Old One-Eye actually squirmed. It was an incredible offer, ferocity and pride warring with desire and ambition.
“WHAT...MUST I DO?” he finally growled, fighting down his temper at a Human’s audacity... a Human that Thunderbird Emperor was conversing with as an equal!
“YOU WILL SURRENDER ANY CLAIM TO THE LAND THE HUMANS NOW INHABIT, SAVE THE RIGHT TO USE YOUR ANCESTRAL FORMATION IN THE FUTURE. THIS RIGHT I WILL ENFORCE.
“YOU WILL OFFER A CONTRACT TO HEALER FAE. THIS WILL ASSURE YOUR RISE TO EMPEROR UNLESS YOU ARE FOOLISH AND WEAK.
“YOU WILL MAKE DIAMONDHIDE EMPEROR WHEN YOU ASCEND, OR I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF. I DO NOT NEED A MERE MOUNTAIN-GRINDING WOLVERINE AS AN EMPEROR BENEATH ME.
“IF YOU CARE NOT FOR THESE TERMS, DEPART AND TROUBLE NOT THE HEALER. I AM SURE YOU WILL PICK A FIGHT WITH ONE OF THE BEARS AND DIE SOON ENOUGH.”
Meaning sometime in the next century or two. The Wolverine Emperor Bunyan and Babe had killed had been a Mountain-Grinding Wolverine...
The Wolverine trembled. He was at the Earth-Ripping King level. The advance to a Diamondhide Wolverine was many times harder than that of a Mountain-Grinder!
His one good eye turned on me, then back on his Emperor, weighing the words.
“I HEAR THE WORDS OF THE EMPEROR,” he growled, and the star mote of a Contract, tinged with dark brown hues, emerged from his forehead and presented itself to me.
I blinked, not having had any intention of accepting a new Contract when I came out here to stop this old fellow from making a lethal mistake. I didn’t want to kill one of Thunderbird’s stronger Rulers if I didn’t have to.
A Noble Wolverine offering a Contract to a Wolverine Hunter was all kinds of strange.
“Your Contract I will take and accept the obligations that come with it. If you make Emperor and Thunderbird is satisfied, I will release you from your Contract at your desire. Is that acceptable, Wolverine King?” I asked him calmly, my hand paused over his Contract.
He eyed me strangely, probably expecting to be forced into almost slavery by the sheer level of power advantage I held over him. “THAT IS ACCEPTABLE,” he agreed in some mild confusion at me not taking merciless advantage of him.
I nodded once, and accepted the Contract calmly.
He had a lot of fury in his heart, but a Contract was a Contract, and I wasn’t going to leverage it. His anger, bad temper, and readiness to fight slammed into me with all the rising rage of a berserker prepared to do battle...
And bounced. I just looked at him, and he quivered in front of me as he realized just how badly he was overmatched.
This, this was an unbelievable opportunity for him!
I could see the reality of the situation sinking into him as he looked back and forth between Thunderbird and myself, and then he was down all the way on the ground.
“THIS WOLVERINE THANKS THUNDERBIRD EMPEROR!” he growled loudly and sincerely. “I WILL SERVE THE HEALER FAE WELL!”
“I WILL BE WATCHING.” The words made him tremble as the Portal in the air zipped closed, and we were alone.
“Come, One-Eye. Your Contract Space is open. You are definitely not ready to ascend to Diamondhide Emperor, but witnessing the Blue Ox Ascend will be incredibly helpful for you.”
“YES, HEALER FAE!” he growled loudly, but it was only loud in the air. In the communication between us, he came across like a petulant yet eager child. He stepped forward into his Contract Space, and lo, I was alone on the edge of the far shore of Lake Huron.
Hah, sly old Bird. I’d promised Him an Emperor? He’d promptly up-bid me, as why be satisfied with some rote Wolverine Emperor when I could make Him one that probably hadn’t walked the wilds in thousands of years? Even a Diamond-Claw Wolverine, a Noble, hadn’t been seen in centuries, at the least!
They were rumored to be supremely arrogant and temperamental, and the last one had probably pissed off too strong a Bear, or one of White Death Wolf’s Imperial descendants who just had enough and got rid of him.
I just rolled my eyes and headed back to the ceremonial area we’d put in place near Alma, having arranged full use of a square mile of prime fields a full year ago.
Things were coming to a head for Michigan. I was bringing a Ruler Wolverine back there... Wow, this was definitely going to make my rep in Michigan, having one as a willing Contract Beast!
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
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I was not sure humanity had ever really HELPED a half-Emperor Beast break through to Emperor who was not under Contract to some Sage. Perhaps some Totem Beast way back when, but if that had happened, the records had been buried under our revolt from under other Beasts, then further buried by Synod and Black Curia machinations.
Whatever, that was what was going down today.
The True Emperors were watching with great interest. Babe the Blue Ox had mastered four Elements while a Contract Beast under Paul Bunyan, and his Bloodline was basically unique. Even what children he’d sired hadn’t inherited his coloration or aptitude for Elements. His long and earnest partnership with Paul Bunyan was thus credited with much of what he’d accomplished, and some of the adventures they’d had together had definitely done something for him.
