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Leo

It was early morning the next day when Leo woke up again, and his body was aching as a result of Allis's ‘Special’ venom. Its effects on the local inhabitants helped them last a little longer in bed, but unfortunately for him it worked way too well on a human, causing him to lose complete control of himself.

The effect was like a super snake viagra aphrodisiac that had a child with the world's most dangerous energy drink for his balls. It also made him unable to remember the entire affair, which really pissed him off because a third challenger, a waitress, entered the ring to help bring him down.

Suffice to say he made Allis swear to never use the stuff on him ever again because of the state it left him in. He couldn't even magic away the pain of exhaustion, so he was stuck in bed for the day as Elaria went out to tell Glia the unfortunate news while Allis stayed behind to help him study.

‘Damn, and I really was looking forward to what she was going to do with her tail…’ It was a disappointing thought, but he resigned himself to reading the book on this world's general history.

“An eruption of energy elevated the gods to power… A war culled their number… A pantheon was founded… The mortal world was shaped by the pantheon… bla bla bla… Created the elements… Structured mana… Skip!” He muttered with complete disinterest before flipping to after the creation of the world and more historical documents.

“Does the creation of existence and the elevation of the gods really bore you?” Allis asked critically from her seat next to the bed.

“Religion is a touchy subject on my world, and the story of how the world was created has been told countless times. I've read lots of iterations on it, many myths, fables, and religious texts. The topic bores me, and is irrelevant to the here and now. Besides, they either don't exist on my world, or have taken a hands off approach for the last millennium or so.” He explained a little tiredly, since the topic in relation to his world was an even larger can of worms than trying to explain anything related to science.

“What? No gods?” She questioned with no small amount of shock, her hood perking up to further emphasize her surprise.

All he could do was shrug and continue to flip through the book. “No magic, and no gods. We work very hard to prove the existence of things that exist, but if all we have are hundreds of religions telling a different story and no god to come out and say which one is correct, then we simply can't verify any of it.” He clarified for the bewildered selarin.

She cocked her head at him as if she realized something. “But Leo, the gods are real here. In fact they most often assist in rituals that relate to them, speaking directly to all involved.” She informed him with an assurity that caused him to put down his book to stare at her skeptically.

“Wait, so if I go pray at a sanctified temple, would they actually speak with me?” He was curious now, because he had many questions that he definitely wanted answers to.

The academy mage crossed her arms and wore an expression of doubt. “Only if one wants to, they are picky about who they show themselves to if it doesn't immediately involve them. So you might get lucky with one of the pantheon, more often than not a minor God will respond, but none of them would dare waste their time with peasants.” She frowned at her own biting tone near the end.

“What's the difference, and do the pantheon rarely interact with mortals?” Leo inquired further.

“Those of the pantheon are the founding gods, they have existed before creation. Minor gods are mortals elevated to Godhood by the pantheon to help with interaction on the physical plane. There are twelve on the pantheon, and about a hundred minor gods. They only get involved in major events, probably like the upcoming war. And minor gods directly work under the pantheon, many residing in capital cities or secluded temples.” Allis explained while sliding into a high attitude, but frowned again upon immediately catching the slip up.

‘Okay, maybe there's more to this than I thought, so visiting the nearest temple just got bumped up in priority.’

“Where's the nearest sanctified temple?” He asked.

“The only one in selaria that I know of is the capital's temple, the rest are either not sanctified or in the middle of nowhere.” She answered after some visible concentration.

‘Definitely need to make my money and establish myself first then.’

He returned to reading the book once again, while Allis none too subtly, and quite literally, snaked her way up next to him on the bed and rested her head on his shoulder. He still had some mixed feelings about her, especially from his monogamous human side, but he shrugged it off to focus on his book. It's not like he was going to complain about her affections after fucking her, nor were they entirely unwelcomed.

