《The Crowns of Dalmarck》


 The Chapter of Asen the First

    The Chapterof Asen the First


    "I have no idea where I am" says the abyss. What a nice voice.


    "So if you do, then could you please deign to tell this lowly soul where we are?" says the sarcastic abyss once more.


    "Okay, by now I am doubting if you''re either sentient or even alive.


    "You... mean me?" I said.


    "And now I think you are just dumb, but that''s still okay since even if you have less intelligence than a pig, though even that''s generous I guess, it doesn''t matter if I am not alone anymore." Abyss is starting to ramble now, so I guess I should help him fill that awful silence.


    "Where are we?"


    "I have no bloody idea and if you ever raise that intelligence of yours, then you may want to remember the first things I asked you."


    "That I am dumb?"


    "Though I neither doubt nor refute your statement and if we ever stay here for centuries or eons in this nameless space then I will repeatedly remind you of that one sentence."


    I don''t think I would survive that long if every conversation will pan out like this one, doesn''t help that I am basically still asleep.


    "It would help if we had two participants in this conversation, like I will start. I am Rex and I would like to know what or who you are if you know." Said Abyss or I guess I should now call it/he Rex.


    Abyss sounds way cooler though... but I haven''t even really said hello or anything similar except that what I won''t repeat.


    "I am Asen. But where... are we? This is really not earth".


    ¡°First, I doubt you are human. Too stupid. And if aliens existed then they couldn''t have met us first if they all have your level of IQ. So I guess you must be a pig, but even then it''s sketchy."


    " Rex, please just help. I really can''t stand this. So please just don''t joke of such things."


    " You might not have noticed but we are in space, or at least nothingness. That''s seems pretty crazy if you ask me, joking it off at the only other person here seems pretty sane compared to anything else. Not to mention I have been here way longer than you and even then your first sentence was a mere minutes ago", said Rex.


    " But what..."


    Suddenly there was... something. White, red, blue, green, even the colour gold could be seen.


    All around me where I previously had existed, there now seems to be a very beautiful and spacious hall. Behind me I can see two very large double doors. You know, those doors you always imagine when you think of a castles'' main gate.


    I can even see some fire up near the ceiling in some huge metal baskets. They are attached to a chain that connects with two large pillars on either side of the hall that seemingly keep this very tall hall from collapsing.


    For the colour record, there is mostly only gold here, colour or otherwise.


    If this is still earth then I''m rich. If not, then I''ll just be happy.


    Oh and it seems like I''m not alone, there are so many children around me that even if there was a name for it, without a calculator it''s just many.


    Now that that is established, I hope Rex came with me and even if I can''t point him out among the many number of... There are just about only children here. I am not a child anymore since I''m 16, so please don''t lump us together. Add, ''hope Rex isn''t 10'' to the list of hopes.


    But if you could just look at the hall in its majesty then you would know why most of these children, not including me, are struck with awe and are making no sound whatsoever.


    I would say that if I were to call out to Rex, that he would be able to hear me. " Rex! Are you here! Shout very loudly if you can hear me!"


    "Asen! We are here!" I believe that that was Rex, but what does he mean with we?


    When I finally manage to come near to Rex, after a lot of shouting of course since we didn''t seeeach other''s faces or anything there for that matter, a seemingly randomgirl manages to find me and brings me to Rex.


    I don''t know what was happening but since I couldn''t recognize anyone here, I instinctively went to search for the one person I could know.


    I very muchexpected Rex to have thesame problem.


    When after a bit of walking, pushing and on purposely standing on people''s toes to get further, we came to Rex who was there with 4 other people, who I,except for the girl that brought me here, didn''t even remotely recognise for whatever act whatsoever.


    There were three guys and another girl, all roughly older that I. I wonder which one Rex is.


    " Wow, Asen, you can''t be much older than 13. And here I expected you to be more like 9 years old", so apparently he is still the same old Rex but this time I can actually see him.


    He is quite average in length at about 1 meter 80 and has dark blond hair. His blue eyes and sturdy appearance made you think that he was from Germanic descend. If only his personality weren''t as bad.


    "Says you. If you would know, I am more like 17. So do you know these people?"


    Rex thinks for a minute and says, "Well, I did meet them when I suddenly appeared here. The guy with the black hair and brown eyes is Ison. He comes from America. The girl that brought you here is called Alaica and she is English. The other one with the long blond hair and green eyes is Learce and she was just telling us where she came from when you shouted. The ginger guy is supposedly Irish but you can''ttrust a sober Irishman. His name is Fal, Veal?"


    " It''s Valen", said Valen. "And I really am Irish"


    Yeah right, I doubt that.


    "And the other guy we haven''t really yet come to since he came here later because we are supposedly older than most of the others here. I mean, really, have you seen all those kids? I have even seen some that must seriously be 10 years old. We are not the only group though and there was even a commotion somewhere about a girl trying to get something from this mess,so if this is some evil plan a sick man then we will have competition", said Rex.


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    "But does anyone know where we are? That place where we were before seemed too... empty for it to be such a simple thing" said Ison.


    I though about it but the only thing we could do now was either be killed by whoever brought us here, or wait.


    Guess what I''m going to do.


    "I think we should just wait, there is nothing else we can do. SoValen, are you really Irish?"


    After having an impromptu debate about whether you could trust a sober Irishman, the hall suddenly turned silent.


    From where we are, off to the side near the middle of the crowd, we couldn''t see the reason for it. But as we made our way forward, a big throne started to appear. But not out of thin air something like that I think. That would be impossible.


    But still, the only reason I can think of that I didn''t see it before was that the crowd was between the throne and me and afterwards I probably just got distracted I guess.


    On the last step nearest to the throne there were a man and woman.


    The man seemed to give of a martial impression, looked like a handsome Italian and was wearing a toga. I know, seems weird but hey, give a minute of thought as to where I am. What was even weirder was that he seemed to challenge anyone that werejustlooking at him, and at the same timehis apparent bloodlust made the younger kids scared and the others weary.


    Okay, someof the older kids may have been scared too, but that is natural.


    Well then you have the woman, she was your typical European. That¡¯s to say that she was beautiful.


    Okay maybe not you¡¯re typical typical European. She was also quite pale and also had dark hair.


    Dark blond, dark brown or even dark black, it was just too dark to see.


    The area near the throne was one big circular area compared to the straight hall we just came from.


    The man and the woman were apparently waiting for everyone to come near the steps or the area around it and when they were satisfied they started talking.


    ¡°Welcome and be honored. You are in the presence of gods¡±, the man said, probably meaning he is one since there is no one else. ¡°But you need not bow for we shall be equal in rank if not in power soon. For you all shall be gods!¡±


    Then the woman took a step forward spoke with a voice that was older than she should be.


    "We have chosen all of you because of your skill, strength and wisdom. Some of you even posses intelligence.And as Mars just said, you will become gods yet. We shall teach you to become one of us and to create beauty and life. Some of you have been lost but live still so fear not. You will have followers galore, friends aplenty and enemies so scarce.


    You will reach both the world and heaven. I know this, for I am Lilith. You will tread where I once walked and make wonders like we once could.


    Your Houses will rise where you do and fall the same. The fires of your people will burn or protect together with your own. Their many souls will sing with the praises of their gods. And you will come to know, what truly, a god must be¡±.


    How beautiful.


    --- At the brink of all of the lost Children. In the realms of the Dark Gods¡­ ---


    Somewhere in a forgotten lost piece of the Abyss, something the size of a small city, there was a lonely soul.


    No others were there to hear his name or to answer his question. Not even to tell him that what he was trying to do was hopeless.


    And yet there it happened. For a small moment the child made his life. For not even an eye blink, he could see, taste, feel and hear again. Sadly there was nothing to fill that what he had made and so it vanished.


    All in such a small moment, less than even the blink of an eye. But that child will manage eventually, for such a genius would be able to. He will live through this darkness, this¡­ Abyss.


    All for the sake of living and he is prepared to go to any lengths to be alive.


    Even at the cost of another¡¯s blood. Even at the cost of staying in this oblivion of Darkness.


    And if he were to ever take and guide one of those fires passing though the abyss, then he wouldn¡¯t eve be alone.


    He is will be as true a ruler as a god he is. Even the night attests to this.


    ---At the Realm of one such other...---


    Yet for those not alone, one needs not be a genius to be something. You only need to be powerful enough to crush any that are. This piece is a true realm, one where hordes upon hordes of minions could live, solely to serve one.


    The others may be needed for now but when we¡¯ll be living once more, that will end.


    Two of the others are already clearly watching out for each other so they will be the hardest. The weakest is already mine and will be for as long as she lives. The last two are confused, alone, and doubtful.


    They will not survive me. None will if I will rule.


    This¡­ Abyss makes me crazy. I will kill all of them, and if I can, have the most fun possible out of it. I can already feel my anger wanting to take shape, and it will when I will finally set foot in existence.


    This may take years, but for what that is worth,it will happen nevertheless. I must be ready for when we become.


    I can also always capture and corrupt one of the lights that pass nearly beyond us. They would be strong like the current me, for I won¡¯t return to that pathetic child I just was.


    I won¡¯t be going back.


    I will let chaos take everything before that happens, and weirdly enough I can feel it agreeing with me. Even so far to let it help me¡­

 The Chapter of Solhok the Second

    The Chapter of Solhok theSecond


    Time went by as it normally would, that hadn''t differed.


    At least I didn''t think it did.


    Too much had happened and changed for me and as a result I could hardly handle it all. I think I should be around the age of 48now but that is more wishful thinking than a proper guess as mymemory can remember some 60 odd years.


    My body doesn''t age anymore but luckily I can slowly change my appearance if I concentrate so I don''t look like how I was when I first came here.


    Weird that that much time would have passed since then, as I can remember like it was yesterday.


    Rex seems to have taken everything in stride and asked us to call him Rexus after what Mars and Lilith said about everything.


    He is even one of the leading gods but luckily he hasn''t forsaken us and we all remain fast allies.


    Even Wyer,whose name I learned after the true awakening, is still among our group.


    You know, that guy that joined because it seemed smart? Well, that he is.


    That old group we had turned into an alliance and now we all live in the same house in the very first realm among the Abyss.


    They are one of the few reasons I can cope with all this at all.


    Yet even if I''m not one of the leading gods or one of the strongest ones, I am one of the most skillful among the others.


    There are also more things that really helped like the fire of Solhok, which is so beautiful and it always calms me towork on him.I even think I will stop the current passive work I''m doing and awaken him to start with the active one.


    Oh, by the way, these fires are something we had been taught.


    They basically are or at least will be our living creations.


    It is a true art since they should be perfect, have no impurities, no corruption and no other flaws that would ruin, break or destabilizethem.


    I don''t know about the others, but I think I can give them memories and a true body easier. Both are hard to do so they are seldom done.


    Most beings need a true physical body, which is why we don¡¯t really make them. The great Lights don¡¯t need bodies though and they are apparently our most important use of this gift, which everyone needs to use for that exact reason, to make great Lights to form your House.


    My currentand first fire is Solhok, whom I hope at least gets up in strength to a Light.


    I also have a list of what kinds ofmemories would instill in my creations that would recreate the personality that I want.


    For Solhok I am going for a ferocious, honorable and loyal male creation.


    After he is sentient, all of that could change, get added to or I could fail in the first place but that won''t matter as will be as he will become.


    What memory should I give him though to make him understand our situation? Well I guess the beginning would make the most sense...


    ---- The beginning of the First year ----


    How beautiful.


    That was the first thing that I thought after her speech. Most of the other children were probably in the same state like but evidently not all were.


    Rex made way to the very front as did some of the others that I could see. And just like they, I was also curious and wanted to ask how we would get back.


    At least that''s what I think those others were going to do.


    Only when I got nearer to the steps of the throne could I hear that there were already others there, only a few as some more were still coming. Sadly, the first thing I heard wasn''t really positive.


    ¡°What do you mean? We can''t return home!" said a 17 years old girl with red dyed hair.


    The woman, who had called herself Lilith before, just smiled.


    ¡°You would notwant to leave if you only had any patience. And then even if you could, the Abyss only goes so many ways and if there comes new one, its path is definite and eternal. That the path itself gives great power is in return for its price." She said without looking bothered or even interested.


    Rex seemed even moreexited after that though.


    "Great power? We will have that? What is it!" he said one after the other.


    This time the man answered. ¡°Power of Magic, Power of War, Power of Life... It is the strength to accomplish your very wish. But you have to learn these, and your skill may not be the best either but shall be able to do them"


    I couldn''t help myself and the shock of what was previously said hadn''t come through yet.


    ¡°There is magic? That''s unbelievable! That''s great! When will we start to learn?" The man suddenly laughed. "Young one, you already are. You have to get attuned to your new being first before you can try to comprehend and use magic. And for you, Young one, in response to the great skill I can feel from you in regardsof your new power, have this"


    The man held his hand out and a book started to materialize with the wind going to the same spot. When he was finished, he gave the book to me.


    "If you ever need to behold the fleeting, impossible or the strong, then use this to keep it and learn from it" He then handed it to me.


    It looked old even if it was new, and also magnificent and heavy. The heavy part was the worst part.


    Yet, a gift given by agod must be accepted to the fullest.


    ¡°Thank you, truly, for this magnificent gift. It is the greatest thing that I own. If you ever need help, know that you have a favor here"


    The funny thing was that when I held it, it wasn''t nearly as heavy as it looked. The book itself was mostly empty with a few pages filled here and there, which was interesting.


    The man nodded and turned back to the others as if I already forgotten.


    A guy who arrived here just after we did was deep in thought.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation."But why are we here? And why are most of us so young?"


    Lilith sighed as if she were about to repeat herself.


    ¡°As I said before, you are to be a new origin of life here at this new way of the Abyss.


    You will create lives, some mortal, others not.


    You will establish your House and after you have learned all you can that we teach, nine of you will create the world and prepare it while the others do so to their personal realm.Those nine will be rewarded of course but even then, that reward will rely on their skill, strength and wisdom.


    The reason why most of you are so young is because you all are the most suitable and adaptable.


    There may be some variables that we don¡¯t know as most of you weren¡¯t of our faiths, so they could break down mentally or even physically.


    But if they don¡¯t, then they have the potential to be a very great pure god¡±


    ¡°And as for learning, I will teach you battle, ruling, cultivation of self and others and war. There are other things you may call me master for, but they will come if there is a reason or request for it¡± said the man after his partner finished.


    The girl from before and the more curious started to ask questions but only a few of them were interesting.


    ¡°You two implied that you were gods. Should we know of you? We never had any gods on earth¡±


    ¡°Oh, but you did. We never may have walked that much along side you, but we were always there. Do you not know me? I am Lilith, I once belonged to some of the most major modern faiths¡±


    ¡°And I am Mars, the god of war the Romans once followed. My people eventually forgot our pantheon. Their faith was stolen by Lilith¡¯s old religion and they even tried to exterminate the rest of us when they turned our own. To think they only rose up a few centuries prior. Of course, a pantheon with many Faith Lords is hard to hunt down¡±.


    Rex spoke up after he heard about those Faith Lords.


    ¡°What are those Faith Lords? And what is the difference between a religion and a pantheon?¡±


    Mars and Lilith thought about that for a minute and the Lilith spoke.


    ¡°A pantheon would be similar to a republic and its council, as in having several leaders who decide most and sometimes having a leader among those too. But in a pantheon, those would be gods so they would hardly ever change in position and never out of it.


