber.” while smiling wryly, as the two of them wrestled with each-other.
Eventually the dark-dwarf tossed Lorelei off the bed, and looked up at me while panting; Ailyn took a few seconds to calm herself down, then told me “Yea, we already found that place a month ago… and while I can’t stand that evil dryad, she does have her uses. Yuri designed a type of tree that digs deep into the ground with its roots; then it sucks up the oil, and excretes it out of the branches.”
She was wearing a long and thick white, cotton, t-shirt with a large, silver, meat-cleaver pattern on the front. There was a relatively low cut, so I was able to notice that her breasts were fairly large; at least, compared to her small stature and thin body.
When I briefly glanced around the room, I recognized a lot of familiar technologies: several wall clocks, there was a gun-rack with various rifles, pistols, even explosives for some strange reason. There was a desk which had lots of papers stacked onto it; two bookshelves were directly across from the bed, filled with thick tomes.
There was a dimly glowing, clear, chandelier hanging right above my ethereal head; it seemed that they had discovered ways to incorporate mana-crystals, in place of glass with a tungsten filament. I smiled at Ailyn, then murmured “You’re going to have to start using electricity a little more… magic is great, but your specialty has always been conventional tech. Well, I’m sure you’ll get around to it soon enough… or maybe you’ll expand your expertise a bit?” though she didn’t seem to hear me, because there was a hysteric laughter emanating from behind me.
Lorelei jumped onto the bed and announced “Don’t worry Mikey! You’ll see! Soon all shall tremble before the mighty Super-Lori V19! Only oblivion awaits the foolish enemies of Alfirin! Muhuahahahaha…” before turning to the exhausted dark-dwarf and asking “Hey Lyn, how do we fly up to the top of that giant pinetree? Can’t you make a rocket or something? Or maybe… if you and Pinky worked together… hehehehe, some kinda uber-bird-dragon-missile!” while flashing a sinister grin, and tightening her gaze on the irritated inventor.
I quietly sighed, and slightly regretted my decision to give her ‘that’ particular seal; though he was the one with the most knowledge that was relevant to someone in her position. Well, all of my incarnations were pretty… eccentric, but some of them were worse than others.
Under normal circumstances, they were just memories of people who I used to be at some point in my eternal existence. However, it wasn’t that strange for souls like myself and Lucy, who could remember so many radically different lives, to actually develop various personalities as a side-effect.
The crimson chain, that was linking my astral chest to Lorelei’s, was becoming weaker by the moment; so I cleared my throat, and told the two of them “The farther you travel away from the Earth’s surface, the lower the mana-density and thinner the atmosphere is; so unless you can figure out a way to store and amplify mana, you might have to build a plane with jet-engines. Anyway, if there’s an emergency, call me… or whatever you did to summon me here. Be careful Ailyn, I don’t want you and Yuri to cause any cataclysmic events while I’m gone.” while smirking.
Lorelei frowned and muttered “Okay… bye-bye Mikey… I love you, and miss you lots…” in a dejected tone while trying to hug me, which just led to her falling through my astral body. The tired dark-dwarf seemed deep in thought, completely indifferent to my sudden appearance and departure.
I turned around and pat the tiny mouse-girl on her fluffy white head; I made sure that she could ‘feel’ it, at least psychologically. Then I gave her a relatively warm smile, and said “Love ya too, and I’m sure we’ll see each-other again real soon. Have fun…” as I started to wake up. I opened my real eyes and roared in pain, which translated to “Owww!” or something like that.
The left side of my head and face was covered in a sheet of ice; if I wasn’t so resistant to the cold, my skin probably would have been numb or frostbitten. It was still pretty early in the morning, but I had gotten enough sleep; so I painstakingly pried the unreasonably strong tigress, off of my shivering body.
After defrosting myself by bathing in the warm lake, while catching a couple dozen bio-luminescent crayfish, I awakened Amber with the scent of steaming shellfish. I had found a small, round, and dented mithril shield, on our way back from the quarry; it didn’t take much effort to bend it into a pot, which was easily heat-able through a bit of temperature manipulation.
Regardless of how jaded I might have been, the simple pleasures of humanoid existence weren’t beyond my comprehension. Enjoying a delicious meal, on a beautiful golden beach with my… female companion, next to a lively pixie village, was still an incredibly enjoyable experience for me.
