The air started to take a dark tinge as dark smoke spread from my tendrils. I released enough of my power that the air was beginning to be filled with this dark smoke, a miasma, from what Rat’s memories told me. It clung to the ceiling and slowly fell to the ground where I could see black crystals start to appear. These were different than what the man gave me, those were round crystals that were cut up that reflected the light. The ones growing here though grew under the sand where the miasma was the thinest, are small and irregular shapes. They seem to suck away from the miasma limiting how thick the miasma can get on the ground but I see no issue with that. The fumes from the pools stirred the miasma thickening the miasma in areas above large pools. The area above me was the thickest and spread out from there.
Sadly, the imps have runway the area and I suspect they will all die before I can see what the miasma does to them. The flames are beyond my sight but I knew a few were still out there. The worms and shadows barely react to it even though quite a few have gotten larger from all the power I’m releasing.
Around my pool crystals, they started to stick out of the black sand. They look to be sharp as the crystals under the sand connect creating a layer of crystal in the sand around the pool. I could imagine those crystals stabbing into a fire imp allowing me to take over their body easily. The miasma will snuff out their flames as it would sap their strength. By the time a fire imp would reach me its body would belong to me as my power would fill every part and I wouldn’t even need to leave this pool.
As I imagined it, I saw a flash of light above me. The light was familiar, as a summoning circle pulled a part of a stalactite off with some of my tendrils. Pain coursed through me as I saw the stalactites shake in response. Rage started to rise in me as I focused on healing the damage done to me and the stalactites, but then I realized that I could still control the separated tendrils.
As I focused on the separated tendrils I saw people wearing hoods around the magic circle. On the floor bound and bleeding was a hairy human-like creature. It reminded me of the clothed demon but weaker and desperate. It was naked and shivering on the ground as the person standing above them wore a different hood than the rest, but I noticed the symbol the man showed me was on all of their hoods. I couldn’t tell what it was but I didn’t notice the feeling of the contract. They spoke to the broken rock shadow as my tendrils fell to the ground and I slowly moved to the hairy creature. The circle wasn’t as strong as the last one that contained me but instead of breaking it I stretched one tendril out of the circle and touched the pitiful creature. As I did the magic circle started to release magic and the hooded people started to look around. They were too weak to even notice me as I entered the creature's mind.
‘It hurts. Please Mother of All please save me. I don’t want to hurt anymore.’ The creature thought as I explored its mind. It was a Geitlan, a goat folk, named Rammstein, that was kidnapped by the cult of the burning star. They broke his will so he could be sacrificed to the summoned demon. ‘I could help you. Just offer me your soul and I will make sure that they will never hurt you again.’ I whisper into its mind as I pull myself inside of the Geitlan. He froze at my whisper looking around the room as whatever ritual the cult was doing was put on hold until they found whatever caused the magic circle flare. ‘Who are you?’ ‘Hunger and your salvation. I can feel it in your heart, anger, and the desire for revenge against these people.’ I respond as Rammstein's heart starts to pound. I tasted fear run through his blood as I explored his body. A part of me is tempted to eat his mind but his soul would taste far better, no matter how hard I try to find it I couldn’t.
‘You were summoned by them, why should I believe you?’ The goat asks as I feel fear for its soul as I reach his head. ‘They summoned that stone. I just hitched on for a ride. We both know you will die so why not live a bit longer through me?’ I whisper as I start to use my power to close his wounds and undo the damage to his body. As I do the unique hood who appears to be the leader of this group turns and starts to yell out orders as other hoods walk over to the goat. ‘You are running out of time. Do you wish to die at these bastards' hands?’ I asked as I probed his mind and snuffed out his fear, stoking his anger. Instead, I feel the goat pull himself inward cutting out the rest of the world and myself. ‘Coward, but thank you for giving over your body.’ I whisper as the tendrils run through the base of his skull and down to his spine.
As the hooded men grab Rammstein, I grab one and launch it through a wall. As I took over the eyes I saw under their hoods were humans smeared in dirt. They move their mouths as I make Rammstein charge one to the ground impaling him on his horn. The man screeches as my fingers dig into his side tearing flesh and the horn impaled just below the ribs. I felt an impact across my back as my flesh screamed with beautiful pain as the cultist circled me with drawn swords. My back was cut open bleeding showing bones as I stood with a bleeding man still on my horn. The flesh screamed but Rammstein was still stuck in his mind too weak to register what was happening to his body as I took over more of his mind. The flesh that made up his mind, his brain was so complex and so fun to poke at that multiple cultists slashed and stabbed Rammstein as I played with it. Finally, I could understand their screaming, “Die!” “Monster!” and other pointless words were thrown at me as I yanked the human off the horn tearing a whole their center, above the stomach, out to the side.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The human didn’t live long past after that and I didn’t pay it any attention as I looked around the group but then I was filled with pleasure. I looked at the dead man and saw fumes that rose off the body. Some of the fumes floated to me but the rest went up and through the ceiling. I felt the tendrils that were controlling Rammstein start to grow as I felt my power rise and start to change his body. His fingernails grew longer and through the gash along his back, the blood took a black tinge. Another cultist tried to run his blade through Rammstein and I let it run straight through. I grab their arm before they can pull away bringing my mouth close to their face. “Your soul is mine,” I say through Rammstein's teeth as they start to grow sharp in front of the man. My voice was grating and the man tried to run away from my grip. I snuff out the man's screaming as I bite the man's lower jaw and tear it off. I let the man fall back dropping his jaw as the man crawls away struggling to get help as he bleeds out.