    They should all be around the same strength too. While in a religion, you only have one Faith Lord and its minions¡±


    ¡°But that has nothing to do with you except for the concept of them. You will have to create a House together with servants and Great Lights. You may step up an alliance between other Houses and your own, much like what you would see with a pantheon but it wouldn¡¯t be as binding.


    Oh, and for Faith Lords, only those that pray to them are their people.


    To you, all that are your people will pray to you. Things could happen that make a group of your people less responsive or split up with the others but that would happen seldom if you don¡¯t allow it or don¡¯t give them that much freedom.


    Another god could also cause it though and then steal them or giving divine protection to make an new ally for himself. If a House has lost their civilisation, then they can always steal some people of another one and continue with them¡± Added Mars.


    Rex was basically jumping out of excitement right now.


    ¡°Is that so?! Very well, from this moment forth I will be known as Rexus of House Irrellen! And I will be the best Lord in this new world. This shall be my beginning!¡±


    That¡¯s when the True Awakening really happened. When I realized everything would be different and the shock truly set in.


    I further only remember being led away by Rexus and maybe some others to somewhere that had the bed I woke in.


    --- At the beginning of the Dark Gods, In the Realm of Il¡¯Sarien. 63 years after the True Awakening ---


    Somewhere, in the first realm of the Dark Gods, a lonely soul was working.After managing to bring himself into existence, he had to stabilize his realm.


    Sometimes he just had to reinforce it, while at other places he had to destroy and rebuild it all over again but these were only at a few places and nowhere near the pillars of this realm.


    While this Dark soul could change his realm, some aspects of it were just natural to it. It seemed like it was always night there though he could always see fine. And only the things he interacted at lot with or the places where he came the most, would havecolors.


    The rest only had tints of them here and there while seeming gray as a whole.


    Another thing was that even if he made the most lush and healthy grass, in his realm it seemed unhealthy, stark or vicious.


    As a whole, he didn¡¯t mind it that much as anything at all had been better than the oblivion he had been in not a year ago.


    A curious thing he noticed was that the lights that used to only go in one direction, now sometimes come closer to here before missing him or falling into his realm.


    If the last part happens and he did nothing with it, he then noticed that the fire slowly fused with his realm, enlarging it even if that was only by miniscule amounts.


    After coming across his first one, he instinctually managed to store it within him, which he though was weird but that didn¡¯t seem as much so than some other things he had done.


    The little fire didn¡¯t fuse with anything nor did it go out or something. When he checked on it, he seemed to feel an infinite space where he seemingly could store those little lights.


    When it happened the fourth time, he didn¡¯t store it nor infused it either naturally or by himself with his realm, no he tried to let it stand byitself but after finally managing to get it up it would just either fall again or just startto disintegrate.


    Yet before it did so, the ones that stood would actually move and interact with his realm to a very limited fashion while following his orders.


    When he tried to combine another light with one of the ones he had standing, it seemed to have more intellect and disintegrated slower though it wasn¡¯t even close to even a bug back on earth.


    So there you would have him now, working on building a house in his realm while also luring in more tiny lights and little fires and collecting them.


    To commemorate his existence he had given himself a new name, Illerian Saros, as his old one was forgotten by his time in the Abyss.


    He then named his realm after his own name, Il¡¯Sarien,and worked on.

 The Chapter of Jurak the Third

    NEW STUFF. see the dates for releases and if i haven''t failed for some reason, it should give of a patern. This chapter will most likely change in the future but when i wrote this a few days ago i wanted to try out an action scene. I hope and think I have gotten better at it but for now please forgive this chapter and do continue with the rest that should be better.


    <del>


    I will try to get a chapter out every other day and at the latest 6 days. Bla,bla ,bla, </del>my first "book" ever,<del> bla,bla. you know the stuff. </del>Suggestions arewelcome and reviews even more so. if you think this is a reasonablelength, please say so as the others were 2000 something words and this is more like 3500 words. I will also add the other 2 perspectives from the prologue here and there and they will eventually combine into Asen''s world (who is also called Jurak because i find that name cooler but i don''t want atoo typical a name).


    Enjoy.


    <hr>


    The Chapter of Jurak theThird


    "Jurak, hurry up! It''s almost time for the war lessons!" said Solhok.


    After I went to active work on Solhok, he quickly became sentient. That was the intention after all.


    The thing that wasn''t intentional however was that he had the mentality of a 7 year old.


    I wouldn''t even know why he woke as such. I mean that the others didn''t have this, not even similar.


    Though the thing with their fires were that it was a more logical being and had less emotion that defined it than mine.


    Some already had corruption or broken personalities. And all of them have impurities.


    Those impurities have to be worked out, as they will block the magic, the emotions, its thought processes and if they are unlucky enough, even their memory.


    Solhok had some but most I have already worked out of him by strengthening that part of his being or have him outgrow it.


    But yeah, he woke up to sentience as a 7 year old. Mentally at least, as he had a lot of power for a child.


    In magic, his affinity seems to lay in the destructive and offensive magics.


    Aside from him I also created a jakil, something I myself invented.


    It had ahorse likebody with a hound''s long tail, paws with a claw at the heel, a sleek hounds head with long back pointing ears. It also had no mane and a ram¡¯s horns.


    I called it Firn, as an aberration of first.


    I am planning to also make one for Solhok when he has aged, and also a few to further breed for Rexus and the rest of the main alliance.


    When we get to the world, I am planning to populate wherever I am going to start up with them since they are stronger, faster and have more combat potential than horses.


    On the topic of the alliance, we have accepted lower members.


    We will protect them from other Houses or alliancesand support them to a degree, and they will support us politically andwith a tribute per decade.


    We have decided to use those travelling lights or fires as currency, and theycan be used many ways.


    They also have to follow our rules.


    They include: killing any corrupted lights, as they would then be corrupted by one of the forces and depending on the force, it can change them physically and or mentally.


    We ourselves, the Pure gods, can''t be corrupted by most if not all of the various forces; no killing of Pure Gods, since they can never be regained; wars, what are more like continuous fights between Houses,


    must be politically announced; only encrypted or blank lights may be currency,


    as we get those from the travelling lights but they are very hard to make ourselves since we automatically influence them; No destruction of realms to our own,


    as they could belong to more people and it would destroy all their servants and lesser Lights thatwere there then, not to mention all that they build there since apparently that takes a long time.


    We had made the rule about the corrupted because 3 decades ago, a Pure God had created twin Lights, which happens if the fire or light splits before it reaches sentience, and somehow they were both corrupted.


    One by Life and the other by Light.


    The corrupted one of Life consumed the life of its creator and killed another few Lights before being destroyed by a Pure God.


    The Light one didn''t care about most that happened but it got angry when we detained it, saying that We, Pure Gods, were beneath her.


    The others immediately wanted to kill it but as I saw that she was seemingly changing, I told them to wait.


    After a few years, it had apparently changed to an elemental being of fire.


    I of course dissected it and I noted how to recreate it myself in my Book of Gifts,which I named thusbecause it was one given by Mars.


    I was not the only one though as Rexus also go an artefact.


    He got a sword which makes for easy portal creation, but we can only use it in this realm as we haven''t ever left yet and since we have learned how to teleport ourselves within a realm in non-protected places, he doesn''t use it that often.


    "Jurak! If you aren''t coming then I will go myself!" said Solhok.


    I have managed to bring his mental age to 10and a half years but this took around 50 years or so and it got harder every time.


    "I will go in an hour or so. Just tell Mars that I''m going over the blade design once more"


    "Fine but don''t take more than a few days okay? I don''t want to have to search for you again. Oh and when we finish this class, may I ride the jakil again?"


    "Yeah, yeah. It certainly won''t become more than a week"


    A week means nothing more to me than an hour once should have. It is a nice feeling, having all the time you wish.


    A few days later I joined the class.


    We only went to those we bothered to. I used to not go to the battle ones so often except for those that taught it in finesse or in mass destruction.


    It helped to be able to do what you need to defend against and sometimes it was just plain fun.


    But now that Solhok is here, I have to go supervise him whenever he goes to the offensive magic lessons. And he goes to ALL of those lessons!


    Every one of them!


    The only saving grace is that I took up enchanting and smithing.


    Not in just creating them but actually making them by hand.


    This makes them more powerful and diverse in options but it takes a really long time compared to doing it by creating it with raw power.


    Luckily, that''s my intent to go through these ''lessons''.


    The first thing I heard when I arrived was Mars shouting.


    "What are the easiest ways to incapacitate someone?"


    Solhok immediately began shouting too."Slicing of limbs, exploding their bodies, bind their fires to something, taking over their minds, turning them into stone or an animal"


    "Good answers Solhok, now how would you for instance explode their bodies?"


    "I would rip their mana out ofthem in all directions"


    "While that may been highly efficient to living creatures, unanimated ones such as golems may be able to survive that or even sometimes the strong ones could walk it of. Our own world never had such active magic and creations but if the nine who will finish the world chooses so then it will be so"


    "Master, since we all know how to make golems, can we maybe make an army of them and then squareoffagainsteach other using only one method of incapacitation?" said Ison, who was a battle freak just like Solhok.


    "That would be amusing. Good, but as to make it more worthy you all have to make one and fight at the same time. Asen, you have to join too. All the Pure Gods have control of the army while any Lights will take over the fighting itself, if they are present" added Mars. "And you are only allowed 100 golems and if you lose them, you yourself lose too"


    This would be annoying but if I fought I would always prefer the strategist role so experience wouldn''t harm.


    "We are allowed to make whatever type of golem we want right?" I asked.


    "Yes of course. But only wood or stone is allowed for the material of it" Mars stated.


    "Everyone, choose your positions and pray to whatever gods you follow¡± He got a few chuckles from that.


    Aside from this realm being made as aridiculously big palace, with rooms or even mansionsfor several dozen big Houses to reside in,it also has a even bigger field of war or as Mars likes to call it, a small field of Mars.


    There are a few mountains there spread over the whole field, a small desert at the west side with only one oasis, grassland in the middle with a big forest to the east, in the north there are hills with rivers going through it and the south is a peninsula with a sea surrounding it.


    I think I will chose the mountains in the north and see if I can get the survivors rounded up to the south.


    ¡°Solhok, how are you planning on fighting?¡±


    ¡°May I please use that sword you made? I promise I won¡¯t damage it!¡±


    ¡°The last weapon I let you borrow didn¡¯t even see battle before you destroyed it. No, not the sword but you may use this battle axe. It¡¯s nothing special, just very very hard to break¡± I summoned the axe from within my being.


    Even mortals should be able to do this but then it will only be able to take in a few weapons or armor and a few hundred lights only at the very maximum.


    We, gods, of course have infinite space but artefacts lose their strength within us so we can¡¯t really do that.


    ¡°Thank you. Thank you, thank you! Jurak, I will name it ¡®forever¡¯ as in that it will never break, at least not when I¡¯m using it¡±


    ¡°Solhok, why can¡¯t you just call me Asen?¡±


    ¡°Because it seems weird to call you Asen when I know you are Jurak¡±


    ¡°Fine, whatever. Well, shall we go?¡±


    When we arrived at a random mountain in the north, we first looked for a better place and then we, or rather I, went on to create those golems.


    ¡°Solhok, would you need any support golems?¡±


    yrts¡°A steed would be nice and a stout rearguard to defend my flanks so I can destroy them all without any problems¡±


    ¡°Seems reasonable. Remember that you have to protect these golems too while you kill those of the opponent. If all our golems are dead then we have lost. When fighting a Pure God, try to avoid direct conflict as you are only yet a Light¡±


    I then set to create 4 wooden with stone protection golems that were similar to my jakils.


    Solhok and I could use these as steeds, especially when one is destroyed.4 out of 100.


    I added 22 humanoid golems with a big shield as one arm and a short sword as the other so that it had more control over it. 26 out of 100.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.30 wooden archer golems that with some mana of mine can each create 50 stone arrows and they all have an interwoven stone and wooden bow that can actually fire those arrows.


    Their arms and a few other places are reinforced with stone to make them able to handle all of that, and that they are mostly made of wood is so that they are mobile. 56 out of 100.


    8 lieutenants that I can control directly to give orders and the rest are simple golems small and strong golems with a mix of axes, maces and halberds to break the enemy minions. 100 out of 100.


    The extra steeds stay near me, 2 lieutenants go with Solhok, 2 with the archers in groups of 15 and 4 with the 36 infantry in groups of 9.


    --- The Battle of Solhok ---


    Jurak has finally finished the golems.


    I am so very exited and I can¡¯t wait to smash some lowly golems that don¡¯t belong to my House.


    I shift ¡®Forever¡¯ in my hands again.


    It feels so very good in my hands and I can¡¯t wait to see how much it can endure.


    I know I told Jurak I wouldn¡¯t break his weapons anymore but if they can¡¯t handle my use then they aren¡¯t worthy of me.


    The same goes for all my opponents, if they can¡¯t defeat me then they aren¡¯t worthy of challenging me and should be killed then.


    I walk over to my steed and I can certainly see the resemblance to Firn.


    I also hope to test my mettle with one of the Pure Gods but I would still have to protect our golems so I would have to do it again one of these decades for a fair fight. Not to mention I was only a Light and not a god yet.


    The moment I was seated on my steed my army moved.


    I was already cloaking our presence but if Jurak hadn¡¯t been helping me, it would have been useless.


    The moment I sensed someone I told one of the lieutenants who were directly controlled by Jurak who was at the back of the army while I was with the vanguard.


    The army suddenly shifted to the right and got into position to ambush the coming golem army that we can now see coming on a mountain road.


    n¡°Jurak, have the archers set up position before and behind the army and shoot when they are directly in front of us¡±


    The golem tried to nod.¡°Solhok,I will also have one infantry group protecting the archers up front while you attack them at the front rear. When they either try to retreat or continue with a frontal attack, we¡¯ll have two other groups flank them from behind with the last unit in reserve up the cliff in case they try to flank us themselves¡± ¡°Sounds good, lets get into position¡±


    The army once more moved but his time into precise locations.


    The enemy golem army seemed to contain 67 simple golems with swords which don¡¯t do that well against stone.


    The missing golems probably meant that they had already been in a fight.


    Then our archers fired simultaneously. The enemy must have lost at least a dozen golems but the Pure God commanding them immediately shouted orders.


    Roughly two thirds of her army went ahead with herself to attack the archers there while the others went to the archers behind them.


    Sadly for her we had a bigger force of common golems that were better equipped than hers defending the second group of archers.


    Trusting Jurak to deal with the golems attacking the second group, I sprung my trap.


    My initial jump took out 3 golems with one swing while the archers fired at the same moment. The Pure God managed to evade every arrow so I would have to confront her to stop her.


    When my guard trickled in I started our fight in earnest since I wouldn¡¯t have to take out any of his golems anymore. I swung ¡®Forever¡¯ at her legs before jumping and trying to divide her chest in two.


    I saw that Solhok had engaged with Vadira¡¯s group of golems.Taking advantage of this I had my archers volley at the same time.


    I also saw Vadira turn the legs of one of my golems into sand after getting scraped by her blade. They would regenerate but only after the battle by holding the legs of other broken golems to the stumps.


    Then I felt a few of my archers breaking and when I turned my attention to them I saw that Vadira had 23 golems following from a distance behind her, thus ambushing us from behind.


    All the archers that weren¡¯t engaged immediately fled to a safe distance to pick them off.