That peaceful experience lasted for about five minutes, before Angelica approached my right side while dragging a badly beaten, tiny mouse-man by the tail. I was sitting cross-legged in front of a pot of boiling water and crayfish, when she shouted “Michael! I have captured a vermin thief! He was attempting to steal your treasure!” in her usual, high-pitched and extremely angry voice.
Amber glared at her, then asked “Michael, are you sure we can’t eat it?” though she was obviously just trying to intimidate the wingless bird-girl. However, she was showing a surprisingly determined expression, and didn’t even seem very frightened of us.
I snickered for a few seconds and told Angelica “I completely forgot about him… Freeman… something-something. Anyway, he isn’t a thief; those little beads were payment for his time and the information that he provided me.” while grinning.
She quickly knelt down, then nervously yelled “I apologize my liege, I shall treat his wounds at once! Afterwards, I will attempt to escort him back to the northern hills!” The brat seemed completely mortified, though she did nearly kill the guy.
When I scooped the two of them up in my right hand, the nearly unconscious mouse-man regained his sense and started trying to escape. As soon as I started laughing loudly, he stopped struggling and accepted his fate.
Then I brought my left hand over to the two of them, Freeman was only about one-twelfth of Angelica’s size: so she was able to hold him in her arms, like an infant. My left index finger-tip gently pressed against his chainmail-clad chest, and within a few seconds his bruises and scratches were completely healed. Regeneration magic on short-lived races was safe, as long as it was only used on injuries that would have recovered naturally.
I whispered into his mind “Sorry about my friends treatment of you. However, I assume that the pile of gold and silver over there will be plenty of compensation for your troubles. When you get back to umm... whatever that place was called, you might need to bring some help to carry it all. If you guys ever need my help, this is my base-camp.” through touch telepathy.
He nodded, with a surprisingly grateful expression on his tiny face; then hopped down off my hand, to my knee, and onto the golden sands. Angelica was still sitting on my palm, with her legs unintentionally spread and attempting to stand; I smiled wryly, then told her “Well, I’ve got a decent amount of mana left... lay on your stomach for me, this shouldn’t take long.” and she immediately complied: though she might have gotten the wrong idea.
I sighed as I pressed my left index finger against the center of her back, forcing her raised lower-body against my palm. Then I whispered “This might sting a little, but try to bear with it.” in a gentle tone, as I began convincing her muscles, bones, and skin to regenerate at a rapid pace.
There were two small nubs protruding from each of her shoulder-blades, but they quickly began transforming into relatively large, pink, limbs. After about thirty minutes, there were four twitching, black-feathered, wings: each of which were at least a foot long.
Freeman actually stayed around to watch the entire procedure, and left when it was finally over. I did make a few modifications to her genetic code, though they were going to take while to kick in.
Once I was satisfied with my work, I removed my finger from her back; then I quietly told her “Okay, don’t try to fly with them for at least a few weeks… you can still stretch them though. Make sure to eat lots of meaty foods; it should make you stronger, faster.” as she slowly stood up, on the palm of my right hand.
While I had no intention of personally leading armies into battle, it was something that needed to be done. Luckily, there were plenty of people who actually wanted a career like that, and I had a pretty good intuition for finding them.
Just like Beatrix, I could tell from the moment I met her, that Angelica desired a lot more than what she could achieve on her own. Her past didn’t particularly matter though, only her true nature was important to me: she was a commander.
Unlike the sociopathic rat-girl, she wasn’t quite as blood-thirsty from what I could tell; so I gazed into her eyes and asked “Would you like a job?” which seemed to confuse the bird-woman. I snickered and then said “Well, maybe I should be a little more specific. Would you like to become a general in my army? I technically only have one of them so far, and she’s currently unavailable.” while smirking.
After a few seconds of what I assume was pondering, she replied “I’m grateful for your assistance in defending our village against the pure-bloods, and for you healing me… but your offer seems extremely suspicious. Why would a being as powerful as yourself even require an army? Not to mention the fact that you seem to be alone, where are the soldiers that you expect me to command?” which lead to me laughing again.
I nonchalantly explained “I’m not omnipotent or omniscient, there is only so much that I can accomplish by myself, or even with a handful of overpowered comrades. For my long-term goals, a hundred armies would probably be insufficient… but I have plenty of time for all that nonsense later. At the moment, I need to deal with those three kingdoms; I suspect that each of them is being supported by a creature that will be relatively difficult to deal with.” while the hungry and bored tigress left to go fishing: Our metabolisms were incredibly fast, so our bodies required a fairly large amount of food per day.