The cultists take a few steps away none of them too afraid to be next. My tendrils reach out of Rammstein’s body and onto the floor eating the magic circle as I walk toward the stone shadow that was summoned. Before I could reach the stone I smelled fire as heat exploded behind me from the scared cultists. I turned and looked to see the leader holding a sword of fire that felt familiar to the imps that attacked my home. “I don’t know what you are but by the power of the lord of flame I will burn you away.” The man said as he charged me swinging the sword at me, waves of flames flew off the sword, and as they reached me burning me. “Hahaha, oh I will take my sweet time with you.” The laugh gurgled out of Rammstein as the flames spread across the body but I took in pleasure as the body screamed pain. My tendrils consume the flames before the man can reach me and they spread out across the floor under the man. As he raises his blade to cut down Rammstein my tendrils go up his legs and pierce his flesh tearing the muscles of his legs. The man falls forward and the blade flies out of his hand and skids across the ground toward me.
The sword still burns as my tendrils start to rap the blade but it destroys them. No matter how hard I tried to snuff out the flames they kept burning. Rammstein's skin was blackened and peeled as the flames had done their damage and every movement made his body scream in pain but it only brought joy to me. My tendrils went to the doorway of the room and shut the doors close. I looked across the room as cultists tried to pry the doors open, a church where Geitlans went to worship their goddess, the mother of their race. These humans had captured Rammstein and his family to be used as sacrifices, Rammstein was the last one. I looked at the altar that had a design of a mountain, the birthplace of the Geitlan. On top of the altar was the rock shadow, I walked over to it and it unraveled into several smaller fragments that floated in the air. “Feast” I ordered the fragments and they soared through the air at the cultists that were still in the room. The room was filled with screams, begging, and screams as I walked over to the leader. Rammstein knew this man, Vyras, a merchant who helped the community selflessly. Oh, how the memories of the cult breaking into his home and taking his family filled Rammstein with such pain but filled me with joy.
‘Rammstein, Vryas is here for you. Why don’t you show him your gratitude for all that he has done for you?’ I taunt the goat man who has lost everything, trying to drag him out of the corner he had hidden himself in. I flashed images of Vyras' happy smile as the cultist dragged his wife from their bed and broke his legs. I felt anger begin to swirl as I forced him to remember the voices of his daughter and son as they were dragged away to be never seen again. I overlaid that smile over Vryas’ horrified face now and forced Rammstein to look and recognize it. Vryas begged for his life but I warped them so Rammstein could only hear threats and taunts fueling his anger even more. I let go of control and Rammstein pounced on the man. Rammstein smashed his face over and over again screaming with tears running down his face.
The light slowly rose as sun rays started to appear on the horizon. Hours had passed but sadly the screaming had long ended before then. The rock shadow didn’t know how to prolong the pain of the other cultists so they died relatively quickly as the shadow ate them from them from the inside out. Interestingly the shadow grew more rock from all that it consumed so across the church were blood smears with rocks about the size of a human heart at the center. They were tinged red instead of plain black and they slowly rolled together joining together. The only sound was Rammstein punching into the bloodied mess that was Vryas’ face. The goat was tired and drained as I felt the connection to it become more personal, he wanted nothing more than to rest and join his family in the grasp of their mother. As his body reached its limit I felt the fumes that left the other cultist start to form but instead of letting any of it escape I pulled it into me. Something with a green tinge escaped my grasp but I was able to pull in the rest of the fumes and my tendrils started to feel bloated. It seems that these tendrils had eaten too much and I’ve reached my limit. Rammstein collapsed on the ground as he died without anyone caring for his loss.
The rocks had finished fusing into the size of 2 large fists. I was happy with all the new memories of Rammstein that I stole but only one thing irritated me. The flaming sword still burned so as I left Rammstein’s body I grabbed the sword despite being burned by it and crawled to the stone. As I reached it I felt the magic that bound it here still there and made the rock pull on it. Before the light could enter the church we went back home with the burning sword.