    The reserve unit was sent to them but they wouldn¡¯t get in time so I also sent the other three steed golems. I recalled Solhok¡¯s just before he foolishly jumped into the enemy army. And so I saved its live as he already lost 8 of his unit.


    The steeds barrelled over the enemy golems and transported a few of the intact archers to where the others were going.I had them volley once more into the enemy golems before the reserve unit arrived.


    Since they were tied down and were no longer a threat as the archers fired into both groups, diminishing them until we would win, I turned my attention to Solhok¡¯s fight once more.


    He was staring to absorb a lot of energy for some reason from all around him. He had even completely drained the damaged golems already. Yet he was still clearly losing since he was only a Light compared to the god before him. I wouldn¡¯t interfere but I will aid him by providing mana and energy if he needs it.


    I WILL NOT LOSE.


    How dare these golems even interfere when they can see that I am fighting!


    It matters not; they can provide me their strength as repayment.


    This is a very tough fight and I could all the power there is. I will need it all. Our damaged golems are useless; I can take all of their power too.


    I made a feint to the left and actually followed up on it which surprised the god. She can¡¯t afford it now. I let go of the axe with my right hand and twisted the handle with my left one before retaking it and bringing it down on her once more as I jumped towards her.


    All of this happened in an instant using all the power I can. Every fight is a serious one and every fight should be fought to the utmost and won.


    Defeat is incompetence. Defeat is shame. Defeat is not something that will mar MY HOUSE.


    After that one super fast adjustment, he slowed again but now he his average speed is going up with every blow he takes and deals.


    This axe is not strong enough yet to handle this, but it can¡¯t break!


    Solhok once more used most of the power that he had to attune the axe to him and strengthening it.


    He made it so much sharper in the process too.


    Right blow, left feint, upper block, lower block.


    Many golems just fell apart from being near Solhok while he was fighting by being drained of that what animated them.


    This wasn¡¯t a corruption ofLife; rather it was due to his affinity in war. Even Vadira was getting taxed by this pressure Solhok gave out.


    Solhok was a Light or otherwise known as an immortal sentient being that was weaker than a Great Light and stronger than a Lesser Light. The difference is also in the capitals.


    Also, this classification only mattered if the being wasn¡¯t blank, which we use as currency here.


    Solhok was a creation of Asen, or otherwise known as Jurak by any light, great light, Light or Great Light, so he would always be unique compared to others.


    He was near Great Light level since he awoke and all the battles he had done since only increased this.


    Great Lights are classified as Gods.


    As the battle raged on between Solhok and Vadira, Solhok increased the strength of his current body so his blows could shatter the earth itself if not the golem he aimed for.


    As all the enemy golems and his own were destroyed, he took power from the archers that were further away but still in the battle.


    When they broke he took it from the other groups as his fight was nearing equality between both fighters as opposed to the previous evasive fight.


    When there was no one left at all, he knew he had to make a decisive move.


    He threw Forever to just behind Vadira and picked up several of the fallen golems weapons.


    As he ran forward he threw these weapons to make a path to his axe and obscure were he was going.


    When he threw them all he slid down and after a few meters jumped to where his axe was behind Vadira and put all his strength into this last blow.


    But when he made the finishing move, Vadira wasn¡¯t to be seen and suddenly struck him down from above.


    She had won.


    ¡°Well done. You deserve this win¡±


    Win? I had just lost, hadn¡¯t I? I saw Jurak coming towards us on his steed with another in tow.


    ¡°Solhok! Well done, we won!¡±


    ¡°Huh? How?¡±


    ¡°Do you not see that Vadira doesn¡¯t have any golems left? We still do! It would have been way more if you hadn¡¯t destroyed them all but no matter. These two are enough to count this a win. Doesn¡¯t seem like we can continue on though, so I guess we will have to redraw from any further fights. Vadira, you did quite well with that contingency plan. How would you like to visit one of our meetings? If everyone agrees, we may allow you to join. I even think I may change our hierarchy a bit to allow a few generals. Interested? We will see you again, I hope¡±


    Vadira nodded to us.


    ¡°It would be my pleasure to see if it is worthy. I shall consider it. Bye and Solhok, once more, you did very well. Can¡¯t wait for our next match¡±


    She then vanished. Jurak destroyed the steeds and we both returned to our mansion inside the palace. When we were back, Jurakimmediately went back to work on something other than that sword.


    Apparently, I''m going to get a sister.


    <hr>


    This is by the way my drawing of a jakil. I think i will draw more for other creatures and races i myself imagine.


    Drawing of a jakil</a>

 The Chapter of Gulg the Fourth

    The Chapter of Gulg the Fourth


    YES!


    Finally, after what seemed to me hundreds of years, we made an existence in this god forsaken Abyss.


    I nearly cried out of happiness when I took form. Even that had been taken from me where I had been before.


    When I looked around in the space we had created, which was a 10 by 10 meters big room with no roof, I could see that I was the first.


    I can feel the others trying to take shape but one is having problems for some reason.


    It felt like he was getting chopped up, hustled up and then put back together... And this happened continuously.


    Since I could sense that the others would take some time, I set to enlarge our realm.


    First I made the earth; I placed dirt and stone on an equal hight as far as it could go. Then I removed the box I was in and was greeted by oblivion all around me except down.


    I gave us a sky, red in forever twilight, yet with no sun itself.


    The moment another took shape, it changed once more. My earth broke into sand and at some places even created deserts.


    Again, one escaped from the Abyss and came to us.


    This time, my sky darkened where black stars shone. At the arrival of the fourth one, a force took upon our realm that brought fires and light towards us.


    The fifth of us came nearly unnoticed and disappeared into the shadows from the ash clouds that came after her wake.


    My world changed so quickly as the others took hold upon it with their desires but it was still mine and even if it was changed, it wasn''t broken.


    Then the last came. The earth shattered here and there while at other times it rose up in large spikes or fell away to a shattering height.


    Flames erupted from the ground and rivers of lava broke my world up.


    The worst thing however was he.


    A monstrous being with two pairs of horns and black-scaled skin, wings that were three meters in length each and made of a white membrane. He seemed as much demon as dragon but he still had arms and legs anyway.


    He started laughing while looking at the world around him. When he saw me, he came forward and looked me in the eyes.


    He then ripped my head off.


    Through the eyes of Gulg, a Dark God touched by Chaos, he looked upon the realm that would be his.


    The moment I saw them there, sitting for the first time in six centuries, I knew I couldn''t pass up on this opportunity.


    Rest is for the weak and unworthy.


    I walked towards the girl I knew I could have, and preceded to take her head.


    "What the hell are you doing!" yelled an annoying little boy.


    "Taking what is mine. Now, come here and present me your head or serve"


    "Like hell I will" Two earthen spikes erupted from where I stood seconds ago.


    "Ha, what was that! If you can''t fight, then run or die. You will find no mercy here boy"


    The place the boy once stood is now a raging inferno, eating all it touches, flames of hungering chaos.


    It seemed however that it couldn''t kill the boy as his useless screams reached my pointed ears.


    The screams turned silent and the flames slowly dispersed.


    The boy was missing chunks of flesh all over him but they were already growing back.


    "I don''t want you among us. I will kill you if I have to"


    "And I will kill you if it amuses me because it would be no hard feat"


    "You bastard!"


    Earth spikes constantly dove into where I had been standing and stepped.


    The boy was getting a feel for it, it seemed.


    I used some of that power within me to create a long sword as I might actually get injured if this continues.


    "Be prepared for my flames weakling. You might even die this time" The boy immediately blocked all my influence around his area, which I found intriguing.


    He was a fool though to think I would have actually warned him though.


    As the spikes had lessened, I ran forward through the first opening I saw and brought my blade forth.


    I saw his eyes widen with fear as he even tried to evade my blade.


    I previously planned to just separate him from his lower half but as he dodged, I could only take his right arm. Maybe I was lucky and it was his dominant one.


    "Submit boy, you are only going to perish so. After I had my fun with you of course"


    Just the thought made me smile uncontrollably which seemed to scare the kid further. To be fair he was only a few years younger than me but he had never seemed to grow up even after a few hundred years and remained na?ve.


    Not that I had really ever interacted with him.


    "That really makes me want to trust you demon. You know what? Shove that shiny metal blade up y..."


    Seeing that he would rather die, I did the most straightforward thing.


    I turned the ground he stood on into lava.


    The fool had dropped his barrier since it took more concentration at his strength and this location than his severed arm would allow. Checking if he was truly gone, I grabbed his arm and consumed it.


    It was delicious.


    Walking back to the girl, while ignoring the hostile stares from the last two that had just watched the whole time, I could see that she was slowly vanishing and going in parts back to being formless in the Abyss that surrounded this realm.


    I could still consume some of it though.


    "Argh" A metal javelin pierced my chest and weakened me heavily.


    That insufferable boy was climbing back out of the pool.


    "You can''t kill me. I know that Juline still lives and so will I then if I perish. You can''t consume if I''m gone too"


    The boy named Lucan once more stood up and with his last effort, a truly strong wind blew against me. With all my concentration on keeping myself up, I managed to get closer to Lucan.


    "I welcome you, my foe, to mine bloody, bloody realm" and parted his head with my blade before I was cast far away.


    At least I still had that girl''s her head.


    --- In the first realm, Council of the First Alliance ---


    "Silence!"


    The entire room went silent.


    Not because I was the strongest among these gods or that I could do things they can''t. No, I am their leader and if they wouldn''t listen to me, they wouldn''t be here either way.


    I have enough strong ones behind me that do.


    "If we can''t hear each other then why even bother to have a conference. First General Ison please let us hear your joyous voice and give me a report of the current century"


    "Nothing has changed since the last one, except for that if we were to fight now, we would most likely lose most of our territory and artefacts. The Combined Legions are still amassing Lights to destroy any potential threats for when we all get to the planet. I haven''t changed my thoughts about attacking them first either so you know where I stand"


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    "Yes Ison, I still remember you saying that these last two centuries but we won''t be the first to attack. Victory in this realm is worthless when we leave and such a bother as well. I''d rather we continue on working on our Houses and learn whatever Mars and Lilith have to teach, if we ever see them that is. What is it Alaica?"


    "Can we not simply secretly kill their Lights? I have created some that are capable of the task"


    "And who would you frame? They may only be Lights but they don''t just up and die"


    One of the lower members came forward and made the gesture to speak up.


    "Granted" I said


    "Great God Rexus of House Irrelen. Perhaps we could create a form of artificial corruption and attach it onto one of their Lights. I know this would be a near impossible task for most of us even if we are gods, but I believe that I may be able to create some new force that we can control better at the least if I only could get the help of Asen and Alaica who excel at the creation of things. Merely Asen alone would be fine too as I hear that he is the more capable."


    "How dare you, you know nothing of my capabilities" said an irritated Alaica but the Pure God mostly ignored it.


    "I only spoke the truth my fellow god"


    I can understand why Asen would rather work on his House and other projects than join these conferences.


    Hells, the last time he actually came here was centuries ago when he wanted us to have generals and other functionaries. He hadn''t even breathed here since then.


    "Alaica can help you. I don''t however know if Asen will even care a butt load though. Go to his place and see if you can get to one of his spawn, they are one of the only ones that can get him to get out of that mansion of his. And third general Vadira, make sure that any forces of ours are enlarged once more and this time continue so in response to any change within the Combined Legions" He then addressed the latest speaker


    "What''s your name?" The man seemed surprised I asked but he promptly answered.


    "My name is Blohel"


    "Blohel, ask Asen and see if you two can find another use for this new corruption you speak of. Now, if no further speakers come forth then I call this meeting quits"


    I willed myself back to my mansion the moment we finished up.


    "Vera, Thorn, Marcus come we are going out for the week"


    "Where to father? Asked Vera as she came down the stairs.


    "To visit Learce. We haven''t seen her for some time"


    "Ha, we saw her last decade didn''t we. Already missing here, are you?" Said Thorn from the third floor.


    The next moment he jumped down from his floor.


    My house had a relatively small hall where all the stairs and 8 floors go around.


    "If you want to lose that tongue again for a year or have an actual thorn in your side, please do continue"


    "I meant no disrespect father" He said solemnly.


    "Yeah, as if" A voice from one of the rooms on the ground floor said.


    Another moment later a young man came out of the door, to whom the voice belonged to. His name was Marcus and is rather a bookworm unlike any other from my House.


    "Father, I didn''t hear you calling Cearle. Isn''t she coming with us?"


    It was rather embarrassing that I had named Cearle after Learce, so I usually preferred if they didn''t meet.


    "No, someone has to guard the fort"


    "And you picked Cearle? Hells, I would have been a better choice and I would have even preferred that" Commented Thorn. "Thorn"


    "...Yes father..."


    Then a form actually fell down from what must have been the fifth floor.


    "Are we going to Learce?" Cearle excitedly said after she stood up.


    "Yes we are but this time you need to stay to guard our home okay? You know that the tension has risen between the smaller groups, the Combined Legions and ours? They are practically looking for a weakness to attack us at by now. They certainly have the legions to attack with. That''s why we need you to guard our house, okay?"


    "Fine I guess, but next time I do want to come!"


    "Of course Honey".


    My spawn and I then left through the front door instead of reforming myself at Learce''s house.


    The scenic route is always more enjoyable than the time I would spare is.


    After nineteen hours we finally arrived.


    The sight we arrived to made my blood boil with rage.


    Her house was burning down with gaps missing here and there and scattered parts of Lights everywhere.


    Among them lied the severed head of Learce herself with one of her spawn attending to her remnants.


    Those despicable beasts had even consumed parts of her!


    "THORN! Slaughter any enemy left alive and destroy as much of these Lights as you can, to give them a final death. Marcus, search for any more of Learce''s spawn. Vera, we shall return to our house immediately"


    Instantly I were before my house once more.


    Parts of it were disintegrated and the rest on fire and only a few pieces of the lawn remained but believe me that they too will colour red at the end of this.


    Luckily for me, the Lights still were here together with several enemy Houses, so revenge was possible.


    "HA, Rexus. What a nice house you have, I even enjoyed your spawn, HA!"


    I took a blade that Asen made from within me and gave it to Vera while I took my own blade.


    I grit my teeth as I take step after step towards the enemy Pure Gods, all the while listening to the leader gloat over his act of brutality.


    "Where is she" I say through grit teeth.


    "What did you say? Great God Rexus, please forgive me for not needing to answer that" The god said sarcastically.


    "Then please die, nameless," I whisper as a slash at him from fifteen meters away.


    I closed the gap in not a second and tried to hold him there with my power but evidently he was stronger than me.


    "Ha, I always knew you were just a weakling with powerful friends Rexus. Give me the pleasure of ruining them too"


    Nameless said with a smile. Those damned bloodthirsty fools of the Combined Legions.


    Nameless and a few other pure gods started to surround me, while another who stood behind their soldiers prevented me of exerting influence. She was at least out of the fight though.


    I could see only a few Great Lights present with three of them fighting Vera and the rest of them commanding the army.


    "I won''t give up" I growled.


    "And we won''t spare you either. What a good combination don''t you think?" said Nameless.


    The rest clearly weren''t really talkative it seemed but seemed blood crazed all the same. I swung here and there but each time it was blocked and I had to quickly retreat before attacking again as the others could easily strike at that opportune moment.


    This continued for hours while I also had to handle the magic of the gods though only the one in the back really used it.


    I was already worn down when I heard Vera scream.