When I stopped talking for a few seconds, to turn around and watch her splash about in the shallow water; a white dove soared past my face from the left, then came back around a bit slower and gently landed in my exoskeletal forearm. Hanael excitedly shouted “Angelica! What happened?! You have wings coming out of your back!” in a tone which was so high-pitched, that my elven ears tingled a bit.
The tiny muscle-girl beamed a surprisingly childish smile at the noisy bird, then happily replied “Michael… his powers are truly impressive. I’ve told you many times that we were both of the Seraphim; my wings had been taken from me years ago, yet he was able to restore them in mere moments.” while pointing toward my face.
She had spoken a word that was incredibly familiar to me, though I had suspected as much when I first heard their names. It was an type-A reality after all; many of the languages, animals, plants, celestial bodies, and laws of physics, were very similar to many other universes that I have lived in.
It wasn’t a coincidence, it never is; there are usually beings like myself, Terra, Uriel, Azriel, and many others, who greatly influence worlds. Souls don’t even have to be fully awakened, they might only remember a few words, mathematical equations, or some important survival skill; that’s all it takes for a person to unintentionally re-create a culture, which they had experienced in another lifetime.
Especially in a reality where there was mana, the planet itself was conscious and practically omnipotent; hell, if I really cared that much, I could have just asked her what happened. However, I wasn’t an archaeologist or a historian, so the past didn’t concern me; my priorities revolved around: removing slavery and rape from the world, eating delicious food, and generally just enjoying life.
Well, there was plenty of other nonsense that needed to be done; but creating my ideal paradise had become a lot more complicated, once I discovered that were a bunch of reincarnated assholes, running around and fucking everything up. There’s nothing more annoying than having arch-enemies, that refuse to stay dead.
Hana quickly ran up to Angelica and started carefully examining the four, raven-like, wings; it was strange to see the muscle-woman giggling in response. I ignored them for a while and just watched as Amber jumped up out of the water; she was holding a two-meter long, squirming, silver, eel above her head.
She roared to me “I found a water-snake!” as she quickly cleared the distance between us, and abruptly stopped: creating a rather large splash, that knocked the two little girls off my right palm. Luckily, I managed to catch them with my left hand, before they were able to fall onto my lap.
I put down the two tiny seraphs on the hardened, wet, sand to my right; then the happy tigress gave me the long and relatively thick worm-like eel, so that I could turn it into sashimi for her. My lack of spices was starting to irritate me; if I had some vinegar, tomato paste, mustard, black pepper, and sugar, I could have created a bit of barbecue sauce.
Although, I didn’t even know if my taste-buds would be able to properly enjoy such complex flavors, at the time. My entire life until then, had been almost completely devoid of seasonings; and before I met her, Amber didn’t understand the concept of cooking or preparing food.
That’s when I decided to do something rather… unorthodox; I turned to Angelica and asked “Can you gather up a bunch of the pixies for me?” She seemed concerned about my intentions, but she was in a good mood, so she brought over about thirty tiny, flying, blue, girls.
They were surprisingly willing to grant my strange request; after a few minutes I had a few ounces of pink jelly, which was similar to honey. It tasted even better once I extracted the harmful toxins, which was also what made the liquid and their skin glow: using earth manipulation.
The final product was a clear syrup; then I mixed it together with a large quantity of my own filtered blood, into the empty mithril pot. Everyone seemed to be pretty confused and concerned about what I was doing, aside from Amber: who was just patiently awaiting her meal.
After that, I just needed to skin, clean, and debone the eel, chop it into many pieces, then put them into the sweet, mana-rich, sauce. The hungry tigress was happy to do the honors of heating the concoction, though I had to remind her to cook it slowly; she was basically just creating light-purple, flames, with the palms of her hands on the bottom of the pot.
Rather than her body producing copious amounts of potassium chloride; the fire that she created was dyed in color of her aura. It was the same mechanism that altered her crystalline fur’s pigment, and the shade of her irises. My blood would turn from red, to black or white depending on my mood, for the same reason.
Stolen story; please report.
While Amber was struggling to slow-boil the surprisingly large amount of food, I decided to finish my conversation with Angelica. Although, it was a little difficult, with all the pixies buzzing around my ears and face; some of them were playing in my hair, while others were lounging on my shoulders, horns, head, and tail.