Now, he was going to be challenging the world and rising to another stage, just like Humans rose to Sagedom... only the elevation of Beasts happened on the inside as much as the outside.
Over a thousand mages were helping power the formation with him, and every Archmage involved was a Blue Ox mage, with the same four Elements helping their big blue friend and Guardian out. All the lesser mages were on the same advancement paradigm, and so the Elements of Void, Plant, Earth, and Air were swarming thickly in the earth and sky, drawn from miles and miles around by a Seven Stars Elemental Formation of great size, the other Elements on the outside just setting up the resonance needed to draw the main four Elements inside.
The Wind Towers were drained dry, all the Seeds and proto-Seeds were consumed and now the power was being pulled out of the Wolverine Formation underneath Michigan, dragging out all the dense Mana we’d been pumping into it for years and delivering it to Babe as he stood there, brutally loud noises coming from inside his massive frame.
They were the sounds of his bones splintering and breaking, one by one, and the wild deluge of Mana flooding in to fix them, replace them, strengthen them... and spontaneously grow.
If he didn’t make this attempt, he likely never would. At this point, it was the willpower to endure the pain of a great transformation, comprehension of what needed to be done, having the Mana needed to do it, and having a body tough enough to endure the trauma of his evolution.
He was lacking in nothing, and there were a million people singing along to him, mostly in Markspace, but tens of thousands of spectators had opportunistically turned out once they realized something special was happening. The clouds parting, stars out in the day, and auroras dancing rainbows overhead kind of gave it away, and even the least talented of them could feel the Mana so thick in the air they were almost choking at times as it surged past them to the great Blue Ox standing in the middle of a Formation of a thousand Blue Ox mages and thousands more in support.
And I was there, Singing, the eyes of Emperors were upon him, encouraging him to take the leap they had so long ago and stand atop the world of Beasts.
With cracks like lightning splitting elder trees, his Copper-wrapped Horns, alight with Eternal Vivic Fires, shattered into pieces, yet were held in place by his Will and Void Magic. Mana seethed over them, as another pop, then more and more, deformed his skull, his jaw, and even his neck lurched and hung at an odd angle.
Held up only by his own Will, Babe poured the mana into his skeleton, and rebuilt himself bigger and stronger than ever.
Already sixty feet at the shoulder, he began to grow in size, muscles tearing, ripping, filling in as extra bulk and mass redistributed itself over his growing frame. There wasn’t an intact bone in his body right now, he was standing there against the blinding pain and gravity with Will alone... and it was enough.
After all, he’d been tempering his Will against a certain someone for years, just for this moment, and it wasn’t going to overcome him.
His magic hammered inside him as bones moved under his hide, a rather sickening sight with all the pops and crackles coming from him, and began to settle and reform as they did so.
Reform and regrow, even stronger and mightier than before.
All of his bones were resonating to the Sublime Chord that was sounding over him in four perfect Tonals, embracing the heart of the four Elements which he embraced. The sky crackled, and a soundless wind reached up with incredibly rich Mana and condensed all that wonderful Mana, a fountain of it reaching up into the sky... and then pouring down on Babe in glittering tears of fantastically pure Elemental power, all the raw energy he needed to do this.
The Blue Ox Mages weren’t going to let their big blue buddy down, that was certain!
Buoyed on the roar of their Wills and encouragement, Babe the Blue Ox rebuilt his shattered body into one even more in tune with his Elements, able to hold more and even more in harmony with them. Even as he did so, he understood that he would still be purifying his body and his Mana, there was still so much further to go... but now, he would finally be able to walk that road.
Four Colors of Mana rained down from the starry sky, poured into Babe the Blue Ox, and he grew stronger, firmer, and taller as they did so, more bones popping and cracking into place.
His great Horns reformed slowly, even the volturium Runes were included as they reached out and up in glittering crystalline perfection, sharp as blades and lances and ready to impale and throw. The nose-sword of that Imperial Swordfish didn’t have anything on the terrible power concentrated into Babe’s horns now.
That was where Old One-Eye was looking, and at Babe’s hooves, where gleaming black crystal was forming and replacing the old steely material there.
Concentrated Earth power, what he would need to advance to Diamondhide Emperor!
One of my thoughtstreams pinged Sama, who was nearby and watching the skies alertly, multiple Divs from me feeding into the display. There were a lot of Michigan Archmages who’d hurried over to watch and feel this process, like us also bringing hundreds of Summoned and Contracted Beasts along to spectate, something also being done through over a dozen Portals spaced discreetly around the area.
Man, if someone tried something here they were going to be SO dead, so fast, it wasn’t even funny.
-So, Sama, what was the final tally?- I had to /ask her. She’d been tracking Babe’s consumption and all the stuff we could have done with it in casual interest.
She grinned and threw a toothy smile my way. -Thirty-nine billion, six hundred and twenty-two million, give or take three percent.-
Yeah, well, fuck them. That was going to be the best thirty-nine billion we’d never spent, an investment into Michigan’s big blue buddy, and if people didn’t like it, tough shit on them!
One forty-billion-dollar Ox, coming right up!