    I just turned around vast enough to see her decapitated.


    With the last ounces of my strength I charged towards Vera only to have one of my legs hacked off.


    "And we were just having fun. Well maybe next time we can try again, if you have the strength that is" Said Nameless before he drove his blade through my chest.


    As my visions darkened I thought I could see Asen coming towards me with his blade drawn. If I wasn''t already losing consciousness then I would have sworn he and his spawn behind him were covered in blood...

 The Chapter of Valtr the Fifth

    So, i managed to get a proofreader (yay!) in a totally non-grownupnapper way and "we" maganed to form a rough outline of when I should be working and he doing the reading and... Something? Yeah, seems acurate. Well bloody and I have decided that its probably more going to look like a chapter every third day on average from now on. It saddens me that it ruins my beautiful track record but so nearly did this chapter (if you look at the date for when this was posted it says 21 but the actual time is something like 23:30(at least for me)). Further more I would like to thank you for reading this and if you didn''t then guilt on you for making my cat cry.


    <hr>


    The Chapter of Valtr the Fifth


    Where am I?


    Oh yeah, I seem to have died. I DIED!


    Clarity now fills my mind as the rest of my being is filled with rage. Those Lights came out of nowhere, and then they started attacking my House.


    I remember anger rushing forth and conjuring a storm of blades, slashing the legion of Lights as they charged. They all lost their bodies before me as my blades danced through them.


    None could touch me as my storm raged unbroken. When I dared let it rest, I could see the carnage and felt satisfied.


    With many of my spawn dead, revenge should be had.


    This first drop made me hunger for more until the debt was paid. When I heard a whispered challenge, I was quite surprised.


    I turned just in time to see a dagger come at my throat. I crumbled onto my garden''s ground.


    The god cloaked in shadows came over and brought down his dagger once more but this time to remove my head. That''s how I, Learce of House Raiz, died my first time.


    As I, Asen or to others known as Jurak, looked down upon my friend, who was slowly disappearing into the Abyss, I knew this war would be the last thing we did in this realm.


    For make no mistake, the Combined Legions had certainly declared war.


    They had attacked all of the core members including me just a day ago. When Blohel and I finally finished up my attackers, I went to check upon the others together with my Household.


    Solhok was a mere blur of carnage, Eris a voice of death as she brought their lives to her, Harkness a beast of many different forms, Valtr the magic of destruction himself and lastly Sellese, she who protected us all.


    All our friends had lost some of their spawn and some weren''t with us anymore at all.


    I had come lastly to Rexus only to find him impaled by a blade.


    "Leave" I told the nameless leader of my foes.


    "I see not all our legions were successful. And here we had thought you to be the weakest" He said.


    Their Lights charged at us and once more we had to end lives.


    Solhok had carved an empty space around me.


    "You should know better than to attack us with mere lights" Solhok yelled back to the enemy after their Lights stopped charging.


    "I think you may be right but that''s why we are here, isn''t it?"


    "That would only make this a stale mate, one that would be costly for all of us"


    I was getting enough of this. With my strength, I created a barrier between us.


    "I have no more want for blood shed. Leave and we will meet in battle I hope. I will look forward to crushing you"


    "And I to bring you down" Said Nameless.


    "But it seems like there is nothing for us here. Let¡¯s meet again" Slowly all of the influences in the area receded allowing for easy existential displacement again.


    I returned home to work on this new corruption with Blohel while the others would fight this war until then. I could already envision what this Magic Corruption will be able to do.


    The war is still raging on a good thousand years later.


    The Combined Legions had the most Lights, some three hundred thousand while we only had hundred fifty thousand lights.


    The only reason we weren''t crushed was because of our many artefacts that we used in battle and some very powerful Houses. Not only that but also many of the smaller alliances or groups that were pressured by the Legions formed a defensive pact with us.


    With the temporary loss of Learce and Rexus, We had to create a few more rules so that our generals could rise to a non-permanent leading position if the core members voted to instead of one of their own.


    I also made sure that we could take it back if the general was insufficient. With that Ison led us through the war, to buy us time as Blohel and I worked on the new corruption and Alaica on creating specific war Lights together with some artefacts for them.


    But oh boy was my work magnificent.


    I used the aspect of my influence, which has turned toward creation, to give it a heartbeat and Blohel''s summoning aptitude to give it shape. With those it got instincts.


    I could also use it as a catalyst to make my mana flow but for me that was already a natural thing. The corruption itself could be summoned forth but for us it was rather hard, as we needed to purge our power from our influence before it would come.


    I can imagine mortals having fewer problems though.


    The first time I used it was to drastically reshape a simple Great Fire, what would rank as an immortal sentient Beast. The Magic Corruption did as its name suggested and turned the Great Fire into a two-headed dragon with an extra pair of wings and blood red scales with dark blue vain like stripes everywhere. Sadly this only happened the first time.


    Our final work wasn''t practical to be used as we had first intended to as anything sentient could usually easily suppress any urges of destruction my Corruption of creation brought forth.


    Instead we used it to empower our own.


    We unleashed it upon the Abyss from where we could summon it to any realm or plane and started experimenting upon our diminished and replenished forces.


    I took many Lights, Great Fires and even a few Great Lights who volunteered with my own Eris among them.


    Blohel himself offered to corrupt himself slightly in the name of research as the Corruption wasn''t obviously nefarious like some others as Chaos, Death or Order.


    Actually, you wouldn''t want to be corrupted by any as Chaos can turn corrupted into demons and often seek to destroy, conquer or consume everything. Live seeks to leech to life out of everything living to sustain itself.


    Death causes the corrupted to slowly die while the surroundings slowly crumble and the people nearby have their bodies decay.


    Order makes the corrupted try to control everything and everyone while slowly losing all their power and ageing fast.


    Darkness makes them physically unable to be in the light and slowly eats away their emotions; while at the same time can also turn them physically into monsters. Light affects their personality by making them arrogant, ruthless and apathetic. Light sometimes also turns them into beasts or elementals as we have seen before.


    You also have the weaker Corruptions like Greed, Age or the Abyss, though the Abyss is more of a conductor for other corruptions.


    By using the Magic Corruption upon them, we created Cyclops, dragons, wyverns, drakes, manticores, chimeras and hydras.


    The gods who let themselves be corrupted sometimes just got a certain characteristic that would remain even after they changed their body.


    Some had gotten a form that they were stuck in but were actual generic bodies with whatever strength came with it. Eris for example turned into a gorgon, a woman with snakes for her hair and turned anyone who looked her in the eyes into stone.


    This didn''t work against the other gods though but she still got a very high amount of kills petrifying the Lights, as she was a higher being than them.


    With them, we took to the battlefield and fought in the ruins of this realm. And when Rexus finally returned to us in his weakened state, over more than ten thousand years later, we marched forth to finish this.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Solhok! Guard the right flank! They are starting to falter!"


    Without any sign of him having heard me as he continued slaughtering any Light that stood before him, I went to look for Valtr, as we couldn''t lose the right flank since that could easily escalate to the escape of the Combined Legions.


    We had surprise attacked their main force and leadership.


    If we could take the leaders out, then the Combined Legions would fall apart when they all tried to take over what was left.


    They we could deal with but as they had numerical superiority, it had been a pain and sometimes life threatening to deal with coordinated attacks from them at the same time.


    I rode upon Firn searching for Valtr among all the other gods currently fighting.


    It was chaos in order. So many different magics clashed in the air or devastated the ranks of either armies while at other times a shield broke or a barrier vanishes together with its owner.


    Our forces weren''t the only ones touched by the Magic Corruption since we had unleashed it upon the Abyss but our numbers of them dwarfed theirs still.


    Another black hole opened near to me and I had to personally disperse it to prevent myself from getting distracted by it.


    You would say that one such hole would destroy a whole army do you?


    Well, actually it can''t even damage the realm that much as we have tried it a few times during our first battles.


    When I turned back after dispersing it I immediately saw two hydra heads coming at me.


    I dodge to the right to escape the first head and duck below the second one.


    As the second passes me, I touch it and freeze the whole damn head solid. With a slash of my blade I break the solid head of ice.


    Then the other head returned only to turn into ash.


    From behind the huge mount of ash I can see Valtr.


    "Valtr! Someone needs to back up the right flank! Can you smaller the engagement area? If you do, hold it up until we can get a few thousand mage Lights there to hold it there as they should be able to go against one god but remain in the area okay?"


    "Sure, I just finished up that dragon too so I will go right away!"


    With that he ran backtowards his jakil that was defending itself against a few other beasts there and hopped on.


    I still saw him throwing a few dragon gutters into the enemy ranks.


    It may not seem to make any difference but all those Lights who were in the effect radius, burning up from the inside was quite a sight.


    I once more used some of my influence to strength those around me.


    With the Lights strengthened I Let out a yell to renew our charge that could be heard from a kilometre in any way you go to.


    Yet not even my fellow gods were close enough to have heard it; so far did this battle stretch out.


    I had our dragons that were nearby first breath flame over the enemy''s area before the fresh troops came in.


    With me at its head we managed to get a hundred meters closer to our goal before a god showed up to stop me.


    He was a Great Light and jumped off from a dragon that was now in a fight with a wyvern of ours. His fall alone crushed a dozen of my men.


    Turning to face this new threat I immediately get hit by a drake from behind, bringing me that much closer to the other god.


    Just as I passed him, I slashed open one of the drakes¡¯ eyes and burned the other one before I threw it back into enemy lines where it could trample many more in its blind pain. Let alone that things fall.


    I bring forth a rather new blade that I made a century ago and had quickly turned into my favourite. I brought my snow white blade up to face my enemy once more.


    Our fight was bloody as I lost a few fingers myself and got more slashes than a mortal could survive.


    Yet I think my opponent was envious.


    First I managed to gut him at the cost of the before mentioned fingers as I only just slipped through his defence. The second time was just plain bad luck for him as he made a complex move to dodge a Cyclops blade, which the thing used as a club since we noticed that the monster¡¯s intelligence had steadily decreased every time it had reproduced from the first ones, and somehow got his intestines to fall out and trip over them.


    Using the opportunity, I tried to hold him in place with my influence as I slashed toward his head.


    Sadly he managed to get free which caused my previously would be fatal blow to only take his jaw off.


    Still tangled by his intestines mind you, he cut through them and ran away.


    I couldn¡¯t really go after him at this point since it would mean giving up on the charge, not to mention that i was having to hold my blade two handed because of the missing fingers on both hands now.


    The wyverns in the air now numbering a few less, I had them pick me up and also any foe of ours that was engaged and then to drop all of us into the enemy lines. I never got to enjoy it though as my ride got hit by a multitude of arrows.


    Abandoning ship midair, I managed to get somewhat closer to the centre of the enemy formation.


    I had to leave Firn behind though since I doubt the Great Fire would want to leave the ground at all. Crushing a few dozen of Lights myself as I land, I immediately begin to call out for my soldiers to gather around me for another push.


    After a day when I finally have enough near me, I try to incinerate as many as I can through the barriers that had been erected to prevent this. With around a thousand casualties on the opposing side I can only imagine that whatever god is holding up that thing is doing a piss poor job of it.


    Or maybe I am just that strong, who knows right?


    After working a way through the enemy ranks we finally reach the end after a mere month of continuously fighting.


    I could see the same happening and that have happened among the left flank but for the right flank it seemed as if the opposite is closer to the truth.


    Hoping that at least Valtr and a few other gods could stop it from breaking completely, I set forth to secure this pathway through the lines.


    As the runners that I send out finally reached the other Houses and returned with them as backup, the pathway had nearly fully closed in width since it was a long area to defend.


    It would probably have already fallen if I hadn¡¯t dealt with that god that attack us a few days ago.


    Having it finally fully secured, all of the reserves we could spare from the battle, we took with us towards the broken citadel that he had been working our way to from the beginning.


    It was luckily already broken by the Combined Legion from when they took the citadel that Valen had built over.


    Otherwise it would have been a guaranteed loss for us, getting attacked from behind while besieging a citadel. It happened pretty much the same when the Legions besieged it when it was still good but they broke it quite thoroughly when they tried to get in before all their men died.


    So then when we charged towards it. we just walked over the walls which they did not have the skill to repair. Going in with as many House that we could spare, we walked into the hall where all the leaders of the Combined Legions should be.


    With Rexus at the lead, he opened the two massive doors leading into it. Rexus hadn¡¯t recovered even a third of the power he lost during his demise so in the end Ison had to help him.


    Going on, Rexus walked into the room with Ison just behind him. What we were surprised to see, was Mars and Lilith standing among the carnage that was visible throughout the hall.


    ¡°Welcome victors, as you can see all the leading Houses of the Combined Legions are dead, wounded or vying for peace. We had to interfere here as it could have damaged this realm too badly for us to further live in peace here. We have decided that you are ready for the next step. The nine shall be chosen and the world shall be created. The Lights here shall either go into the Abyss or their master¡¯s realm while the monsters will go to the world. Take hold of what you wish to take from this realm you ruined and create your own¡± Said Lilith when we all could hear her.


    Mars grinned as he looked through one of the windows at the battle still taking place outside.


    ¡°I do hope you don¡¯t destroy the world that the nine will create as you damaged this one. Even if you don¡¯t like whatever they create¡±


    And with those words, the war was over.


    Through all the battles I fought with Nameless and the other leaders of the Combined Legions, it was all for this goal. And now that it happened, I couldn¡¯t care less. For we were finally going to create our civilisations!

 The Chapter of Banneroth the Sixth

    The poll is for when the Houses each colonize the planet and what races will live relatively nearby. If no one bothers then I will choose myself but please don''t make it akward like that.


    <hr>


    The Chapter of Banneroth theSixth


    I am Banneroth Fyrros and I am the strongest.


    It is not in doubt or even a question. No I am truly the strongest.


    Of all these gods and Houses, none can beat me in power. There are some closer to me than most, but the distance still spans worlds.


    When their wars began, I just looked by. It was pointless for me to even consider participating.


    Not that I could end it in one blow, for there were way too many.


    But then that new corruption came to be. It was wonderful, what it was.


    Creation that can destroy such as that is impossible to have existed naturally.


    I tried to use it but I could not grasp it with my power.


    My spawn couldn''t summon it either. It angered and drove me further to understand its mysteries.


    Then I could finally get hold of just a sliver of the corruption.


    I had to purge my power of my influence to even get it to come, which was very hard for a god. The stronger one is, the greater their influence. After getting more of the Aether Corruption I noticed a change within me.


    It brought to me a form, one I could feel as a dragon.


    Feeding this form, it became my true one.


    I am the dragon god, the strongest of them all, truly this form is worthy of me.


    I looked like the devourer of worlds. Glistening black scales with a red glow between them, a jaw and claws both indestructible.


    My eyes were a beautiful sight most would see last before their true death, red with black slits that seemingly went into the Abyss.


    A long slender tail that ended in an ever-sharp blade.


    Even some gods would quiver in fear of me. This change felt true so I had all of my spawn turn as well.


    Because they were beings brought to live by me, their begotten forms were no surprise and they all became wyverns, dragons or even drakes of greater power than others of our ilk.


    With the war drawing to a close as the First Alliance made more daring and ruthless moves than before and with their newly returned leader at their front.


    They charged in on an opportunity to finally rid themselves of the Combined Legions leaders.


    Most of them were present except for one lower ranked leader who had killed Rexus before. It seems being lower ranked and unimportant enough to arrive a year later, to see that the citadel is being attacked, had saved him from a death.


