83 Preparations (2/2)
If I transformed Nivar into a champion of mine, I could easily lure in more grave giants. The real question was how could I do that most effectively?
I spent the next minute or so recalling the list of necromantic subdomain abilities at my disposal, and in doing so came across a detail that had slipped my mind. And it brought a smile to my face. But first I had preparations to make.
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So that I could begin to inch closer to the completion of my dark goals I recalled the finer aspects of a particular ability. ”Darkness manipulation”, a darkness domain ability that let me manipulate the dark and cast spells on things as if I was in contact with them if they were shrouded in darkness was incredibly valuable.
So far in my life, I had never been more grateful to that ability as I was now. Thanks to it I had access to millions of medium corpses, billions of smaller ones, and hundreds of thousands of larger corpses. I was able to use one other power in particular in tandem to create an endless parade of nightmarish undead. ”Fleshcrafter” my ability to restore forms to creates whose bodies had decayed to almost nothingness, came in clutch and granted me access to even more corpses to reanimate.
My magic flooded the world beneath the surface of Puerto Rico. And as corpses began to rise, as an assortment of undead monstrosities, I received the first flood of notifications I had received today. I didn't doubt that it wouldn't be the only flood of notifications I'd get before the day was done.
And I turned my attention in full to my grave giant servant.
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”Nivar, listen to me.” I commanded, mentally speaking to my grave giant servant. She fell silent mentally and waited for my next statement.
”Do you wish to redeem yourself in my eyes?” I asked her, curious as to how she'd respond. I was sure she'd say some variation of ”Yes”, but it was the amount of excitement in her response that I was curious to hear. She didn't keep me in suspense.
”Yes! Yes, I do my master. Do you have an idea of how I may go about doing this?” She asked, pleading with me to give her an answer. I chuckled the sound heavy with excitement.
”I am willing to offer you a test. You are a necromancer. You possess the greatest suitability of all of my servants to lead the undead legions I am even now creating. But I will boost you further. In exchange, you are to lead this unstoppable legion, and convert my enemies into its newest soldiers.” I commanded her, speaking with the authority I imagined an older god of necromancy would speak.
”I will make you a powerful warrior of death and despair. You will cut down my enemies, a settlement of reptilefolk who are keeping slaves. You and the army that even now crawls to its feet shall defeat, and reanimate the reptilefolk and them alone. If you do this successfully, bolstered by the powers and soldiers I give you to command, then you shall become a chief lieutenant of mine.” I declared to the grave giant.
I heard her silence. It was quite loud in its own very peculiar way. It brought a smile to my face. She was silent for a full minute before she finally replied to my offer.
”Althos... There is nothing more in this world that I want than to be a chief lieutenant of yours. If you believe I am a suitable tool for you to use to strike out against your enemies than please test me to your heart's delight.” She responded, speaking eloquently. I grinned at her. And without a word I extracted the spark that was animating her.
”If you truly are to be a chief lieutenant of mine, I suppose I should make you something stronger than a ghoul.” I mused, a wide grin on my face. I didn't share that thought with her. And as I mused about what to do to her, I received a message from the system that brought a smile to my face.
[Althos, there's a particular type of creature she's suited to being. Can you remember what the necromancy subdomain once you told you about magicians and insects?] The system asked me.
”I do, actually.” I muttered. And so I set about creating a particular type of servant, by remaking one I had already acquired. And to start it all off I had to go and dominate some worms.
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In the tower of the eerie god, the giantess suddenly collapsed. She was dead, and not the same kind of dead she had been moments ago. She was well and truly deceased this time. But that was destined to change.
The first worms arrived a number of minutes after the giant keeled over. They were teleported directly onto the corpse, and they were grateful that their master provided them with this delicious meal. They immediately began to eat the corpse's healthy amount of skin.
Every few seconds Althos teleported more and more worms onto the body. Within ten minutes there were enough worms and they had had enough time to eat that the body was visibly losing mass.
By the time half an hour had passed the body was gone, and the worms were satisfied and full. And their master had gained access to two new subdomains. It was when the body was gone that the fun began in full.
The worms, in their dominated state, hadn't thought through the consequences of their actions. Mostly because they lacked the intelligence they'd need to do so. Perhaps surprising some, when Nivar's spirit returned and found her body gone she angrily opted to use the next best thing. Backed by Althos' control over the worms, Nivar quietly began an assault on those who devoured her body.
The worms were swiftly dominated by a singular intelligence that wiped them clean of any memories or feelings they had had. And that angry intelligence used her arcane intelligence to bring the worms together in a very literal sense with a single magically powered and divinely aided attack. Shortly thereafter Nivar's spirt forcibly bound them into a single semi-solid mass in the shape of a massive humanoid.
Althos aided the youthful giant by empowering her spirit and going ahead with his plan to make her into a champion. To do this he silently gave her a blessing she could leverage against her foes. Without a word of warning to anyone, including the giant, Althos blessed her.
At the moment she received the blessing she was struggling to dominate and control the hundreds of worms who'd unwillingly given her their bodies in exchange for hers. And that was the final push that she needed to be able to surge into her new body and seize control of it.
On that day, for the time time, Althos elevated one of his undead servants. In doing so he took an ordinary but cognizant ghoul and transformed her into a powerful worm that walks. As he studied the strange sight of the tomb giant who was no longer an ordinary tomb giant, he was satisfied with the work he had done on her.
He sensed the radiant hatred she had for life. And the not at all contained contempt she had for undead who couldn't use magic. Both of these emotions radiated out of the new and unsettling, writhing body of the undead magician.
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”He is... inscrutable.” Remarked one of the domains. It spoke to a gathering of its peers, within the vast mind of the god who was perpetually pursuing power.
”He is not inscrutable. He is young. With youth comes flexibility.” Said another, rebutting the silliness of its peer's confusion about the moral flexibility of the young god. To that domain, it was clear how the god was so easily able to accept what it needed to do.
”He is ambitious is what he is. He delights in the acquisition of power. It guides him as surely as any sort of defined moral code could. He doesn't possess a defined moral code. He isn't evil, nor is he good. Though in fairness... applying such terms to a god has always been tricky, long before he came into being.” Quipped a subdomain, one of the few that he had had influence over for a while.
This comment generated mutterings of agreement. The subdomain would have smiled if it could since it seemed that the others recognized the wisdom of its comment. It felt that it was correct, that more than anything else what drove Althos at the moment was ambition.
Althos' actions so far were driven more than anything else by a desire to acquire more power. His willingness to feed mortals and to heal them always resulted in him acquiring more servants. While withholding much judgment he forgave a demon who possessed a servant of his and turned it into his servant. He pulled off remarkable deceptions that resulted in him acquiring more servants.
All of that pointed to a simple fact: Althos was ambitious. It was an understated but noticeable ambition that the youthful god himself might not have perceived just yet.
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Deep underneath the surface of the world, dark energies were at work.
The energies that surged through the unlit tunnels beneath Puerto Rico corrupted and corroded that which they couldn't control. They poisoned the poisonable, dissolved the dissolvable, and largely ignored what powerful living entities could endure them without succumbing.
These dark, indiscriminate energies were hard at work. They crept along and through every centimeter of the world beneath the world. The energies were searching for something. They were searching for bodies. And they were finding them, left and right.
Althos grinned as he felt the number of undead under his control swell. And he grinned, even more, when he realized the diversity of the newly risen. It was a healthy group containing members of every type. And that was what Althos loved to see.
Every second his preparation drew nearer and nearer to completion. And the hour to strike down his foes grew ever closer. He found that realization to be quite exciting. Almost as exciting as the two subdomains he read the dual subdomain notification for.