Giggling. “What a funny system!” She could look at something and see not just them but what they were!

The Hex sits in front of her captive. Her toy. Her next meal. Hours have passed and she had learned a lot about the system from this native, she had thought about just consuming him and taking as many memories as she could grasp but had thought better of it.

She had learned so much more!

It was interesting, to say the least. Heroes, meridians, all sorts of curious things!

The Hex reaches out, grabs the poor creatures nose and…. twists.

A crack, followed by a spurt of blood. “It lets me know whenever you lie.” She twists more, “it gives me… Power.”

The creature whimpers, the Hex giggles, then abruptly stops.

“My…. Daughter… has died?” She glares at the words that scroll across her vision.

“HOW!?” Her hand still on the man's nose tremors, and his nose is ripped off.

She starts manipulating the air in front of her, but the man knows that it is the system that she is manipulating.

“A Troll?!” The Hex gasps and the nose in her hand is crushed.

“How?” Once again the Hex manipulates the air in front of her, “This gives me nothing!” The Hex spat the words out, heavy with disgust and annoyance.

She turns back to the man that she has chained.

“I’ll be back.”

He shivers, and not from the cold. When the Hex leaves though, he smiles.

“How interesting.”

His eyes dart across the notifications that appear in front of him.

“Perhaps this will be my chance?” He concentrates, and sends out the {Soulcall}, bringing the Troll toward him.

The man's eyes open, and the runes on the chains flash. “Your binds will only keep me here so much longer. Be they Hero touched or not.”

The Hex walks through her menagerie and kitchen. Filled with snacks and souls. All kept in the dark. Her pets don’t like darkness, it creates fear, apprehension, anger, and strong emotions. It makes their souls more filling.

And so she keeps them in the dark. She keeps them all in chains and behind bars as well. She had learned long ago that those also created strong emotion.

She reaches the steps leading out of her play area and reverts into true form, then, she starts to glide. Not that she needs to, she just finds it relaxing. It reminds her of home.

The home that she was forcefully transported from.

The Hex remains in true form for a while, gliding. Remembering. Remembering what she had lost. How far she had fallen from what she once was. She was the high priestess, the goddess’s chosen, now though?

She was a Hexleader. Nothing more.

She grimaced, she had gained so much more! She had gained a system! Something that would catapult her to power. Something that would let her attain the standing that she once enjoyed.

The Hex reaches the shrine and kneels. It rests in the middle of the tent, a horrible substitute for what was meant to be there but it was all she had. Hopefully, it would be enough.

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She kneels.

“Mother of All. Hear my Plea. Hero of the Hex hear my Plea. Grant me Power. Grant me Souls. Grant Me Power O Hero of The Hex.”

…

The Hero of the Hex sits in her meditation room. Her mind focused on the soul in front of her. Her power fills the room, amplifying the soul, making it powerful.

This was, of course, by design. It would be her next soul creature. It would be both her eyes and her ears. It would be what she used to enact punishment and what she would give as a reward. a reward only to the greatest of course.

It would also be what she would use to find the other heroes that currently resided in this world. It would be what she used to kill them as well.

She had not won a place for her {Race} through the strength of her own arm but rather through the borrowed strength of the tortured soul.

The Hero breaths in, and begins to float. Moving into the middle of the room. Into the centre of the {Absolute Soul Forger Formation III}, it was now that she would be able to create the most powerful of her many creatures. The ones that would be at the forefront of her armies, she would be creating the

A monster able to traverse the twelve plains and hunt down those that travelled between them. They were not huge, gargantuan, death machines. Rather, they were human-sized, with skin so tough that it could withstand the blow of even an {Epic} weapon.

That was not their most powerful trait, however.

The most powerful trait was their [Anti Magic Aura] it nullified magic. It would be able to kill almost everything.

Almost. The only thing it couldn’t kill would-be heroes. It would be able to weaken them though. It would give her an opening to attack their soul and consume it.

Her creation was almost done when she hears the summons of a daughter. Her concentration breaks and she tries to salvage the project but it comes out as a remnant of what it was supposed to be.

Big where it ought to be small, it took after the soul of the creature that she had killed to be able to forge the thing.

It had eyes! Eyes! 

The Hero shakes her head. “Daughter, why have you disturbed me?”

“Goddess, Chosen Hero, She Who Si-“

“Enough. I will ask one more time. Why have you disturbed me?” The Hex already knew why of course, but was wondering just how much her daughter was going to hide from her.

She needed to know if she was loyal and a daughter that would seek to hide from a goddess did not deserve to become her apostle.

“My Heir, my True Daughter has died and I seek to kill the one responsible.”

The Hero laughs, a convenient excuse to gain something of power. Her amusement becomes heightened when she looks further and sees that it was a Troll that had killed her daughters chosen one.

The amusement quickly turned to disdain. An heir that couldn’t even kill a basic Troll didn’t deserve to be called as an heir. She expects her daughters to choose better.

“Do you realise that you have already called upon my power once?” She told none of her daughters this but each daughter would only be able to call upon her thrice.

Then she would remove the ability to call upon her. The smart daughters would only use it when times were desperate.

This daughter was smart, but reckless, wanting desperately to attain higher standing and the gifts that she thinks would be granted once she attained that status.

“I am aware Mother.”

The Hero sighs, then looks at her failed project. It wouldn’t do for a Troll that could kill a Hex to be running about. She had also promised secretly that she wouldn't refuse the first three offers.

“Your wish has been granted. I give unto you, the [Soulforged Hunter]. It would be fitting, after all, it was a weak creature that had no use, she would see what her daughter would do with it.

She looks at it and mutters. It disappears in a flash of light and reappears in a dungeon.

Next to a man without a nose.

“How interesting.”

…

“Interesting.” A castle upon a hill. In it are three thrones. On those thrones are three Heroes. Weak by themselves but as a group they are deadly.

“Brothers, it seems that we have another Hero within our vicinity.” One of them says, he has a book in his hands and is flipping pages.

“So it seems.” Replies another, looking into the distance, speaking with what they assume is a paladin, next to him lies a shield.

“It seems you were right sending the ring with that man. I thought that we had wasted it.” Another speaks, this one is twirling an axe around.

“We must make preparations and find who, exactly, this hero is.” The brother with the book speaks.

The Brothers look eastward. “We must send another paladin. One is not enough, especially the one that we have there. He is much too passive to be able to do the things that we require.”

“Perhaps.” The Brothers fall silent and once more look and begin to meditate upon their thrones. Each one focusing on a different path. The path of the shield. The path of true magic. The path of the weapon.

“Perhaps we must send two more.” The Hero with the book suggests.

“Perhaps.”

The noseless man laughs as the Hex comes back in. “I saw your little toy.” He concentrates, and the chains flare up once more.

The Hex spits, “Silent, dog.” She opens up her cupboard. She would feast on this one today.

“Hopefully you have a leash for that thing.” The noseless man says.

The Hex grins and puts a finger on his forehead.

…

Two flashes of light, two Hex dead. “It seems we have arrived.”

They look around.

“Interesting.”