    It was only a matter of time before the First Alliance would break through their defense and enter the broken citadel.


    What I hadn¡¯t expected though was that Mars and Lilith would prevent the decimation of both parties. That would undoubtedly have happened as they both had an equal force in the end.


    What flabbergasted me even more was that they had taken them all out without even getting wounded.


    I probably could have done the same but most likely would have died at the end because of my wounds.


    They really were a force to be reckoned with. As the war went by, most of the Lights in either army died in the following skirmishes and weren¡¯t replaced.


    The monsters hardly ever fought anymore though. When seemingly all had once more gone to peace, I could feel it.


    It felt like I was being asked to summon myself before someone.


    Curious I went to where they asked me to and arrived back at where this had all begun.


    The hall still looked the same as back then but now at where the one throne once stood, there are now nine thrones and were split in groups of three with their own colours.


    They were arranged in a circle and there is an open space in the middle of them all. At the back of each there also reads a name.


    The white chairs read; Lucais, Dreacmore, Vortigan and the black chairs have; Irrellen, Mograteth, Qulthor.


    The red chairs funnily enough began with my House name Fyrros and then went on with the names of the Houses that were closest to me in strength, Mithraak and Hirci.


    The House Lucais is renowned for creating the best and most beautiful things, and were the most skillful in the creation of live.


    The other names of the white chairs belonged to those who were similar in skills. It was quite amusing that only the Pure Gods, Mars and Lilith call the patriarch of House Lucais Asen while any other would call him Jurak. Quite confusing.


    As for the black chairs, I knew for a fact that Rexus, the leader of the First Alliance, belonged to House Irrellen and I think that Mograteth belonged to that person whose name I keep forgetting.


    Well, I guess I can call him Nameless but the thing is that he was the highest ranked leader of the Combined Legions after the battle of the broken citadel.


    So the black chairs must correspond to the greatest leaders.


    Before I sat down on the throne with my name on it, Lilith came forth from somewhere.


    I really can¡¯t figure those two out at all.


    ¡°If you would wait a while the others shall come shortly¡±


    ¡°I would rather get answers than pointlessly wait¡±


    ¡°True, but you must appreciate the trouble we went through to create a dragon throne so could you at least ask them while sitting on it? It is a shame you haven¡¯t yet figured out how to project yourself into a new body otherwise we would only have to alter it slightly¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that you speak of?¡±


    ¡°You basically create a body out of your power through heavy influence. It then should be another you but only as a second personality. Though you should be able to control it yourself at will¡±


    ¡°Interesting, I will try it out later. I thank you¡±


    ¡°Its nothing. If you need help figuring it out, ask one of the White Gods to help you out¡±


    ¡°White gods?¡±


    ¡°You may be strong but leave the wits with the Black and White Gods. So basically, you nine will physically create the world when all of you arrive. You are all Pure Gods but for further classification are you also a Great God, a god that has a special hold or strength against other gods and are thus greater. You also have gods that specialize in skill, strength or wisdom.


    The red stand for the blood in the living and flowing from the dead, they who follow this way do it for all reasons. The white of creation that comes through skill to make what you envision. The black symbolizes the end, meaning that rulers or leaders stand with their people till either lives end; it is also uncaring against anything else. They would be ruthless, merciful or even cruel but it would not matter in the end when it is either they or themselves that go¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s rather thoughtful¡±


    ¡°Living for eternity means that one always has to make a choice eventually. Not even death will stop that for us. You need to know what it is you are. That¡¯s all¡±


    When Lilith finished, a man sat down in one of the black chairs.


    Immediately after another one came and nodded to me but was outright hostile to the other person. He did sit down next to him in one of the black chairs though.


    A day later, when everyone had arrived, Mars came in to speak to us all.


    Some were basically bouncing up and down in excitement; the most notable was the man who was from House Lucais I thought. Others like the Pure God from the House of Mograteth were more preserved with his emotions but that was foolish.


    ¡°As you know, you will all be directed to the true plane. It is not something like your realms where the other gods are preparing to leave for, but rather that it is the plane that the Abyss surrounds in comparison of the realms that are within it. Yet as it is now, it is little more than a void. You nine will breathe life and reality to the dead husk it presently is.


    Everything you want and can add may be done but remember that dozens of Houses, even those that will come later when their Patriarch has returned from death¡±


    Imagine the wonders that we could create on that world with magic, wonders our old home never could have seen.


    Truly this was a wondrous opportunity.


    ¡°Why should we do this?¡± said a white god. ¡°I mean no disrespect but I won¡¯t care if whether I can set foot on a realm of mine or a plane of everyone¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s simple. You have to or you will disappear. The moment you leave this realm, you won¡¯t absorb power anymore from us. You need that world to regain any of your strength your expend by using your people as a catalyst. An interesting thing for later, if a House loses all its followers and people, then they would slowly disappear even if they conserve their power,¡± said Lilith with a devious smile.


    It seemed obvious to me that we would have to do it anyway if we wanted to survive.


    ¡°Not that I agree with Irnus of House Vortigan but are there no other ways of regaining lost strength?¡± Said Mortei of House Mithraak, who was a red god like me.


    Mars was the one to answer this one.


    ¡°No, or at least not yet. There are more things that don¡¯t exist than those that do¡±


    ¡°I think that everyone here agrees to doing this. Could we please get on with it now?¡± asked Rexus Irrellen.


    ¡°Yes of course. Please go to where the summoning requests your presence¡± said Lilith with a graceful voice.


    Then when she finished speaking, an insistent feeling came upon me to go to a far away place. I can¡¯t exactly say where it will take me and neither can I get a feel for what for place it would be. Asen was the first to leave with the others soon following. In the end only I still remained.


    ¡°This feels like the beginning of something new but I also know that I won¡¯t be back here if I leave now. There are still things to be done for me though¡± Mars came over to me and placed his hand on my scales.


    ¡°I am sure that your spawn will take care of it. If not then you may return here once more¡± ¡°Thank you Mars, and you too Lilith. May we one day meet again¡± I then promptly followed the others to start this new age. As I left I could faintly hear an echo from the places where Mars and Lilith had stood not moments ago.


    ¡°One can always hope little one.¡±


    I arrived into nothing and could see only nothing. I felt the others nearby in their not so physical forms most likely waiting for me. They of course noticed me at the same time.


    ¡°So are there any plans on how to do this?¡± asked Cyrn of House Qulthor.


    ¡°I have an idea so just follow my lead and if you want do add something or so be free¡±


    It took me some time to see the idea Asen had but when I did, I was overwhelmed in its complexity and practicality.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    One of the two other red gods made the universe with a big bang. All manner of things came forth and continued for a bit until dying off. Most common was rock, water and other gasses. Well, its not like I am an expert on rock so I couldn¡¯t really tell you what came, and the same counted for the liquids and gasses.


    At least there wasn¡¯t nothing anymore. One of the white gods, not Asen though, collected some of these chunks and with newly created gravity held all the gasses, waters and earth together.


    I brought heat to the planet in two ways; I made a sun that was nearly as big as the planet yet slightly smaller and melted the inner core of the planet too. The planet was really quite big though.


    I would estimate it to be roughly one and a half times bigger than our old Jupiter.


    With another part of my unreturning power I created a small red moon and named it after my House, Fyrros.


    Copying me, Asen and Nameless both made a moon of smaller size with their own respective colors.


    The biggest one, the red Fyrros, then a smaller white moon named Lucais and the smallest one following both is the black Mograteth. Only the white moon had been given a molten core and an atmosphere, so only that one could even have some life within its bounds.


    Rexus shaped the world and made three main continents and threw a few islands into the oceans, some of which were quite large themselves. The nameless one named the seas and oceans while also craving lakes into the land.


    The second white god and the remaining red god Eduras Dreacmore had created the forests together.


    One of the continents was mostly marsh with some woods and jungles south and in the middle, but it was divided into landmasses that were separated but nearby enough for continuous travel between them. The continent of Arresin was mostly woods, jungle and a few plains but also had a large marsh at the northern outcropping.


    The Dalmarck continent was the most varied as it had a desert in the middle that was surrounded by plains to the east and south. The north turned to plains, woods and then quickly to taiga after you left the desert.


    Most of the north was in fact taiga and tundra with a few pockets of fertile plains near the river that split it in two.


    To the west a wall of mountains nearly stops all passage with behind it gigantic plains with hill from the mountains to the sea with only more mountains south of the western peninsula and a large forest to its north.


    I couldn¡¯t bother trying to remember the rest of the continent but I can always see it so it matters not.


    Only Asen and the Qulthor patriarch hadn¡¯t participated yet.


    When Cyrn of House Qulthor''s turn had come he made the wonders of the underworld.


    Gems and metals were created deep into the earth and crystalline rivers rested in its caves and were ever still.


    Then Asen came forth and made the animals and monsters that now roam the planets surface.


    When we were done, Asen brought us together to his moon for one last thing.


    ¡°Everyone, we may have finally finished the world after all this time but it is still not complete. There is no magic here, don¡¯t you see. What great boredom will there be out of this¡±


    Rexus grimaced before answering.


    ¡°We don¡¯t want magic here. It will be for the best if only the gods and their servants have control over it¡±


    ¡°Not to mention that where there is magic, technology suffers¡± Said Eduras.


    ¡°The monsters that are upon that planet weaken per generation for its lack. The beast are getting blocked the path to that of a great fire. We made this world for the intention of that there should be magic!¡± Asen was slowly getting angry and rightly so. Why shouldn¡¯t there be magic?


    It¡¯s something that our world never had and without it this one would be the same.


    ¡°We haven¡¯t had that intention as all, only you did. I think I speak for all of us here when I say that I just don¡¯t want to vanish into nothingness,¡± said the nameless of House Mograteth


    ¡°You are all fools. We should give others this gift of power and see what wonders come forth from it!¡±


    ¡°No, you will not Asen!¡± Rexus his outburst got everyone silent including Asen. ¡°We are finished here. Let¡¯s all return to our pieces of the Abyss and create our realm before we return here¡±


    With that he slowly drifted away in pieces back to where he and Asen had first met all those millennia ago.


    Everyone followed him except Asen and I. When the others had gone far enough so that they wouldn¡¯t hear us, I started talking.


    ¡°I however do agree with you Asen. If you need my help for whatever you are going to do, just ask¡±


    ¡°Hah ha hah, how did you know¡±


    ¡°A creator such as you would never let others block your path to your desires¡±


    ¡°Ha, but yes I would need your help¡± And so the dragon god and the creator descended to a spot in the eastern plains of the east of the Dalmarck continent. In the shadow of the mountains nearby, Asen got to work while I provided him power.


    Some distance below us, a spark came to life. The spark enlarged to become a drop and then slowly a stream and after that a torrent.


    By his will, it shot downwards to the core of the planet. There it became a river of Aether Corruption that then corrupted the outer edge of the inner core. It enveloped it fully but the corruption wasn¡¯t so deep.


    From there it went out in vein like rivers towards the surface once more all over the world. While they didn¡¯t come as close to it as where we had started it all, it was enough for us to notice the difference.


    Tired, I knew we had done it the moment everything felt so much more alive. Then I could feel it starting to sap more of my power. ¡°Banneroth, we need to leave this planet before it devours our power whole, even my artefacts are diminishing. I also think we can set the days back to 24 hours, the magic should keep everyone from safe from the vast rotation. Hell, most likely also the enormous gravitational pressure. Come, lets go my friend¡±


    Together we both left the planet and when the drain was stopped by the protection the white moon had just gotten from Asen, we drifted back to our own pieces of the Abyss.


    I can only think how furious the others will be when they feel the magic. Only Asen would be able to remove it if at all.


    Would they believe us if we said we didn¡¯t know how it happened?


    Ha, I guess that avoiding them is the best option for now unless we want a possible rift between us all.


    --- In the Realm of Il''Sarien, when the Magic Corruption Birthed ---


    Somewhere, among the dark realms, a Dark God felt a powerful force come to life.


    He himself was the ruler of the city of Sarian that he himself had built in his boredom.


    His house was a palace but he had finished it more than a millennium ago. His realm was small but large enough for more houses around his palace. So he built the city and when it was large enough to house tens of thousands in modest houses and had all a prosperous medieval city could have, he finished that too.


    During this, all the fires and lights that he saw, he took. With those he made creatures of no mind but still of some intelligence. He named these ghouls and gave them physical bodies. It also had seemed that after they had reached a certain amount of lights that they were made out of, he could feed them his own power to prevent their disintegration.


    Before when he had tried that to lesser creatures, they just destroyed themselves for no reason he could discern.


    The first twenty ghouls he fed were changed to be more human-like and gained strength.


    After going through everything that he had done, he noticed that his power contained influence of him.


    He could also remove this but it would cost a lot of effort. Using this version of his power he saw that he could keep the other lesser ghouls intact too.


    In his boredom, he populated his city with these ghouls and preserved them all.


    The twenty ghouls that he had fed the power with his influence had more intelligence and some low vestiges of sentience.


    These reminded him of draugrs and thus got named as such.


    He then started playing with the corruptive forces that surrounded his realm. In particular he experimented with Live, Death and Darkness.


    He had once made a being of many fires and lights but hadn''t given it a physical form. These were wraiths. When he tried corrupting one of these with the Corruption of Death, they disintegrated quite fast even with him supplying power to them. When he noticed that they were also wearing down his city, he ripped them into individual fires even faster.


    He still had areas in his realm left over after deeming his city to be finished.


    This was made into a plain, a forest and a marsh in several places and he recreated the wraiths of Death in one of the marshes that were the furthest away from the city as he could get.


    When he corrupted a few ghouls with Live, they immediately devoured each other. He tried the same with a newly made draugr, thinking that a higher intelligence would be able to suppress the urge.


    It failed.


    The Darkness Corruption was successful but rather useless. It did strengthen them and since it was always night here, the ¡®unable to stand light¡¯ part didn¡¯t harm them.


    Then suddenly there was that new force. It was unique compared to the other Corruptions for some reason that he didn¡¯t understand.


    It created to destroy but created nonetheless. With new hope he worked.


    In the end he used the twenty draugrs that had withstood and absorbed his influence. Deep under his palace he had chained up his precious twenty, and started by corrupting them with Darkness. They became monsters in strength but nothing else changed. Then he gave them some Corruption of Life and they became beasts beset by their hunger but immortal if they could feed.


    And at last he gave them the new Corruption.


    The Magic corruption melted their blank lights together and he could then see them as Lights.


    This new corruption reformed their mind and bodies, it conquered the hunger that Life gave them but I could already see their hunger increase until it would beat their sentience though it would take some time.


    ¡°Master Saros, please release us. We are no more a threat to you. We can control this hunger until we can feed at the least¡± said one of the newly born Lights.


    ¡°Are you sentient?¡± The Dark God asked.


    ¡°Yes master. I for one, also remember pieces of before¡± said one of the females among them.


    The Dark God smiled and it seemed like a huge weight simply fell of his shoulders. He was not alone anymore.


    <hr>


    That moment when you have a great story in your head and realize you can write. Then you also have that moment when you realize you can write but not make memes so your entire story is for nothing...


    just wanted to share my temporary pain. At least i put it at the end so my story can make you happy again and now you are depressed for the rest of the day... sorry?