I actually had to remove a few of the curious ones from my lap; my understanding of their anatomy was still pretty limited at the time, but their genitals appeared to function in the same way as most mammals… so I suspected that their intentions weren’t completely innocent. However, since my reproductive organs were larger than their bodies, it was more like they were cautiously examining a strange animal; though it was much more annoying than erotic, so I quickly relocated them.
As I glanced down at the two seraphs, I said “Anyway, as I was trying to tell you before; I need your help. Actually, it would be even better if I could have both of you assist me.” They were both standing on the hardened sand to my right, only a foot away from my knee.
Hanael glared at me and asked “Are you trying to exploit us? Do you think that we would just do whatever you want, just because you helped us a little?” with her arms across her chest. Their level of suspicion was remarkably high, though completely pointless.
I sighed loudly, then casually replied “Well, to be completely honest… I wouldn’t even be asking, if I didn’t already know that you would agree. I sincerely don’t care enough to use some petty tricks to get either of you to work for me. Besides, I don’t want servants or mindlessly obedient puppets that have to depend on me for everything; I need people who can think for themselves.” while gazing into their tiny eyes.
Angelica stretched her arms and yawned quietly; then she told me “Fine, I’ll be your general… but leave Hana out of this.” with a determined expression on her face.
The dove-girl pouted angrily toward the four-winged raven, and loudly yelled “If Angelica is doing it, then so am I!” in a squeaky voice. Then an aggravating argument ensued for a few minutes, before they had come to a resolution and decided to hear more details about their jobs.
I was able to walk a half-mile down the beach, urinate, and come back while they were bickering. Any waste that my body or Amber’s produced, was extremely dangerous; so when either of us had to relieve ourselves, we needed to do it pretty far away.
When I sat down again, I could see that the food was sufficiently cooked: The pixie-sauce, had caramelized onto the chunks of eel meat. After taking out a piece and tasting it first, I smiled at the drooling tigress and she turned off her purple, palm-burners.
She quickly, but carefully, removed her hands from below the pot; then picked up a tiny chunk of the browned, candy-like, aromatic, silverish fish. Amber took her time, sniffing it, and began licking the sugary coating, before finally placing it onto her pink, barbed, tongue and closing her mouth; she shut her eyes and purred in satisfaction as she swallowed it.
I couldn’t help but snicker at her reaction to the fairly simple meal; the tiny, but incredibly potent, mana-crystals in my blood, were the key ingredient to satisfying her refined taste-buds. It was salty, sweet, a little tangy, and pretty savory; definitely worth sacrificing a bit of my bodily fluids to enjoy.
Using the incredibly sharp and fine tips of my right hand’s fingers, I managed to shred a fairly small chunk of eel into thirty-two incredibly tiny pieces. Then I laid them out on a few relatively large shells, that were just laying around on the beach; since they were within a few meters, it was easy to pull them toward me with a bit of earth manipulation.
Once I placed the food in front of them, the pixies didn’t even hesitate for a moment, before they all swarmed to quickly devour it. The portions that I had prepared for the significantly larger seraphs, were both several times bigger… and imbued with a bit of blood magic.
Angelica sighed, and didn’t even try to stop the hungry brats from eating the tiny slivers of meat and sugar. I smiled at her, then nonchalantly explained “For now, your troops consist of thirty adorable blue warriors. Well, assuming that they agree to work for you; though they did seem pretty enthusiastic while trying to kill those wood-elves, the other day. Anyway, you understand that this world is a lot larger than this tiny little island, right?“ as I pushed the two meals in front of them.
They cautiously accepted the meals, and began tasting it; but there was no way that they could resist the mana-rich feast. The raven-winged seraphim just nodded her head and began chomping away at the block of glazed meat: which was literally the size of her head.
I continued “So basically, we’re in the center of a place called Lorthon Forest, on top of an unreasonably massive super-tree. My allies, friends, family… pretty much every person that I know, aside from Puriel, is down there; which means that, I can’t rely on any of them to accomplish either of the tasks that need to be performed by someone other than myself. Unfortunately, my beautiful tigress isn’t the best candidate for becoming a general, or even just being a soldier; she’s more like a furry weapon of mass destruction.” the two of them were barely even paying attention to what I was saying: They were actually quietly talking to each-other about how delicious the food was.
Amber had eaten nearly the entire eel by herself, so I decided to take a few pieces before there was nothing left. After a few minutes, everyone had finished their meals; the pixies were stuffed, and since the sun was up, they had all went back to their homes.
