122 Visiting The City Of The Dead (1/2)
I stayed in the air above the city of Aronms for a few more moments. I surveilled the city, quietly composed another mass-alert, and then transmitted it. All it was, was an explanation for why I had done what I did to the manor. As soon as I transmitted it to the inhabitants of Aronms I felt that my business here was complete.
I didn't hesitate to teleport out of the city. I went from one darkened place to another. The instant I was done with my self-assigned task in Aronms, I teleported from the dark-elven city to the unholy undead city my reanimated horde had built which was now located within my floating island.
I went from floating freely in the air to standing in the heart of the undead metropolis my undead worshipers had created deep underground, only for me to move to my floating island sanctuary. I teleported to the heart of the metropolis, and quickly found myself surrounded by the same horde that had attacked and successfully defeated the reptilefolk encampment, a week ago.
________________________________________________
The settlement I was now within was populated entirely by Althonians. And more than that it was made up of a distinct sect of Althonians: undead beings who worshiped me as a god of death, and the undead.
I was standing in the middle of a bizarre, macabre marketplace. All around me milled thousands of undead creatures, from simple and uncommanded zombies who idly roamed the marketplace, to fully sapient vampires who in life had been members of dozens of species but were now united in undeath and who carried themselves with pride and purpose.
The marketplace was pitch-black but that didn't bother me or my undead servants. All of us could see in the dark, unaided by any additional magic. I could see the assorted sorts of intelligent undead I controlled milling about in a fascinating imitation of life.
Skeletons, ghouls, vampires, and other corporeal undead performed the various roles needed for a marketplace to function successfully. I could see skeletons in one part of the marketplace bartering for spare bones, and skeletons in another selling spare limbs.
The shopkeepers here were curious to me. I listened to the thousands of deals being struck in the marketplace and noticed that the majority of the deals involved a special kind of currency. I had half-expected the undead to create a sort of pseudo-currency, but they hadn't. This boney marketplace, merely one of several in the city, seemed to accept a peculiar currency: the promise of favors to be repaid later.
Incorporeal undead floated in the open air above us. They moaned, their loud wails providing a creepy, ambient auditory backdrop as other, more physically present undead pursued a number of businesses.
The marketplace had a distinct, deathly, odor to it. It smelled of death, of rotting corpses, and of bones buried shallowly in the dirt. The smell would undoubtedly have grossed out a mortal, or even a more kindly god than I. Even I didn't revel it, but it didn't bother me either.
No undead noticed me, because I didn't feel like being noticed. My powers over them, just like all of my other powers, had grown recently and I could now control their perceptions. If I had wanted too, I could blind them to me or even to each other. Even when I touched an undead creature that alone didn't cause it to notice me.
I proceeded to walk forward, silently observing the ghoulish undead, many of whom were themselves actual ghouls. As I studied them I took in the haunting atmosphere of the strange city and allowed my mind to wander a bit.
________________________________________________
The atmosphere of the city of death and undeath was an unsettling and gory one. As I explored the city's central marketplace and took in the sights and sounds of the city, a part of me wondered about the nature of undeath. It was a fascinating state of existence, and I wanted to discover more about it.
It was precisely when I was mulling over what little I knew about undeath that a voice I had never heard before whispered into my mind.
”You could use me to find out you know. Use my powers I mean. It's been so long since you indulged in me, even though I was and am your personal vice.” The voice whispered.
This voice was strange, androgynous, and spoke breathily. There was a luxuriousness and laziness to it that I hadn't expected. There was also a bit of feigned pain in its whispers as if the thing was putting on a show and didn't mind that I knew. The voice belonged to the vice of lust. I was silent for a moment, as I hadn't even known that the personal vices and virtues themselves were also conscious enough to have voices. But after a moment of silent contemplation, I replied to it.
”What do you mean I could 'use you'?” I asked the voice, curious to hear lust expand on its thoughts.
”Althos... I am hurt!” The voice replied, feigning distress once more.
”Isn't what I mean obvious? I mean that the assortment of powers and upgrades you've idly earned pertaining to me allows you to learn all about a creature's desires. Even an undead being cannot hide its desires from you. Just use me.” The voice whispered, asking me to make use of the strange powers I possessed over desires, in the form of my influence over the corruption subdomain.
The corruption subdomain had so far provided me with powers I was often on the fence about using. I quickly rechecked the subdomain's listed powers and mentally poured over the upgrades to the corruption subdomain that I had received for perhaps the second time in my life.
For the sake of simplicity, I mentally filtered the list that I perused and was able to slim it down so that it was only the powers I had gotten as a result of the upgrades I had earned to date and the synergistic powers I had access too.
Some of the powers now classified as within the subdomain of corruption were powers that had belonged to the subdomain of sexuality and gender but were now upgraded and stronger. If I had to share my thoughts on why I suspected they were situated here now because lust refers not just to desires for sexual activity but intense desires for a range of things.
________________________________________________
[Corruption subdomain passive powers:
Desire absorption: This vampiric power allows you to absorb the desire someone feels. With it you can feed on desire, which is little more than a neutral word for lust. The desire you absorb is nullified and completely disappears.
Desire amplification or dampening: This power allows you to heighten or lessen the desire someone feels. This desire need not be directed at another person, it could instead be a desire for an object or desire for a sensation.
Desire aura: You can project an aura that amplifies the level of desire anyone caught in it feels. This increase can be to the point that it drives mortals temporarily insane.
Desire detection: You can detect the desires of any creature. At will, you can also release a wave of corrupt energy that copies the desires of any it hits and relays those desires back to you. If applicable this power also informs you of how you fit into their desires.
Desire release: You can overwhelm a mortal, extraplanar, abomination, or undead, mind with desire and cause them to pursue their desires to almost any end. So long as what someone wants isn't actively outlawed in the land they live in they will pursue it to the greatest of their abilities.
This power upgrades as you gain greater influence over the subdomain of corruption, and as you gain greater influence over the domains of law and chaos.
Enhanced pleasure manipulation: This upgraded power allows you to cause abominations, undead and extraplanar beings to experience pleasure. With it, you can make creatures who may not otherwise be able to experience pleasure feel it, you can also manipulate the pleasure they feel.
Kiss mastery: This power empowers your kiss-based abilities. Among other things, you can now fire kiss-shaped projectiles and strike distant enemies or targets with them. Any effect you can apply to your kiss you can apply to a projected kiss.