    Here is the map for the world (the plane of Unrec), i tried to describe it as well as i can and gave a few hints i would add the map but just ignore the dots with the names. I still have to decide on how to use them but if i name something as a city on the plane of unrec and its on that map then the same location is meant


    Plane of Unrec</a>

 The Chapter of the Seventh Realm

    The Chapter of the SeventhRealm


    I arrived in a half-realm. I had once been here with Rexus many centuries ago.


    Unknown in my power, yet to even see the First Realm, how sweet the ignorance had been.


    Now that I have returned I quickly made the ground for my side of the realm and on the other side I could see Rexus starting on his own house.


    The realm suddenly lurched when it felt my influence as an owner of this realm.


    Blue veins appeared in the sky going from the edge of the realm and then going up to the center of this realm where it formed a sun like sphere.


    In several places, a white vein came up from the ground and I had no idea what these things did yet but there were only a dozen of them with nearly all of them on my side of the realm. Sanctifying my part of the realm with my influence, I went to work on personifying it.


    I added a layer of lush black grass to the earth and placed tall black trees with red leaves. I know it may look creepy but if you add the few white veins in the ground and the blue glow from those in the sky.


    Another interesting thing about those blue veins was that for a year they were very bright and made it look like day with a blue sky and after that year it took another for it to slowly go darker until it was night with an ever present blue full moon and that took 3 years before it brightened again.


    Those few white veins sprouted a fire every time it had taken enough power from my realm. Those fires, which I called shades as they were basically pure power, gained more intelligence the more they aged.


    The time for it took for them to appear was at the least a few dozen years and for them to gain sentience two centuries.


    At least I calculated that it would take them two centuries with the current rate as I have eleven shades that I don¡¯t know where to put and most likely another eleven coming up.


    I ended up creating eleven great towers upon the white veins.


    Now they are just appearing in a pit at the bottom of them and Eris checks up on them every so often and brings them to the higher levels.


    I also created a few Lights that I gave human form. We had to teach them how to serve us though and then just had them teach each other and their few offspring.


    They weren¡¯t half bad.


    In the middle of mine realm, there is my palace, which in turn is surrounded by five temples.


    The palace is my home while my spawn live in the surrounding temples. The servants have several houses between them all and build new ones when their numbers require it.


    Within the palace I set to tinkering with creating a truly new race.


    I know that since goblins and other such races most likely haven¡¯t ever been on earth they could be counted as never having existed but they are still an old race.


    After a thousand years I came with this; The Carn, who are rather tall and slim at 2 meters average, have pale red tinted skin and small pointed ears.


    They also look rather predatory with claws on their hands and feet and carnivore teeth, which means they only eat meat if you aren¡¯t so bright.


    With the Magic Corruption, I managed to twist it so that they don''t need to eat as often as their physique would suggest due to mana conversion to sustenance and that there was a fifty percent chance for a Carn to have magic if their parents both had it too. Otherwise it should be twenty-five percent.


    They also have a good intelligence and average strength compared to humans.


    A side effect of the Magic Corruption was that their maximum mana increases with age but starts of very low, luckily they could age to several tens of thousand of years at the maximum.


    They reproduce at the speed of ''a child every few centuries''.


    When we use some of population here to colonize Unrec, we will have them offer up their lives to us when they are a hundred years old.


    If I can¡¯t stand them or need extra power then I will take their lights.


    If not then they live for another thousand years before doing so again and then for two thousand years and then three, four, until they die. I am hoping that they will be talented mages though I don¡¯t care about the sword.


    I also plan on teaching them enchanting and architecture; just to be sure I don¡¯t create a barbarian civilization.


    After two thousand years I had a population of 159 from where I started with 30.


    Just to be sure, I already started the offering tradition but I only took one bloody annoying little mortal who I gladly would have thrown into the Abyss.


    As it was, it would have been better if I used him as food for the shades or enlarged my part of the realm in hindsight. Though I certainly would not have reincarnated or used him for as a soldier in a whole undead army.


    The necromancy implied with that is quite complex too. I would imagine mortal necromancers would be able to capture whole lights, fires or other or if they are clumsy, broken ones.


    You would then have to find a host to use them and a vessel to collect them. We gods are naturally vessels ourselves but mortals or even immortals have very little space inside their being for this.


    They would have to figure something out for all that though since I certainly won¡¯t bother.


    Back to the beginning, I do think it would be useful to collect some sort of undead army.


    I would have to train the lights, fires or some other being, to increase their skill but since they should all be whole; they would be able to learn.


    These magics are quite interesting; I hope that my people will try to learn it themselves.


    Just before I started preparing leaving for Unrec and looking for a spot, I noticed that a few of the shades had gotten to the lowest level of sentience. I of course visited them immediately.


    They knelt as soon as they saw me.


    ¡°You may rise. Good. Tell me shade, what is your purpose?¡±


    ¡°To serve. To live. To create a new source¡±


    ¡°What does a source do?¡±


    ¡°Make new of us¡±


    ¡°And what can you do¡±


    ¡°Serve, live and create new source¡±


    ¡°Yes yes, you already told me that. I mean what makes you a shade?¡±


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    ¡°Am shade?¡±


    Eugh! I have better uses for my time than this. While I may have patience while working, I don¡¯t have as much when talking. ¡°See me when you are smarter¡±


    ¡°But see you now?¡± I could hear the shade say before I left.


    I really did not have the patience for such a conversationalist. I doubt he would even recognize that as a word.


    Having lived through that brief disappointment, I went forth to organize around half of my Carn population for the colonization of Unrec and as they did that I went over to see how Rexus was doing.


    When I came to the barrier wall, I send a request to cross it over to him. After waiting a cycle of day and night of my realm, I could feel the barrier mold to allow me passage to his side.


    Don¡¯t worry though, I can always return to my side when I want but he has to let me know when he wants to go there same for me to his side.


    Rexus his realm was quite different from mine to say the least.


    We may share the same ¡±sun¡± but there it really stops though. His realm is a plain covered in green grass but with white sand strewn between them.


    Think of it as a mix of grassland and a desert.


    In the distance I could see an enormous stone tree but then without its leaves. Of course Rexus his house just had to be between its titanic branches.


    It was also very windy here. Ah, so that¡¯s where that occasional breeze in my part of the realm came from.


    It seems that just like Rexus had gotten my sky, I also gotten a few of his influences.


    But just as the wind in my part is negligible, the sky here has an actual 24 hours cycle with roughly 15 hours of daylight and the others night. Interesting.


    It also looked like a white vein was once here but with the barrier up, it died off.


    So on my way to his house, I worked on a design of a dungeon, which I should be able to create with the magic corruption and at least a few blank lights or fires.


    Maybe it would need some Life corruption for it to absorb power?


    I wrote it in my book anyway, something to look in for later.


    As I neared Rexus¡¯s pretty tree, I could see no one nearby though I could feel his spawn up high in the tree.


    It really was tall though, something close to two kilometers maybe? Rising up at a speed whereby I could get a good look at it all, I spotted Thorn climbing up the tree.


    ¡°Thorn! Why are you climbing the tree?¡±


    ¡°I fell! Don¡¯t distract me! I don¡¯t want it happening again!¡±


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t you just fly or something?¡±


    ¡°Why take the easy path when you can take the hardest route!¡±


    Idiot¡­ Well, his choice but I am not letting him near Solhok.


    That one is nearly as bad as Thorn without them competing. Continuing up and further ignoring Thorn, I went up to the biggest palace without wasting any further time of mine. Sensing a divine presence nearby, I came closer to see if it was Rexus.


    I arrived to a pavilion with a garden surrounding it on top of one of these palaces. Rexus was sitting on a table there together with another person whom I believe to be Vera.


    ¡°So, how does your realm fare Rexus?¡±


    ¡°The same as yours or you would have noticed¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how but your personality has gone even worse from before¡±


    ¡°The true death of a spawn of yours does that not to mention my own temporary one. At least Vera has been returned to me, but if I hadn¡¯t left then¡­ No matter, what¡¯s it that brings you here Asen?¡±


    ¡°I am about to set out for Unrec with a few dozen of a race that I made myself, the Carn, and came by to see how you fare. Seems well enough but still quite empty¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha ah ha ah ha. You know, I should have expected that. I, in fact, am still quite busy in just creating its mentality. I know that they should be mortal and that its less important thus but that¡¯s not actually true. If I don¡¯t do it right now then go a few dozen generations further and they are all barbarians worshiping someone else or just one of my House and hate the rest.


    Agh, but who am I telling this, you most likely have thought of all that as well, if not more. For your knowledge though, I am planning to create something that should resemble the Gnomes we once read about.


    If you could help me with the planning of their instincts, that would be great. I am thinking of something along the lines of that the lives of all the gnomes are worth more than their own¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a little too unadaptable, take for example a rising commander or builder gets killed because a few other gnomes were in danger.


    To prevent that, just have it so that the lives of those above them or more valuable have higher priority. Like a gnome in return for the lives of many of their children, their leaders or their elders. You would have the strongest get supported by the weak, which makes for a good foundation for a civilisation¡±


    ¡°Sounds like a fragile thing, but I will see if I can get a few of that mentality and a few of my idea and place them nearby to see who survives. Yeah, I think I will go for that. It will take near double the amount of time though¡­ Ah, Asen, you are still here. Well I have to warn you that us black gods will be taking a lot longer to get to Unrec with a race than you white gods or even those red ones. Well good-bye then. Success with yours¡±


    ¡°Yes thank you, I see that you are busy once more so¡­ I guess I will leave¡± I slowly said as Rexus began talking with Vera, who had remained silent the whole time, about his resurging ideas.


    Having nothing to do anymore but wait or leave, I thought it would be time to get it over with and not ruin this potential head start.


    Making my way back to my side, i could see that the population has once more increased to around 200, a hundred of which would colonise the new plane. I did leave them prepared for this for a few years but they had hopefully long enough life spans not to be bothered too much. Preparing to leave myself, I looked to where in the Abyss the realm should be around in and found it very quickly. I knew I couldn¡¯t stay for long there even with some of my power returned because of the offerings of my people.


    Getting them all together, I took them to their new home. Leaving this realm would open them to unknown changes but I got less power from their offerings here than I most likely would get if they were on the plane, probably due to the intervention of the realm. Ooooooh. Damn. Forgot to scout out a location¡­


    Guess I will have to place them on that place where I instigated the magic core lines. I can always look for another site when we are there. My people would most likely also need the help of my entire House but I don¡¯t know how they would cope on the planet.


    Never mind, I guess I will find out anyway.

 The Chapter of the Eight Dalmarck

    The Chapter of the EightDalmarck


    Coming back to sense after that jump, I could already feel the planet draining my power.


    I should have around a dozen years until I would have to at least physically leave this planet. Maybe I should control a champion then?


    Well, that¡¯s for later. Looking back at my people that I brought with me, I could see that I was missing a few.


    What a shame and I thought I did so well¡­ Just stands to show how hard it is.


    I now have the form of a ten meter armored me.Just an aside note but it may be useful for later.


    ¡°Is everyone fine?¡± I thundered through the skiesso they would all notice.


    ¡°My lord, our ears are sensitive so you shouldn¡¯t put so much effort into shouting. I am sure we would have heard at a lower volume¡±


    Tactful, asking me to shut up in such a way. Lets hope he will realize whom he is talking to next time, or otherwise he may regret it.


    ¡°Start settling in for now. I am going to look for maybe a better location¡±


    With that I set off together with Solhok, Valtr and Harkness.


    Eris and Sellese stayed with the Carn, helping them to set everything up. The area around where I had started the magic core lines was next to a river that I had named after Sellese with a small variation.


    Further down the river, it passes through the mountain range with a few smaller ones closer to us than the main host. The river also splits of to the east just before it reaches the mountains but that didn¡¯t go so far.


    Surrounding where we came to was mostly plains with a few small unimportant forests here and there.


    For a fact, that¡¯s what most of the eastern portion of the Dalmarck continent is, river, plains and mountains. Not that I can complain compared to the desert to the west though.


    Passing the land, looking for a better spot, I couldn¡¯t help but notice the large amount of monsters and animals present. It has been some time since I released them on the continent though.


    Something that alarmed me even more though was that the amount decreased the further we went from the Magic core line. I couldn¡¯t use my power over much since it would lower my time on this planet so while I immediately went back, it still took me around a month.


    The first thing that greeted me on my return however was the new graveyard. I counted 30, which was a lot for this settlement. Walking to the few wooden huts, I felt Eris coming towards me.


    ¡°We havebeen attacked¡±


    ¡°By monsters?¡±


    ¡°Yes, and a few beasts too. Sellese and I tried to hold them all back but if we had then we would have to leave quite soon, which would have killed many more¡±


    ¡°Good call. We need to gain a higher population though¡±


    ¡°That would take centuries just to gain those 30 back. Not to mention that the monsters and beasts reproduce way faster than us¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t stay here for that long¡­ Our race is too unsuited for these circumstances. For now try to improve these houses and get a wall going, maybe after that a castle or something. Eris, what did you do with the lights of the fallen?¡±


    ¡°I brought them to me mostly intact and have them still¡±


    ¡°Good, for now keep collecting the lights of our fallen. If I were you I would start to think of what would entice the Carn to primarily follow you or become a priest of yours. Maybe allow them to see or use these lights¡±


    ¡°I would not start such competition now, as there are still many dangers to them. Those monsters will return¡±


    ¡°They will survive, no worries. But that competition between us is a system I am going to add for them though¡±


    Eris the ever serious sighted and walked away muttering.


    ¡°He and his foolish plans¡­¡±


    I walked to the current houses and proceeded to gather all of the Carn.


    ¡°Everyone, I have deemed this a good enough place to settle in even if the magic core line attracts monsters and beasts. Frankly, that line is also a prime reason for staying here. It saddens me that we already lost 30 of our kin but I will think of something to increase your numbers. I do hope you are all putting in the necessary effort though.


    Yet, even if our numbers are low, we must have a way to govern ourselves. I have come with a specific house system; you will all create a House, and if a man weds a woman then the man joins the House of the woman and all the woman¡¯s children belong to her House. The man must serve the House until its obligation of marriage has finished after which it can return to its old House. Those Houses we can further complicate later but for now that rough sketch is enough.


    I have an ideathat the Houses would be quite big but still quite a few of them and in any future cities they would have a presence. Now, in those cities, the local Houses that will be smaller compared to the Great Houses, will vote for the delegation of control over said city to one of those Houses. The House that has the most things of the city in control is the one who rule the city. Delegations would be like control over the garrison, the upkeep of the city itself, management of the temples and other stuff that we will no doubt make ourselves.


    For now though, we will rule directly and allow you a littletime to form Great Houses and local Houses¡±


    With that speech, I left them behind. They were also most likely confused but I was their god after all, they couldn¡¯t deny me my wishes. Or at least they shouldn¡¯t.


    Feeling a tad bored, I took one of the Carn aside before I would start the population dilemma.


    ¡°Young one, try to give this sword magic¡±


    I asked him while I took an ordinary sword from within me.


    ¡°My lord, that is a very beautiful thing¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you haven¡¯t seen a sword before?¡±


    ¡°No my lord¡±


    ¡°Then what have you been doing your whole life?¡±


    ¡°Only building and practicing other useful skill that a pioneer would need as you had told us¡±


    ¡°Ugh, sometimes I am forgetful yes, but to forget to teach you how to smith and defend yourself! Regretful and forgetful is what I am. No, matter I will teach you so you can teach others. Lets start with smithing then¡±


    We all set to work and in a few months we had a wooden palisade that covered around 200 square meters that went in a rough circle around the settlement from one side of the river past the elevated ground our temple is going to be to the other side of to the river.