The satisfied tigress was wrapping her body around my alligator-like tail. I could still feel her arms and legs through the thick scales; she was putting an immense amount of pressure on my dense muscles, and easily cutting off circulation.
However, I had gotten used to her idea of ‘playing’ so it wasn’t really that uncomfortable; I was barely even distracted as I picked up my recruitment pitch, where I had abruptly left off. I was still sitting cross-legged on the golden sands, as I asked them “First of all, do the two of you agree that slavery and rape should be completely removed from this world?” to which they both nodded in agreement.
Then black runic tattoos, began emerging all over their glowing white skin. On the back of their left and on their right palms, were the numbers seven-hundred and seventy-seven, with ouroboros symbol’s around them.
They looked at each-other in confusion for a few seconds, before they began complaining to me. Angelica furiously yelled “What did you do to us?! I knew it! This is some sort of slave contract! You sneaky bastard!” while scratching at the elaborate glyphs on her arms.
Hanael started crying, and screamed “I don’t wanna be a slave!” hysterically; but then their complaining was abruptly stopped when they heard an angry roar, coming from behind me. The reason why they became quiet, was that they could actually understand what Amber was saying.
I snickered, while staring at their dumbfounded expressions; then I explained “Basically, I just gave the two of you the ability to communicate telepathically. Anyone within a certain range who has one of these nifty tattoos, will be able to transmit their thoughts into your minds… as long as it’s not something too complicated.” while showing them the back of my left hand.
Angelica made a serious expression, and tested her ability by asking me “This would be incredibly useful, but nothing is ever free. What is the price for this ability?” without physically speaking.
Then I began hearing a beautiful melody emanating from Hanael’s mind, she wasn’t trying to say anything; her thoughts were just naturally filled with what sounded like a full orchestra, playing a surprisingly complicated piece. It was interesting, but incredibly distracting; so I had to mentally mute her.
Once the relative silence had returned, I replied “It costs very little mana to use passively, though if you pumped enough power into it, you could do a lot of interesting things. Anyway, you did verbally agree to the contract though: Thou shalt not rape, and thou shalt not enslave. Basically, if you try to do either of those things… you’ll be stopped.” while smirking at the inquisitive little raven.
Then I carefully used my left hand’s index finger and thumb, to gently grab her right wrist and turn her palm upwards: The exact same tattoo was imprinted there, though it had a different purpose.
Once she noticed it, I released my nonexistent grip and happily explained “If you place this mark against someone’s skin, and they agree to follow the two laws… well, that’s how you can recruit people into your army. Size and race are unimportant; any body that is capable of connecting to a soul, is what I would consider a person. Try not to discriminate against others based on their physical appearance, but rapists and slavers should be executed without mercy or hesitation.” as I gazed into emerald-colored eyes.
Hanael nervously asked me “Hey, umm, Giant of Internal Agony… You said that you needed my help with something too, right?” in a voice that was incredibly soft and quiet, which I could barely hear over Amber’s constant growling. There were loud thumping noises every time I tried to lift her incredibly heavy body, with my tail and lower-back muscles; accompanied by high-pitched screeching sounds of metallic-feline teeth, grinding against my obsidian scales.
I sighed, then replied “Just call me Michael. Puriel and I, will be traveling a lot in the near future; going around to the different kingdoms and well, generally wrecking shit. While we’re rampaging, I need the two of you to start expanding and defending Alfirin’s territory. That’s the name of our country by the way, also of this continent… which is kinda confusing sometimes, but whatever. Blame Lorelei, she’s the one who picked the name, and technically our nation’s leader.
“Angelica will deal with military issues, while you will be something like a matriarch or governor of this whole damn place. From what I know, this island is almost three-hundred thousand square miles; so starting with that pixie village, you’re going to have to get them to elect a leader themselves, or appoint one yourself. Just remember the basics: You aren’t a ruler, but more like an envoy of myself or Alfirin; with that mark on your body, you literally can’t abuse your power.”
Unfortunately, Hanael had no idea what I was talking about, so I told the surprisingly knowledgeable muscle-girl “There’s no rush, and you don’t really have to do that much right now. Just concentrate on keeping yourselves safe; if you find some desperate people, looking for salvation… offer it to them. As long as they have that seal, they won’t be able to rape or enslave anyone; it should also prevent them from trying to kill anyone else who has it.” while standing up.