[ The first era, referred to as the founding era is speculated to have been the period of early creation, in which the ordering of the world took place……… ]

‘Practically a million years ago, and nothing of note…’

[ The second era was marked by the minor God conflict, in which two of the pantheon fell……… ]

‘Well, minor gods rebelled against the pantheon…’

[ The third era was marked by the rise of the lich king, ending with his death, but not before three races were driven to extinction……… ]

‘Undead, that sounds fun…’

[ The fourth era was marked by the first summon and started the Arachne conquests……… ]

‘The first summon, huh? And he helped these ‘Arachne’… I wonder if they are straight up spiders, or if they're humanoid… No, no, I'm not going to think about fucking a spider… Stop it brain!’

[ The fifth era was marked by the creation of runic enchanting, and the fracturing of the Arachne empire……… ]

‘The new medium allowed mages to undermine the empire… How though? I mean, I can think of a few ways, bombs, magic guns, traps, and other magical fuckery. Maybe all of those ideas were lost, it was what, hundreds of thousands of years ago?’

[ The sixth era was marked by the hell rift, and the demonic crusades……… ]

‘Huh...’

[ The seventh era was marked by the second summon, followed by the closing of the hell rift and rise of tiefling domination……… ]

‘Tieflings? Like as in D&D? … Okay you can go ahead all you like brain.’

[ The eighth era was marked by the end of the tiefling empire and the start of the war in heaven, in which the pantheon fractured and half of them were sent into exile……… ]

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

‘Oh damn, an actual war of the gods…’

[ The ninth era was marked by the end of the war in heaven, and started the age of progress……… ]

‘Age of progress? Maybe a renaissance of sorts?’

[ The tenth era was marked by the wrath of terra……… ]

‘Oh fuck, the forces of nature basically pressed reset on civilization…’

[ The eleventh era was marked by a summon, which started the era of subjugation by the light born……… ]

‘Christ, they purged four of the races they enslaved…’

[ The twelfth era was marked by the unification of the dragon race, and extermination of the light born……… ]

‘Genocide doesn't solve genocide. I'd put money on that there were at least some of them who didn't agree with what their people were doing…’

He closed the book and let out a sigh, realizing he had only been reading for a few hours. “That didn't take nearly as long as I thought to get through.”

Allis stirred from her nap and raised her head. “Done already?” She yawned, her hood stretching up with the motion.

Another book down and a little more informed, he leaned back into his pillow with a sigh. “Yeah, I skipped over a lot of filler, the main points paint a pretty broad picture. In terms of what should actually be relevant to me, I need to focus on the book on Selaria, since hundreds of thousands of years of ancient history isn't priority knowledge. All I really need are the key points and events.”

She adjusted herself to cuddle closer to him. “I thought that humans were knowledge seekers, is none of it really that important?”

He rolled his eyes, because the book had very little knowledge that would hold his attention for long. “Eh, I've basically consumed so much medi- history, that I scan over everything that seemed like a more or less predictable outcome. Anything that I don't register as particularly new or important just bores me if I'm being honest. But the sixth and ninth era's do interest me.”

“Oh? I get why the ninth would be interesting, because many advanced secrets were lost after the wrath of terra. But why the sixth?” She pressed with a genuine interest.

“It's not so much the invasion or the demons that caught my attention, but the portal they used to get here is definitely something that I want to investigate.” He answered while closing the book and tossing it on the pile, then pulled out the one on Selaria to read next.

Allis was silent for a moment before she became a little crestfallen. “Right, you want to find a way back home don't you…”

The formerly average human grinned before breaking out into laughter. “Fuck No! While the option to go back would be nice to have, I'm mostly interested in other worlds.” He finished while hooking an arm around the cool-scaled selarin to comfort her, quickly growing fond of her sheepish side.

She blushed a little at being pulled in, but seemed genuinely confused. “But... How you describe your home, it sounds like everyone lives in the lap of luxury, not to mention all of the wondrous creations.”