    If that was too wordy for you, imagine a rough C shape with the open parts bordering the river, that should do about it.


    We had several monster attacks but we let the Carn¡¯s magic deal with them.


    Only a few injuries on our side which was because of Sellese¡¯s protection and healing and they used the monster corpses to get a few tasty meats on the fire. Luckily the monsters were mostly manticores and ogres so we could eat them all right.


    Together with Berren, the Carn who I had been teaching crafts, we made a plan for a temple for me that would include a forge and other such utilities that I totally could dig in if I ever wanted to use mortal tools. On the reproduction problems, I have started on artefact that should mostly solve it while not removing all the original Carn.


    It will however be made on this plane so even if it doesn¡¯t degrade in power, it would still be a lot weaker than otherwise. Currently I am working on designing a mason¡¯s tool together with Berren so that he should be able to replicate it. That¡¯s when I heard a massive crash though.


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    ¡°Attack! Something from the river!¡± I ran outside to see something crash into me.


    I, Berren, saw my god get hit by the body of a large serpent.


    Seeing the walls sway dangerously, I immediately ran out. The river serpent was now fully out of the river and within our walls.


    ¡°Serpent attack! Our lord has been hit!¡±


    I started to form a spell by weaving its components together and chanting for extra strength and speed. As I finished the spell, I shot the fireball towards the serpent. I could see it body writhe in pain but it didn¡¯t look like it would die any time soon though.


    Then,If I thought it was in pain before,now it would be in heart wrenching agony if I cared about the cursed thing.


    It screams filledthe air and I can¡¯t think of anyone that wouldn¡¯t have heard that.


    Its body hits everything in its madness. I see several people get smashed by its tail or in their houses hit by its body. Then it went still and from under it came an angry god. Where he had lain under the thing, therenow was a burnt hole where you could see withinits blackend hollow scales.


    This was merely another reminder that gods are above and beyond us.


    That thing crushed me! Me, Asen!


    Healing the few bruises, I now look upon the dead carcass of a blue river serpent. Damn, it seems like we have to do something about the river too but what we have now took enough wood already.


    Not to mention whatever houses we have to rebuild.


    I also hope that no one died or otherwise I would really need to get on with the artefact and I was just having fun with Berren.


    One day, I am going to shove all this responsibility up someone¡¯s ass and laugh before making new ones.


    I know, sounds counter intuitive but its true.


    Even the politicians of my old home did that. During the next month, I gave the shade we had brought with us power so that he could create a new source. It took ayearof my time here off but with it, the Carn could create a shade them selves if they gave it enough power.


    With those few shades we got easy manual labour going and build my temple within a year. They just started on Eris her temple as she got them interested with the promise of necromancy.


    Solhok has been sulking these last months as few of our people are interested in the sword. My temple would have to be redone soon to make it bigger but for now the equipment inside were okay.


    How to make an artefact. Well, for starters it requires skill and strength.


    More skill though so mostly only the white gods made them. I started by getting some marble that was in the area and infusing it withmy influence and power.


    Eventually after a day or so, it was white with a few blue and red streaks through it and I could start the real work.


    hcIn my realm I had already seen that mortals used magic differently. They had to actively make the structure of the spell, which one couldthink of like making a puzzle with pieces that could fit into any other but only a small piece of the overall picture could be incorrect and seeing it would make you blind.


    Its similar but for the spells they could chant power induced words that quickened this process or strengthened the spell.


    Immortals, most likely some monsters and us gods create these spells intuitively most of the time to achieve what we want. It¡¯s only when we don¡¯t know what we want or how we can do that when we draw a blank.


    After I make this artefact, I would have to leave though as it should take up most of my remaining power after my outburst of the previous year.


    My spawn would also have to leave then since being there without me present dampens their power enough that they wouldn¡¯t be able to leave anymore.


    Continuing on with the grail artefact, for this thing I actually have to make a spell pattern for my influence to stay settled in. Not to mention stabilizing such an object of power.


    The titanic complexity of it would rival that of a Great Fire. I first had to form the groundwork by laying up an illum, something that¡¯s guides the magic to where it is needed.


    Next I added a few separate spells and wove them together with anarfon, which binds spells together regards less of compatibility even if that could cost your life.


    After another year, it was finished.


    This Grail of Blood would have my original Carn give birth to more numerate and different, maybe even lesser, Carns.


    They would have to drink from it and from then on only one child for every 500 of theirs would be one of the original carn.


    One month before we would leave, I gathered all of the Puris Carn in my temple and told them they would drink except for the religious ones.


    ¡°You will drink from this grail and when you do, you will from then give birth to the Juris Carn. Sometimes you will give birth to another of the Puris Carn from your House. You will be the elite and only Puris Carn can belong to a House. Further more you all have to obey me and it will further our civilisation¡±


    The carn that had told me to be silent when we cameto this planespoke up


    ¡°My lord, we are honoured and will strife to form ourselves to your image. But perhaps you could speak slowly and induce it with sense so we can understand¡±


    ¡°You would never know how it is to be god. We have all the time we need yet always need more than we have. Not all can write the story but all can participate. You have foregone your right to speak to me as such, beware the next time¡± I said.


    Then all the Houses came forward except those that would serve our temples and drank from the Grail of Blood.


    Berren and his love were mine from then on.


    Their House would serve my temple for as long as it stands.


    All of my spawn bound a House to their temples except for Solhok whom no one would sacrifice their lives for.


    War and battle are simply less valued at the start of it all than it would later be.


    As we would be leaving soon, we used as much as we needed to each make their temple here.


    Why be so conservative if it would not matter? I laid down the current temple and instructed Berren on what to do and I build my temple in front of his eyes so he could build so too.


    Then the day of our departure arrived.


    We would go to my moon to look on and regain our power before we would try to create a portal to my realm. We also couldn¡¯t make the thing if our people had to be looked upon. And so as my last act of this age upon my people, I placed several statues around the settlement and where they would expand.


    These would be my watchers, inhabited by Lights and serving to Solhok. Then we left for the moon Lucais.


    As a parting gift, I gave Berren a son that would be conceived in five years. I can¡¯t do this for all of them as it would not solve the problem so instead I had done as I had.


    I bade my future champion good bye and left for the heavens.


    <hr>


    Next chapter will be the perspective of the Champion of Jurak (Asen). Most likely also a bit of a time jump.

 The Chapter of the Ninth Champion

    The Chapter of the NinthChampion


    I am Gerren, son of Berren and champion of Jurak. I am the first of the Juris Carn. I have lived for 20 years in our settlement called Jure. I have been taught by my father and sometimes guided by my patron. We are plagued by monsters monthly and amidst these struggles for survival I live in solitude.


    ¡°Gerren! I need your help at the forge!¡± His father called for him again.


    My father has been asked to make a war staff for the leader of a Great House. He happens to like this person so he would naturally have asked me to help but since I could do nothing but wait, it mattered not.


    My father may know more techniques but I am more talented than he. Which is undoubtedly due to my patron.


    He will most likely out live me though. As I left my bed, I paused when I reached the mirror.


    I was smaller than my father at 1 meter 80, had pale skin compared to his red tinted one. My ears were what they called ¡°Human¡± looking and my teeth couldn¡¯t compare with theirs.


    Sadly enough, I eat more often than my parents so I usually eat alone.


    With a heavy sigh, I leave my room, which is located in the residence wing of the temple. As I walked through the halls towards the greater chamber, the clanging sound of metal unto metal slowly drained out the silence.


    ¡°How far finished are you father?¡± I asked the head priest.


    ¡°Good, you are needed soon. I know that as our lord¡¯s champion, you have a small bit of his influence in your soul. When the form of the innick is finished I want you to slowly infuse it into it while I attach the innick to the war staff. After it reached its limit, you can enchant it if you want.


    I have already laid out the necessary circuits and shapes so you can finish or add to it if you want¡± He then continued on the innick.


    An innick is the head and sometimes also the covering of a staff. It would be the pommel for a sword or such. The point of it is that while the staff itself can aid you in magic, the innick can do some of them for you. It does slowly disintegrate as it is used though so if you have a bad one you can always replace it when it¡¯s gone.


    ¡°Of course father¡± I would have to wait for another hour or so before I could start so to spend the time, I asked my father something.


    ¡°Say, father, could I not go to the hunt tomorrow? I would have you know that I am capable in a fight myself. Not to mention the maintenance I could provide with my¡­¡±


    ¡°No¡± he interrupted me. ¡°You belong to the temple and the temple will stand wherever or not a monster nests still lives. Now if they came here, that would be a different story¡± he explained.


    How dare he speak so to me! I am the champion of Jurak!


    I bit my tongue in anger until it drew blood. Sadly enough, father was a priest of my patron so harming him is out of the question.


    ¡°I am the voice of Jurak on Dalmarck. You wouldn¡¯t speak like that to him would you, father?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how my god talks to you but I doubt you have ever seen him. Also don¡¯t forget that you are my son, not to mention a priest of this temple. Know your betters boy¡± He gruffly said to me before continuing his work.


    Presumptuous fool! One day father, one day I will burn this accursed temple to the ground along with you! After that I just waited in silence until I could enchant the innick. When that was finished I returned to my room, once more waiting until I would be called.


    Once I had been contend with this, then that turned to despair and now it is hate. I have been taken too much from; I will undo this curse upon me. As I slowly fell away from conscious, my body began to move but I was lost to far to notice. ¡±Ugh, what a disgusting mortal¡± could be heard from Gerren but this was not his voice. It wasn¡¯t even Gerren himself.


    ¡°Ugh, what a disgusting mortal. I really regret choosing him now¡± I said to no one in particular. It was just that he, a god, felt that it should be said.


    For if Asen, or by mortals know as Jurak, couldn¡¯t judge his own people then they might as well die. I waited for my attendant to appear.


    The shade came forth from the walls as always, handed me a black and red mask and bowed.


    ¡°Lord is back. Shain is servant. Shain waits for order¡± Shain said. He was one of the fewI brought with me here.


    The youngest of them we had allowed to change into a source, but the older, more intelligent ones we kept naturally.


    Donning the mask, I addressed the shade.


    ¡°Prepare the hunt and my armour. After that come to the temple crypt, I will collect a sword there¡±


    ¡°Yes lord. Will be yes done. Will see you in crypt. Bye master¡± He confirmed with me before stepping through the wall again.


    His language skill really is deplorable but he is still the eldest.


    As I left the room I went to the temple crypt where I would also wait for the armour to be brought. There wasn¡¯t actually a need for it but when I built this place I made it for the future. Like when this champion would finally die.


    I think I will want to rant more about that later.


    I entered the crypt, which was devoid of both life and light but with some magic I could see in the dark quite well. It couldn¡¯t compare to my divine body but for a mortal at least it worked.


    I passed a lesser watcher as I reached a dead end. They are basically extra eyes or soldiers for the real watchers that stand tall in the city from when I created them.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Moving the statue of the lesser watcher, I walked into the lowest hidden level of the crypt. When I was going through the layers, I started to think that I could maybe install adungeon mind in here to protect and guard my weapons, not to mention my deceased priest¡¯s bodies.


    A necromancer can always use powerful bodies if not their lights as the mana remains in the body until it has decayed enough whereby it spreads to the area. My priests will always remain mine, even after death.


    ¡°Hmmm, shall I go with Anorak or Vizier? Though I think I had made Clamat for wyvern hunting. Guess Clamat it is then¡± As I took Clamat from its rack, I once more looked at the weapon.


    It was purely black except for the leather hilt wrapping and was enchanted for speed and structural strengthening. Naturally it also had a node. A node in magical terms is a locational position where you can send your magic from if you are attuned to it.


    My power and the hands of this champion made the blade upon this planet. It obviously wasn¡¯t even close to an artefact but since the grail is most likely the only one on this plane, it was still quite powerful for a mortal to posses. Not that Gerren actually has seen it or touched it since I couldn¡¯t trust him with it.


    He was actually quite decent in the beginning but after about a dozen years he started to change. It must have been the influence of mine that came with the blessing.


    So for any future champions there are hence forth conditions; only make greater species of my race champions like the Puris Carn, wait at least a hundred years for them to create a personality so it will affect them to a lesser degree, find a way for them to die if they are unsatisfactory.


    For the last one, maybe I could use the champions of my spawn. Together with the rivalry in obtaining as many main followers as they can, I could see that happening.


    After nearly half an hour, Shain returned with my armour. He also helped me don it but that seems trivial. T


    he local Houses had decided tostart thehunt tomorrow at dawn, which was only a few hours away by now. I even reached them before the sun could be seen which was impressive considering the distance from the temple to the meeting place since that was in the mountains.


    When they saw Gerren with a mask on, they knew that it meant that I was present.


    ¡°House-Lord, thank you for coming and welcome. It gladdens my heart to see you present¡± said the hunting party¡¯s leader.


    ¡°Yes, wyverns are dangerous enough to want to kill but also to be killed by. I can¡¯t allow that so casually yet¡± I responded.


    ¡°Yes indeed, my god¡± Walking the rest of the way in silence, we reached the nest.


    ¡°I can only use as much power as this body possesses so I will not attack unless to protect you directly. However, I will heal you and prevent your deaths¡±


    ¡°We ask no more, my god,¡± A Juris Carn said. She was one of the three that had already been born these few dozen years.


    Just before we entered, the hunting leader got everyone together to go over the plan again.


    ¡°First, we will have two whole local Houses try to sneak in and destroy any eggs the wyverns might have, whereby at about the same time a team will try to either distract the wyverns or try to get the first team safely out after succeeding with their mission. Ready, go!¡±


    As we turned the corner, there was indeed a wyvern but its mate was nowhere to be found. The nest was situated around the corner on a small cliff somewhere on the closest mountain to the settlement of Jure. We hadn¡¯t even looked at it before we went over the plan because if wyverns are mating, they will both always be present at the nest.


    They store up lots of food too so that wasn¡¯t even a problem for them.


    I can¡¯t really think of any reason that it would need to leave for. The female wyvern also seemed injured so the hunting leader changed plan slightly to also kill the wyvern.


    While I stayed at the back,becausewhy would a god possessed champion unnecessary need to tire himself, the party got into position to bombard the wyvern with prearranged spells. Solhok would weep a tear if he saw this. Not one of them branded their swords and only the Juris Carn looked like she could use it at all.


    The infiltrating team came in from upwind and actually reached the nest. Wyvern eggs are very resistant towards magic and while their scales are less so, it is still noticeable. There were five eggs in total and soon the first one was broken and whatever was inside killed.


    The smell that came from it was terrible and I could smell it from where I stood all the way at the back.


    The reason it so did was most likely to alert any nearby wyverns that their eggs were being attacked. It did work I guess. The wyvern¡¯s eyes snapped open and it stood up. With a higher pitched roar than what dragons would produce, she looked upon the culprits.


    They were running by now but would hardly ever have made it without the back up the other team provided. Fireballs, earthen spikes and lightning zaps were thrown through the air.


    Even with the reduced effect, the fireballs blinded it, the earth spikes hindered its feet and the lightning shocked it.


    Running towards it as it started to look bad, one of the first team tripped. Tripping itself isn¡¯t too bad all things considered.


    Yet when a wyvern could just about kill you as soon as it saw you, you tend to consider it in a different light. With this mortal body and its limited resources, I could only call unto the wind to push him away from the monster.