Amber was still latched onto my five-foot long tail, but my leg muscles were strong enough to drag her ridiculously heavy body across the beach, and into the shallow lake. As I was trudging along, I telepathically whispered “If either of you need my help, or just want my advice, don’t be afraid to call me.” to the two seraphs.
The entire time that we were wandering around the fourth ring, we only had brief moments of peace; which meant that we hadn’t been able to ‘play’ with each-other very often, in nearly a year. We both used to have to restrain ourselves, because she always had a huge advantage in physique… while I could have easily killed her with a bit of magic.
However, our bodies had changed dramatically, and we managed to somewhat even-out. Her musculature and bone structures, were still a bit stronger and more durable than mine: though it wasn’t an overwhelming difference.
It was also nearly impossible for one of us to kill the other using magical means, especially in a place that had so little mana-density. That didn’t mean we couldn’t hurt each-other, and we definitely tried pretty damn hard.
Once we were a sufficient distance from the shore, I growled “No matter how much you bite my tail, it isn’t going to do any damage.” and snickered for a few seconds, before the back of her light-orange knee came into my view.
When Amber became taller, her body became a bit more lean and her flexibility increased significantly. Her arms were still latched onto the base of my tail, with her head underwater, while she wrapped both of her calves around my neck.
I could feel her incredibly tight, fur-covered, abdomen pressing against the middle of my scaly spine, as she began attempting to asphyxiate me. Even if she had been able to cut off blood-flow to my brain, I could have supplied it directly: using a bit of creation magic, to literally fabricate oxygen within the cells that required it.
Fortunately, the muscles that protected my veins and arteries, were much too dense for her to successfully choke me. There were plenty of ways that I could have gotten out of that situation, and she would have had to move her head above water eventually. However, it was much more entertaining to see her reaction, as I lifted my arms up and gently ran my fingers across the soles of her defenseless feet.
Even though they were practically indestructible, they were still incredibly sensitive on the arches. There was a loud bubbling noise, and I could feel her struggling to escape from my vicious assault.
She eventually let go of my tail, and kicked her legs open; her body made a significant splash, as she crashed into the surface of the water. I managed to swiftly turn around, before she began her counter-attack.
I had a fairly significant weakness, which was slightly submerged into the shallow lake; the angry tigress didn’t even hesitate, and hastily devoured my surprisingly humanoid male genitalia. It would have been a lot more erotic, if I could have felt my detached appendage; though, even the searing pain was a little kinky in its own way.
Amber gazed up at me innocently, as she swallowed the relatively large chunk of meat; smiling for a few seconds, before she started coughing up a hairball: Her body was still completely underwater. I wasn’t willing to lose a penis and two testicles, without taking something of her’s in return.
There were tears in her adorable violet eyes, as I quickly grabbed the whiskers on both sides of her face at the same time; it took an enormous amount of strength, but I managed to tear them out of her sensitive snout. She released a deafening roar, as her fur changed to purple almost instantaneously; all of the water around us began to heat at an alarming rate, and her ridiculously hot metallic claws dug into my ankles.
The fiery tigress erupted from the lake, and lifted my entire body above her head; then threw me across the surface. It didn’t really accomplish anything, or hurt me in the slightest; though she wasn’t exactly thinking of tactical maneuvers.
A torrent of violet hellfire erupted from her right fist, as she punched toward me; there was enough heat, to evaporate the water on my body… but I didn’t receive any burns. Defending against such half-assed magical attacks, was incredibly simple; once the flame had entered my aura, I could easily manipulate it.
By that point, the gaping wound where my genitals had been, was completely healed: growing them back, was going to take a bit more time though. My blackish-red juices had polluted the waters around me, so I gathered them all up into a small sphere; then froze the fist-sized ball, within my right hand.
I snickered, as Amber began sneezing uncontrollably; though it was more like a series shotgun-blasts, launching her super-heated nasal mucus in my direction. She was only three meters away, so there was no way for me to dodge or block the disgusting attack; the boiling, black, goop, seared my chest and left arm… it was still funny though.
She had finally recovered from my whisker assault after a few seconds, and tried to sprint toward me; she was momentarily stunned, when I pitched a frozen blood-ball into her face. However, the moment it entered her purple flames, it exploded violently: instantly turning from solid to gas, and creating a thick, black, poisonous fog.
It was disorienting enough for her to not notice, as I snuck up behind the coughing tigress; both of our bodies were incredibly resistant to kinetic damage, even our internal organs. We weren’t actually trying to kill each-other though, so I released a barrage of at least ten fairly powerful punches into her lower-ribs without holding back.
