143 Equipment And Minions (1/2)
The darkness in my hand functioned, for me anyway, as a solid object would in the hands of any corporeal mortal. It had weight and solidity. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I began to activate ”Darkness manipulation”. As I did so, I opened my mouth to speak.
”Ava, what sort of weapon would you like to use to confront your sister?” I asked the young dwarf. With my powers the shadow-stuff I held onto would become a powerful weapon that Ava would use in her confrontation with her sister. Or at least the entity she believed to be her sister.
I held a sphere of shadow-stuff in my hand. It felt light yet solid in my grasp. I had routinely formed weapons out of both darkness and light for my legions before and I was intuitively familiar with the strange process of shaping things out of both light and darkness. The objects I formed were real and truly existed for as long as I desired for them, but they were strange things. They were powerful weapons capable of great destruction, and as my powers grew so did their versatility.
The weapons I formed from light and from darkness were capable of changing form mid-fight. This was an eerie phenomenon that I had witnessed while encouraging the war between abominations and mortals in Salifinos and it was one of the natural upgrades my powers had received during the last few weeks. I was still learning how to utilize it myself, which was a testament to how strange an upgrade it was. Indeed, some of the few undead who had fallen to my enemies were undead who had the misfortune of wielding a weapon in battle as it shifted from one form to the next.
It had taken me a bit of time to consciously learn to control this strange evolution, and longer still to realize the nature of this change. This was one consequence of the chaotic powers I wielded and a sort of hitherto unprecedented mutation of the nature of an ability. The truth was that I was actually delighted by this, even though I wish it hadn't happened mid-battle in the past. That said through hours of practice I had learned how to control this ability and now, thanks to ”Tactile Teaching” so had my undead minions who had begun to use this to devastating effect against our foes.
Ava looked at me and her eyes began to glow with excitement. She almost began to tremble. I did a surface-level reading of her thoughts and found that the dwarf was incredibly excited because she was actually close to achieving her goals for the first time ever. I chuckled, appreciating her excitement.
”Can you make me a sword?” She asked, excitedly imagining stabbing her sister. I nodded at her and swiftly began to shape and shave the darkness in my hand in such a way that it took on the shape of a potent longsword. While doing that I turned my focus to her and began to speak.
”Ava, I want you to know that you have precisely one target you can kill. Aoife. I am willing to allow you to kill her, because I know why you hate her but do not mistake that as a license for you to go on a rampage to take her head. You have no such freedom.” I told the dwarf. I glared at her while I spoke to cement my point.
”I am not a proponent of mindless violence. I will allow violence, or even enact it myself if that's what it takes to acquire greater power but your vengeance and indeed your very existence, are not worth enough to me for me to give you the freedom you'd need to rampage. Single-mindedly focus on your true enemy. If you act out of turn, I will step in. You don't want that.” I warned her.
As I spoke I completed the blade, having shaped the shadow-stuff in my hand to the appropriate form. The blade looked simple, but it also looked incredibly sharp. And it was. I had seen ghouls and skeletons use this exact sort of blade on their enemies and I had seen the wounds it left behind. Victims of the swords were to be pitied, their last moments were invariably filled with suffering. That said, I wasn't done with the blade just yet. I was creating more than just a sword. I was creating an artifact.
I turned my focus to the sword and activated one of my lesser-used abilities: ”Enhance”. This was an alteration power that allowed me to add properties to an item, effectively ensorcelling it and creating a sort of ”magical” item.
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[Hello, once again Althos! Welcome back to the enhancement table. The item you've selected, a ”Shadow Sword” contains the following properties:
Chaotic: This blade was fashioned by a chaotic deity and thus is a mutable, alien, and semi-sentient weapon. It can, either in response to intense emotions or even at times purely randomly shift into a new form. This power can be controlled and even harnessed by the wielder, if the wielder is aware of the property.
Darkness: This blade is made from solidified darkness and thus is stronger in the dark.
Divine: This blade is a divine creation and thus surpasses resistances that may otherwise allow some of the damage it would inflict to be ignored.
What properties would you like to attach to the sword? Here are just some of the suggested ones that every weapon should have.
Absorption: This blade absorbs some of the blood of those it damages and transforms that blood into ethereal life-energy. That life-energy is then directed to the wielder, reinvigorating them in battle.
Anathema: This blade becomes stronger against those deemed by you to be enemies of the faiths dedicated to you.
Anarchist: Chaos further infuses the blade and increases the damage it does to lawful beings.
Armor-piercing: This blade can ignore the defensive capabilities of any armor that wasn't divinely constructed.
Elemental: The blade does elemental damage of some sort. The precise sort of elemental damage is determined by the blade's wielder the first time this is applied to the weapon.
Healing: This unusual property grants weapons it is attached to an alternate usage. With it, the blade begins to ”store” the pain it inflicts, and once a day it can be turned into a restorative item. If willed to shift into a restorative item, anyone it ”cuts” into is healed. It can only heal as much as it harmed, so effective usage of this property requires that the blade be regularly used in battle.
Heroic: This blade becomes infused with goodness and becomes a powerful weapon against evil. It does greater damage to evil-aligned beings.
Poisoned: The blade constantly secretes a potent poison that envenoms victims. This poison is horrifyingly deadly and ensures that anyone it stabs spends several moments in agony.
Sentience: This property is only accessible to you because of your acquisition of the second tier of influence over the domain of knowledge. If you attach it to something the thing you attach it too gains awareness and comes alive.
Sharpness: This blade is a more effective weapon in combat. It does increased damage to anyone or anything it cuts into.
Sinful: This blade becomes stained by evil and inflicts more damage and greater pain on those of any ”good” alignment.
Soul-snatcher: This weapon gains a sort of spiritual hollowness. Killing a creature with it causes it to be filled with the soul of the creature it just played a role in slaying. This soul can be extracted via magic and used in a number of ways.]