72 Powers On Display (2/2)
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”What do dark-elves value?” I asked Lilith, even as I unleashed my ”Suffocation” power upon the heads of the Ardor family. I knew they were the heads of their family because of my ”Authority detection” power which I had used on all twelve of my targets shortly before targeting them.
It turned out that just using ”Authority detection” on them was enough to target them. But I had fun using my ability to remotely suffocate someone on the family's senior leadership.
The half-demon half-dark-elf looked at me and considered my question. She was quiet for a second, before she gave me her answer.
”We value power, pleasure, and pride.” She told me. There was an unspoken question in her words and in the gaze she met mine with. I chuckled and readied myself to answer it.
”As a god I can do... many things. And very importantly, I can do those things even when I'm here. With you. Right now I am unleashing my powers on some of the nobility of the city of Aronms. I am going to give you a task to do. You and Drow are to spend the rest of the day today going to the city's nobility and explaining that I am a god and that I am intent on ruling over Aronms.” I told the two. They looked at me quizzically.
”Some of the city's nobility will be afflicted with terrible maladies. Others will gain new powers. The ones that gain new powers will be told to obey you. And the ones that suffer from maladies, like the Ardor family, will be told to pray with you. If a family doesn't obey I will strip them of everything.” I informed the dark elven servants I had acquired.
”I am bestowing the family of Qu'Ren the evoker with powers. She is someone I have healed in the past and she prayed to me. The Ardor family, being the family with the largest estate of slaves, is an enemy of mine. They are being sickened as we speak.” I told my newest followers. Their eyes went wide at that remark of mine and they didn't stay quiet.
”The Ardor family are your enemies? Why?” Lilith asked, taken aback by my remark. I looked at her and for a moment there was a flash of anger in my eyes.
”They are my enemies because they are a family of slavers. I loathe slavery and I will crush the institutions and families that uphold it. They are to be but the first symbol of that.” I explained, revealing how I felt about slavery to the dark elves. And then Drow spoke up.
”Althos... If we don't have slaves how will we get labor done? Most drow can't handle the exhausting physical labor needed to maintain a city.” Drow told me, speaking defensively. His words incensed me, causing me to feel a burst of heated rage. I turned my anger-filled gaze to him and then took a second to calm myself before speaking. I then attempted to make an argument based on both pride and what came next.
”Slaves are unnecessary and unbecoming of a civilization as grand as of that of the dark-elves. Slaves are rebellious and inefficient. I will replace the institution of slavery with a new institution: the institution of necromancy. I will replace living bodies with tireless undead laborers. Ones whose loyalties are never in question. Ones who don't cost resources to maintain.” I announced to the creatures I had brought over to my service.
And then I began to devise a scheme to transition from labor done by slaves to labor done by untiring undead entities. It came to me quite naturally.
”Not only do I intend to give every noble family a number of undead laborers equal to the number of slaves they own, I also intend to open up an institution wherein dark elves can be taught necromancy. I have not come here to destroy the capabilities of this city, I have come here to convert this place into a center of my worship and to make it a better city.” I told my two minions, speaking gently about the city.
”I will abolish slavery. That much is not in question. And I will do so without destroying the noble families of this city. Unless they resist me. If they resist me then it is their bodies I shall give to my most favored families.” I whispered, speaking direly of any families who may one day decide not to obey me.
At that moment I aimed a disease that inflicted those infected with it with bleeding sores and decaying skin upon the four dark elves who ran the Ardor family. My dark elven servants fell quiet as I casually aimed potent diseases at creatures who had unknowingly infuriated me. And in the wake of that silence, I continued to explore my mini-map and target the heads of the family, inflicting them with various maladies. All twelve of them but one.
”It is your job, for now, to be my messengers. The city of Aronms is changing. And I am the cause of that change. The city is already mine. You are just here to help the city's inhabitants discover that. And in exchange for your aid, I shall elevate you. I shall empower you.” I told Drow and Lilith. Both creatures looked at me solemnly for a moment, before nodding at me. I felt acceptance fill their hearts, and then quietly teleported them back to the chamber where I had first met them.
Eleven of the Ardor's family's head members were now severely sickened. All of them were physically ill, and covered in the physical marks of disease and decay. But I had left one unaffected. I wasn't doing this as an act of mercy. I was doing it to instantly gain the worship and devotion of a single member of the family. One that I could use as I see fit. I quietly targeted her.
And then I activated a power I had never activated before, taking aim at her and her alone. She was a centuries-old dark elf named Milene. In some ways what I was doing to her was cruel. But in a very real way I was paving the way for her to become the head of the family and I was being kinder to her than I had been to her other family members.
The power I had just activated was the dreadful power known as ”Madness burst”. It was an attack that fractured someone's mind and rearranged it so that all they wanted to was to serve me.
Milene was an alchemist. And she was one of great skill and cruelty. She was perhaps the most aggressive member of her family and experimented on slaves and lesser members of her family alike. I had targeted her because of that. My choice wasn't random, it was a calculated one meant to gain control over the most malicious member of the Ardor family.
As I felt her mind shatter the second I activated the power, my choice still felt somewhat right but there was a part of me that didn't like it. That said, it was probably a good thing that I felt that way. It was a sign I wasn't going to be okay abusing this power.
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Milene's mind was shattered while she sat at a desk in her room. She had been absent-mindedly writing a letter to her latest paramour, and her quill was dipped in a bottle of her own homemade ”ink”. The substance she used for ink was the blood of the creatures she experimented on, blood she routinely extracted from them.
The power that the alien deity Althos used on her was a terrifying one not just because of what it did but also because it was instantaneous and there was no resisting it if you were susceptible to it. Milene's mind had just moments ago been a cruel, prideful place and now it wasn't.
Her hand still gripped her quill when her mind became the property of her family's new enemy. Her gaze was still on the parchment she was using to write her letter. But her heart and mind were forever changed.
Her cruelty, once a focal point of her personality, was now replaced with devotion. Her ambition and arrogance were replaced with humility and an overwhelming desire to please her master. She had no way of knowing how she acquired this knowledge but for a moment all she could hear was the repetition of a single word. ”Althos”.
She knew instinctually that ”Althos” was her master. She wanted to serve it. It was, in fact, all she wanted. All of her previous pride and ambitions faded and lost their appeal and she was now fully enthralled by her god. She wondered how she could serve it, and then it spoke to her for the first time.
”Hello Milene. How are you?” It asked. Milene smiled, her heart-rendingly beautiful face lighting up with genuine delight. The young dark elf wasn't sure how she recognized the voice, but she knew that it belonged to her master.
”Hello Althos. I am doing well now that I have heard you.” She told it, mentally speaking truthfully. The power had instantly torn through her old self. A gentle chuckle resounded throughout Milene's mind.
”That is good to hear.” Althos told her, as it proceeded to move on from the Ardor family and target other noble families throughout Aronms.
It would spend the next few hours focusing almost exclusively on that task, from within the safety of its tower-like lair deep underground.