The sigh he let out was unavoidable when he recalled his luxurious lifestyle. “That may be true, but let me explain why that kind of life, the one I lived anyway, is very stagnant. I wake up, go to my work space, sit there for twelve to fifteen hours and go back to sleep. All of my food and shopping is delivered to where I live, and where I live is about two to three times larger than the room we are in right now. No magic, no world wide conflicts to worry about, very little social interactions, and my job is to create exciting experiences for other people. Does that sound like a very desirable life?” He explained a little pitifully.

“That sounds...” She trailed off with her shoulders and hood slumping a little.

He winced, knowing exactly the word she wanted to say. “Sad? … Yeah, safe to say If I ever do get the chance to go back it'll just be to bring back some stuff from over there, and to take care of some things that I left behind.”

‘Mainly chucking my storage drives into a fire…’ He mentally noted to himself if he ever did get the chance.

Allis perked up and laid her head back on his shoulder. “Well, glad you're staying then.”

Leo was surprised to feel himself smiling, finding it nice to just talk to her, which began to more or less resolve what initial negative feelings he had for the serpentine. So he flipped open the book on Selaria to start reading while he simply enjoyed her company.

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Elaria

Elaria was lucky enough to only escape with a slight limp from the incident with Allis's venom, because Leo went the entire time at a dead sprint rather than pacing himself. She and Allis would probably still be in bed with him otherwise.

She had to go tell Glia the bad news regarding Leo, and try to reschedule for next time. Coming up on the guard's base, she thought about visiting the head guard and telling her about her potential release from service, but chose to leave it as a surprise for when he eventually pulls through with it. The acting superior that has a subordinate pay to be released from duty gets a fourth of the payment, so that should more than make up for the missing equipment.

Walking into the base she came across Glia, who was just leaving.

Glia smirked upon seeing her friend. “Hey I knew you were eager but I think we should wait till we're back in your room.” She teased.

Elaria rolled her eyes, though she couldn't deny it when it came to those activities. “Hey Glia. I have some bad news.”

Glia drooped her shoulders and tail, while a disappointed expression crossed her face. “I knew it was too good to be true… Did he fly off in the middle of the night?”

“What? Oh, no. He...” She trailed off and glanced around for any eavesdroppers, because Leo told her to keep any specifics regarding his activities away from people who didn't already know. She moved away from anyone that might overhear them, and explained the bed ridden man's situation.

Her obsidian scaled friend stared blankly at her. “Elaria.”

“Yes Glia?” She sheepishly responded.

“My next day off is a week from now…” She continued more coldly with narrowing eyes.

“Sorry.” Elaria apologized.

“I have to wait an entire week, thinking about what you've just told me.” She stated irritably while running a hand across the sleek black scales on her head.

“Sorry.” Elaria apologized.

Glia closed her eyes and shook her head. “A week that I have to either watch grass grow, or watch him practice magic just out of my reach…”

“Sorry.” Elaria apologized.

Glia let out a resigned sigh. “Well, at least he put that bitch in her place. I got into an argument with her when she refused to give me medicine for someone in the infirmary.”

Elaria understood the feeling, but after hearing Allis's story, and nearly dying from pleasure together, she couldn't help but have a more understanding opinion of her. She knew what it was like to have no control over your life, to slip into the thoughts of despair and self loathing. But that's where the similarities ended, and she didn't want to think back to those painful memories, she's left that horrible life behind.

Glia caught on to her mood change, something she always managed to do. “Elaria? You alright?” She asked with a bit of concern.

Elaria quickly shook out of her daze. “Oh! Yeah, sorry. Well she's begun to reign in her attitude since meeting him, so I think your next meeting will be better. She'll most likely even apologize for the way she acted.”

Her friend arched her brow and was visibly taken aback. “Apologize? Damn, he really did fuck the arrogance out of her... So what are you gonna do now? I have the day off so I could join you.”

She chuckled and waved a hand for her to follow. “Sure, I'm just going to pick up a few materials for Leo. He wants to start making rune enchanted items to sell, so I'll be stopping by the black smith and carpenter before heading back.”

“Wow, those things go for a lot. What's he gonna make?” Glia asked curiously.

“I don't know exactly, he said something about cooking bread…”

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