Amber was having a lot of trouble breathing, but she still swiftly turned around and smacked me in the face with the back of her left hand. There was enough force behind it, that I lost my balance momentarily; then an incredibly fast right foot, with shiny metallic toenails, nearly stabbed into my neck.
Fortunately, my spiral horns had regrown to the point, where they were capable of providing a decent defense. My brain was still rattled by the concussive force of the blow, but my spine was able to withstand the stress and I didn’t even lose my footing.
Then I spun around on my right heel, while grabbing her ankle with my left hand; pulling her body toward mine, as I used my armored middle and index finger to deliver the fatal blow. From that awkward split-like position, her protective, crystalline-fur, had parted to reveal a small opening.
At first, the tigress roared in pain and discomfort, as the sharp objects penetrated her defenses; then she purred softly in pleasure, as I slowly removed the instruments of her demise. Amber grabbed my wrist and forced me to thrust inside of her again, the whole experience would have been a lot more exciting for me... if I actually had the proper genitalia at the time.
Although, since our minds were still linked, and in such close proximity… it was still fairly enjoyable. However, tiger-tribe weren’t exactly known for their sexual stamina, and her first orgasm was more like a fiery explosion; launching me a few dozen meters away, with minor burns on my face and torso.
She had also expended all of her mana in that accidental attack, and caused pretty serious internal damage to her own body. As I was carrying the tired and temporarily crippled tigress back to the shore, I smiled at her and muttered “An eye for an eye, and a penis for a vagina… or something like that.” as she whimpered, and held her groin with both hands.
The more sensitive an organ, the more vulnerable to physical trauma it is; so genitals, eyes, ears and nostrils are usually the best targets when facing an enemy that seems particularly difficult to defeat. Her little explosion was actually large enough to cause a small mushroom cloud, and a fairly powerful shock-wave; luckily, we were too far away for the pixie village to be affected.
Her body was still quivering as I laid her down onto the golden sands. Amber gazed up at me with a confused expression on her furry face; then she asked me “Michael, what was that? It felt so strange… like your lightning attacks used to, but a little different. Was it some kind of magic?” while using her clawed fingers to try and simulate the experience.
I snickered, then gently pulled her hands away from the bleeding orifice as I told her “No matter how much of a masochist you are, wait until I heal you before you start experimenting.” Tiger-tribe and most other bestial races, didn’t menstruate like humans and elves; some of them possessed genitals more similar to their ancestors, while others were much closer to the standard for most humanoid races.
By placing my left palm on her abdomen, I used a bit of touch telepathy to appraise the internal damage. Amber’s vital organs were relatively unscathed, but her uterus had ruptured from the powerful shock-wave that she created: Super-heated steam entered through her vaginal opening, and popped her womb like a balloon. It really wasn’t that big of a deal though; even without my help, she could have regenerated it eventually.
However, with my magical assistance, her wounds were healed in a few minutes, rather than hours. Once she was recovered, I began regrowing my missing genitals: which didn’t particularly take that much mana or time.
The mana-starved tigress sat upright, and stared into my eyes; then I instinctively pet around her neck, ears, and chin while smiling. She squinted and softly purred “If another person tried to do this to me… I would have wanted to tear their arms off… why does it feel so good when you touch me?” as she laid her head on my lap.
I sighed, then quietly replied “The simple answer is love, since I doubt you were interested in the science behind it. You care about me, beyond just being a prospective breeding partner; even if we couldn’t reproduce together, you would still be trying to mate with me. Oh, and it does kinda help that we’re telepathically connected.” while she was licking my navel with her prickly tongue: it tickled slightly, but didn’t hurt like it used to.
She stopped and turned her head to look up at me; after a few seconds of relative silence, Amber started sniffing loudly and asked “Michael, do you smell that?” in a deep, raspy voice. Even if my olfactory senses were significantly weaker than her’s, I could still tell what she was referring to; far in the northwest, I could just barely hear a myriad of familiar sounds.
When she stood up and started stretching her legs, I followed suit. Although, I was mostly just cracking my stiff neck and back; it had become a lot more difficult to do, once I had grown the protective scales.
There was a small-scale battle raging on the southern border of Lum, and neither of us were invited. Well, it’s not like we had anything better to do, so we decided to crash their little party.
Next Chapter
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