78 Shadows & Sin (1/2)

When I stepped out of the dreams of Andrea and Gustavo I felt a powerful sense of satisfaction. In indulging the desires of the young human woman I had made an ally on an unimaginably distant world. I had also done a significant favor to Gustavo and gained control over a potent disease while doing it.

All in all, I felt that in navigating the two dreams I had earned potent rewards. I allowed myself to sit down in one of the many chambers in my tower, and I rested my head against the soft fur that lined the side of my new ursine companion. The Amarok wolf I had aided in evolving walked over to me, unsteadily and nuzzled its head against my chest. I smiled and began to softly pat its head.

”Hello there you two. Thank you for being such good company.” I said to the two creatures. I was responsible for their current, highly enhanced states.

They were powerful creatures, one a lupine being with mysterious powers over darkness and the other an ursine beast whose genetics included elemental power. And both of them were utterly loyal to me.

The bear whose side I sat against sat down and laid down. The thing quietly allowed me to lazily lay my head back and rest on its soft and warm fur. The wolf sat down as well and relaxed as I rubbed its head.

In this moment of relaxation, I felt like being kind. I quietly began to mutter nearly inaudible words. Words intended for a single recipient. One who dwelled in my shadow.

”Sombra, listen to me.” I commanded. I waited a moment before I felt the creature that lurked like a snake in my shadow direct its attention my way.

”Exit my shadow.” I told my demonic servant. I felt rather than saw the demon nod and shivered as its inky body detached itself from my shadow, and it crawled onto the floor next to me. The sensation was strange like my shadow was losing part of its mass. Sombra was now next to me.

”What is it that you want? What are your goals?” I asked the creature, curious to see how it being in my presence had affected its perceptions and if it had altered what the creature wanted. In the hours since it had become a servant of mine, I had gained dominion over lesser shadowy monsters, including its kind of creature, and powers over evil and darkness.

It looked at me and took a moment to consider how to reply. As it looked at me I sensed something shifting in it. It was a strange sensation because a part of me was sure, both consciously and unconsciously that my powers were somehow altering its mind. When it did speak there was a strange and new reverence in its voice.

”I want to serve you. Your dark powers seep into me, and they infuse me with newfound energy and eerie emotions. I feel... joy from being next to you. An unholy joy. One that a dark part of me wants to spread to other shadowy beings.” The demon whispered. Its voice was a strange thing, newly changed, now sycophantic and seductive where it had once been prideful and contemptuous.

I grinned at the inky stain on my floor. I reached down and grabbed roughly where I hypothesized the thing's head was, and in doing so caused my hand to seep into the floor and the shadow my demonic servant had created. And then I yanked what I had grabbed onto and pulled out an indistinct head, before placing it gently on the floor I was sitting on.

”In that case, I suppose I ought to craft you a body.” I told the demon, smiling at it. ”A real one.” I added, now that I possessed that power. It was a power I had acquired hours ago, through the domain of darkness, but hadn't used right away. Now felt like the right time to do so, and I felt generous so I was opting to practice crafting bodies.

”I am being kind. What kind of body would you like Sombra?” I asked the demonic entity. It looked at me, its ethereal eyes filled with unusual emotion. The emotional cocktail I could see in its eyes contained an emotion I hadn't anticipated seeing in the gaze of a demon: awe.

”Any type of body? Hmm... Could you craft me a body you could desire? I aspire to serve you... In all ways.” The demon whispered and its last statement contained a tinge of a salaciousness. I chuckled and nodded at the demon.

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”How do I craft a body?” I asked internally. As usual, my question was directed towards two separate sources: the domain of knowledge and the system itself.

I knew that this was a strange power I possessed, but it wasn't one I had made use of before. I wanted to go ahead and change that. The domain of knowledge was the one to reply.

”You aren't crafting a body per-say. You are modifying an existing body. You are granting it physicality, and power. You can do it instinctually. It's not a power that requires activation, it's the sheer modification of something you already possess control over: shadows.” The voice explained, speaking gently and almost motherly to me. I grinned.

”All you need to do is envision the form you wish for the shadowy creature to acquire. And then your power will do the rest.” The voice whispered, revealing to me a key and amazing power.

I focused on the shadowy demon I had dominated and transformed into one of my servants. I carefully pictured its instinct and shadowy body and held that image tightly in my mind. And then I began to carefully picture a physical form that even I would feel desire for.

In all of my life, only one creature had ever made me feel anything resembling physical desire. Imbrosa Ravenfist, a stunningly beautiful undead drider who numbered amongst the first of the undead I had ever created.

I envisioned her nearly perfect form and focused on the humanoid aspects of it. The picture that came to my mind and lingered in it was one of a dark-elf with delft-blue skin, piercing red eyes, pointed ears, and full, ebony tinted lips. I didn't give Sombra Imbrosa's lower-half, instead, I gave the shadow-demon a long and slim pair of humanoid legs that accentuated its figure and helped it stand tall.

I was transforming Sombra into a dark-elf, or at least a shadowy imitation of one. And as Sombra felt the effects of my powers wash over it, it sighed pleasantly and began to transform before my very eyes.

I grinned as an assortment of abilities blended together and touched the very soul of the praereptor demon. I felt no resistance from the creature itself as its body began to feel the unholy and strange powers of my touch.

The creature's indistinct form began to do the opposite of glow as if it were leaking darkness. I watched, delighted, as the shadows that made up my demonic minion's incorporeal mass began to solidify underneath the darkness that it was emanating. The outline of a body that the demon possessed ceased being an outline and became something real, something corporeal in an instant.

The ebony shadows that once made up its limbs became the limbs of a dark blue body, one that was almost impossibly dark and mesmerizingly curvy. I watched as the demon's vague outline of a body solidified, and as the demon gained a physical body to call its own.

The demon's transformation was completed in an instant, and in the span of one heartbeat to another it went from lacking a true form, to gaining a beautiful one. One that was modeled off of the only creature whose beauty I had ever been amazed by. The demon was still immediately after it was finished transforming, but then began to smile and breathe heavily.

”So... this is what having a body of my own is like? Oh goodness... Finally.” It said, speaking in a voice that was also an intimation of Imbrosa's. I studied the creature, amazed once more by Imbrosa's form, even if it wasn't on Imbrosa's body.

The demon looked on the floor it sat on and exhaled a breathy sigh. And then it looked up at me. That was when I was reminded of something important: it was naked. Its body was fully exposed to me, and since it was modeled off of Imbrosa the breasts and other feminine parts I could see were modeled off of her as well.