    ¡®Thamp¡¯, with a stomp it crushed the space the Carn had been in earlier and you could hear the cracking of the stones and the very fast displacement of the air. As I finally reached the wyvern¡¯s leg, I took out my sword and doled out a decent slash. It turned into a mere scratch upon contact though.


    As you know, wyverns are famous for their speed or at least among the divine Houses as not enough sentient races exist for it to be famous here.


    So it should surprise anyone that it reacted immediately and so I now crashed into arock wall. The armour might have prevented me being ripped in half by its talons as it swooped at me but it doesn¡¯t do much against blunt impacts. Least of all stone.


    Taking some time to repair this body and take a breath, I could see the Carn trying to lead it away from me. I would really have left this to any of my other spawn but alas; I am the only one with a champion.


    Having healed my body, I repeated my charge but this time I will have to try to cut its scales near itsheart. Makes incinerating it easier. With only 20 meters to the wyvern, I called out to the others to have them stop distracting the wyvern from me and instead target its wings.


    ¡°Stop targeting the eyes! Instead aim for the wings. Try to get it land bound as much as possible!¡± By this time, their amount of spells were starting to dry up but some started some new spells on the spot so as long as not all of them were empty, they would be fine.


    Finally having reached the not-yet-cursed thing, I tried to break the skin, scales and bones surrounding the heart with all the physical strength this body had. Augmented by my magic of course.


    With a screech, it shook wildly as it now had an arms long wound to its heart. Immediately after pushing myself away with some very concentrated wind, I could hear the rush of wind not my own as the wyvern lashed out at me between its thrashes.


    Why o why is this champion so weak. If I were in my divine form, thiswould be like blowing out a candle yet this frail body makes it all so difficult. S


    mashing into the eggs, I get surrounded into their stink and broken shells. If the wyvern was angry before then now it is burning in rage. Without any regard to its own life, it charged at me.


    With a heavy amount of magic in my step, I jumped to meet the thing in its charge. With a clang, my armour and its scales clash into each other.


    In the most serene calm, I thrust my sword into the gash in its chest and jumped of.


    With a flick of my hand, I used what left over magic I had to burn out its heart using the node. Stumbling as its life was near end, it ran its arm into an earth spike and fell of the cliff following that.


    Falling on the ground in exhaustion, the others came towards me.


    ¡°That was masterfully done my god. You saved the lives of a few of us. We swear to make an even greater offering to you at your temple¡±


    ¡°Saving your lives was the reason I came here in the first place. And if any offerings you make can become greater then that means something doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    The carn seemed to flinch at that last part and had trouble getting out even one sentence after that.


    ¡°Well¡­ I donnnn¡¯t realllly have¡­ anything¡­ worthy? Pl pl please believe¡­¡± Then suddenly I felt a corrupted presence.


    Not one of magic as that creates a new natural being but rather one of the others. That¡¯s when the party heard a roar in the distance.


    ¡°You have to run,¡± I told them and they all obeyed. As I turned to leave myself, a corrupted wyvern rose up from the valley. I could instantly see that it was either the Carn or I. I had exhausted nearly all of my champion¡¯s mana, so I drew upon the one thing that was left.


    As I took hold of that smidge of my power and created a barrier that would hold as long as was needed, I felt my connection with my champion weaken. Gerren dimly returned to consciousness.


    When he realized I was there too, his awareness blazed up in hate. That was also the moment the corrupted wyvern crashed into my barrier. With each time it attacked my barrier, the more warped Gerren¡¯s hate became. Then as the wyvern dealt one last blow, Gerren attacked me.


    Gerren was gone and what attacked me was a corrupted. I knew he was a lost cause but this betrayal left me in a rage. With the barrier gone as I had lost most of my control over my old champion, the wyvern blazed us both in flames. In Gerren¡¯s screams of pain and mine of frustration, we felt something hit us.


    Then only Gerren was left to fall of the cliff and I to my own body, already thinking of retribution.

 The Chapter of the Tenth Corrupted

    The Chapter of the TenthCorrupted


    ¡°Please, master. They cannot bear any more work and the speed is killing them by the dozens!¡± Begged the construction overseer.


    He was bowing the whole time as he spoke to me, a tradition I made so that I could easier take their heads if they displeased me. This minion of mine was doing just that, but I needed him so I stayed my hand.


    ¡°Please, great lord Gulgas Cargarn. The construction of the citadel would only be postponed for at most century. Surely, that amount of time is nothing for one such as you. I can even guarantee tha¡­ ¡± The fiend was struggling to breathe as I grabbed its neck.


    ¡°Dare to say my name once more. You may be quite old and useful but believe me when I say that you are flawed, enough so as to warrant death. Just do as I command and you may live longer¡± I dropped the fiend, who was presently struggling to breathe.


    Truly pathetic, that the fiend even had to breathe. They were however left over from the first few generations I had corruptedand had gotten quite useful and strong with age. However nearly none had the innate talent or skill that the newer generations have and even though most have died in the wars with the other lords, a few hundred still remain.


    Some of those I send away with minions of their own to start their own citadel.


    My own was being built against a cliff. I could have built it at its top instead of at itsbase but since one of the other lords has flying creatures, it would be less effective than having a free impenetrable wall behind me.


    Bringing my gaze back to the grovelling fiend from where I was gazing at the rising black citadel, I addressed him once more.


    ¡°Work them until they die but try to maintain population levels. I would hate to have to resort to mere imps building my great home. I want the Lesser Demons to be harsher too, for some extra motivation in the case your efforts aren¡¯t satisfactory¡± Next I called over my advisors and had the demon lord of my army come forth.


    ¡°Have the depraved geared and ready for battle with the year. We will try to capture some orcs from great lord Lucan. I have also heard some winged demons have hatched this year? Try to get them to search for great lady Juline as soon as they can or rather as soon as you can make them¡± The demon lord Iye bowed before speaking as is custom.


    ¡°Shall be done my lord. May I also note that some of the depraved and lesser demons are vanishing. We only know this since we have a few eyes witnesses but the main thing is that were they once stood, filth now comes forth. This disgusting air does seem to strengthen us but we also seem to lose our connection to our lord who in this instance would be you¡± The lord of the army said.


    ¡°How many?¡± I inquired.


    ¡°One at first, then a few and soon dozens at a time. Soon it will be a whole hatch that vanishes¡± I stood there for a minute but then came up with a great idea.


    ¡°For now we will do nothing but we should start to think towards getting one of the lords there. They should then try to return here and bring me to where ever my minions are disappearing to. Maybe it is a new realm? After killing these foes, I would love some new lands to conquer¡± With a wave I send my advisers away again.


    I continued my walk, killing the occasional worthless minion here and there. Currently, there was only a massive black tower that connected to the husk of the inner keep, which they were currently working on.


    After the inner keep they would start on the outer keep, then the mansions for the demon lords and after that the inner wall. Outside of the inner wall will go the muster field with adjacent barracks, followed by the slave pits.


    We may also place something between the slave pits and the outer wall of the citadel but we will have more than a thousand years until we come to that point. That is, if the workers or any battles haven¡¯t slowed them down.


    Walking up to the tower, I jump onto the top. Looking out over the hellish plains, riddled with mountains, cliffs and crevasses, I see something in the distance.


    ¡°You there, fiend. Stay here and call out the alarm if you see anything suspicious in that direction"


    I wasn¡¯t sure what that was, but it seemed to be quite far away. Coming down the tower, I once more call to my advisors.


    ¡°Servants, prepare the defensive force. Fetch me my first guard, I think some enemies are coming¡± The demon lords all smiled a vicious grin and called their own servants to bring them their weapons and to notify myfirst guard and the defensive force as well. The soldiers and demons eagerly went to where they could set upon any enemies best.


    After an hour, a deep horn was sounded from atop the black tower. Among the demons, deprived and corrupted a deep roar came forth as they would have a fight again. All the imps, corrupted sprites and devils either continued working or were cowering somewhere after being beaten away from the lines by the stronger demons.


    Then from above, an even loader roar was heard.


    Dragons. Fire swept through the ranks and the citadel, blackening and killing my minions further. With my power, I brought the one dragon down after a lot of effort. Keeping it on the ground, it thrashes and crushes many more of my soldiers before being swarmed by them.


    A silence permeates the atmosphere as my fiends were gorging on the carcass.


    Then from behind above the cliff face, a storm of dragons came forth and burned my demons to ash even further.


    I laugh while pulling one dragon down after another, all of them taking a lot of strength and effort while my demon lords all gang up on one, to bring it down. That¡¯s when the orc waves hit.


    Crashing into my minions, some are eaten, others are decapitated but most are surprised as they just appeared there. Behind this new hoard, stands a lonely figure.


    ¡°Lucan! I will feast on you once more!¡± I shout as I bathe my way through any that stand between him and me, crushing both demon and orc.


    While the orcs and demons savage each other, the dragons retreat, having lost many of their kin. Lucan laughs at me while shaking his head.


    ¡°Building your home this close to our border isn¡¯t wise, you demon¡± As my will clashes against his barrier of influence around his troops, I slowly continue on towards him.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°This was very foolish of you. Who knows how many orcs will be my slaves hence forth, not to mention how many shall be dead¡± The first guard came rushing to me, after finally having formed up and are trying to keep everything out of my path. Them, I put a barrier on myself but it wasn¡¯t as strong as Lucan¡¯s is.


    Gleefully slaughtering my men with enormous earthen spikes, explosion that tremble the ground and forces that crush them, I see Lucan not a day¡¯s time away from me.


    When I neared Lucan, it got to the point where my first guard was nearly decimated. I couldn¡¯t go any further because of Lucan¡¯s shields but Lucan had very little to gain anymore. His objective most likely was to stop the construction of the citadel, if not to take my live in the process.


    That¡¯s were a giant flash broke the stalemate. Around a whole legion of my minions had suddenly vanished and at least three whole tribes of orcs where gone, and it their place were mostly untainted rocks and air that slightly reminded me of chaos.


    Seeing that Lucan lost more troops in relation to mine, I pressed the advantage. Lucan looked a bit pale at the sudden shift and when he looked at me again, as some of that old fear came forth again.


    ¡°Men! Finish your slaughters! We are returning!¡± He hastily shouted before holding his arms up. His troops slowly started to disappear back to where Lucan¡¯s influence was the most concentrated.


    The barrier broke down with every disappearance and when there was only a thousand left, I stopped my killing of them to proceed with breaking what was left of his barrier. It broke quicklyand the remaining orcs were stuck here and savaged by my demons. Lucan was still untouchable though and left.


    ¡°Don¡¯t kill all of them! Some must live or you will all be punished!¡± my voice boomed over the battlefield. The minions of mine all heard it and didn¡¯t dare defy me.


    A day later, overlooking the battle report, more than half of my soldiers had died, even a demon lord who was crushed by a dragon in the beginning was dead.


    Among the workers, only a few hundred remain, setting the construction of the citadel backa few thousand years, not to mention the damage.


    In my rage, I slaughtered the remains of the first guard and fed them to the surviving minions and slaves.Yet, I keep thinking,what was that flash?...


    --- On the plane of Unrec ---


    With a deep inhale Gerren came to consciousness again.


    For some time he felt nothing but that lasted only for a second. Pain wracks my body the moment I opened my eyes. Then a burning sensation drowns out the pain and I start to be able to move again.


    When I was finally able to stand, I could see a gigantic carcass of a wyvern nearby. Surely I killed it right? The last thing I can remember was¡­ That thrice cursed bastard! He was in control of my body the whole time!


    I will make Jurak pay for the indignities he had me do. The burning in chest increases with every though about his dreadful demise. Going over to the carcass with a painful limp, I found a sword embedded in its chest. It most likely hit something vital and killed the monster. I took the blade and left the corpse behind as I walked through the valley until even the limp was gone. I stumbled into a cave as night started to fall once more.


    Has it truly been that short since I was freed? I can''t know as everything around me feels a bit different than before.


    I went deeper and deeper into the cave but as it got warmer and darker, doubt started to set in. Yet going back would mean to subject myself to him again and I would NOT do that! I will never again go near to a temple of Jurak¡¯s influence except to raise it. I will burn all the souls that follow him still!


    In a flash of uncontrollable rage he shattered the remaining pieces of the once glorious armour and as he calmed down, he saw it fall and tumble further down into the depths. Step by careful step, I descend.


    I saw a few bits and pieces from my armour along the way but the rest must have gone even further.


    When it started to get harder to breathe, the cave once more levelled out but this time it did not go down any further. Yet at the very end, a kind of satisfaction came to me, for no reason I could discern. Standing in the near total darkness, with only a small flame of mine to guide me, my mind started to lose its coherency as something else moves my hands, like it was trying to reach something.


    Thinking it was once more Jurak I shook with anger. You will not live my life anymore! I yelled at it, only for it to be ignored.


    A tendril suddenly appeared at the edge of my burning soul. This was not Jurak¡­ No, this thing was invading my very soul. As more appeared, it collected itself only for then to encircle my light. It felt similar yet was not me, as it seemed¡­ twisted and malformed. Fear comes forth as it starts to come closer to the last vestige I can control. Once more I looked into its chaos and then I just knew that this thing is not my friend. Then it beset itself on me.


    I, known to others as Asen or Jurak, brought down the hammer with astounding force, crushing the metal into my anvil.


    I worked out my rage as I always do, when I am so. This was more something Solhok would do but then again, I created him too. This betrayal, while not surprising, ruined most of the plans I had.


    I tried and failed to make a new champion with my only priest and while I would rather not use him like that, it didn¡¯t matter anyway as I failed. While I could lend him some amount of power, I couldn¡¯t actually control him like I could Gerren, most likely because there was already some influence of mine on that planet. Seems like Gerren did not die.


    I doubt I would be able to recollect his light anytime soon since the newest generation hasn¡¯t ever done their rituals for me and I don¡¯t think he would do or know it anyway. The channeling of power between Berren and Ihas been open near continuously so I will have to limit that soon.


    With a sigh, I drop the hammer and leave the chamber we had built into the moon Lucais. The others were nearby, watching and sometimes slightly guiding our people.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe a mortal managed to evict you, a god¡± said Valtr as I walked to the pavilion and sat upon one of the thrones we placed there.


    ¡°It was not himself that did it, it was a corruption which he allowed in himself that didit. How else can one guarded by a god''s influence get so easily corrupted? The fact that there was a corrupted creature nearby is also quite suspicious¡± Harkness was barely listening as always but for some reason still decided to throw a comment in there.


    ¡°Maybe the corrupted creature emitted the corruption?¡± He said uncaringly. I might have made some mistakes in his creation, such as mentally having him go through human puberty, just for fun you know, but even if he can be an annoyingly uncaring jerk, he is still quite powerful and suitable for this role as a god.


    ¡°No, corruption doesn¡¯t work that way. In my studies for the creation of the magic corruption, I found that corruption cannot pas through a realm, only if it¡¯s using the transparent pieces of reality that are in a realm. Since all realms are within the Abyss, transparent pieces where the Corruptions can go through are more numerous while on the plane, which is merely surrounded by the abyss, there are by far less of them present. There must have been a transparent piece nearby though as that is the only explanation, unless a god has been involved. I hope it remains with only corruption passing through it though¡± I answered him.


    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t matter if the other pure gods access the planet through it, right?¡± Asked Sellese.


    ¡°That close to my people? Let¡¯s just say I would rather not want to deal with that right now¡± As once more silence reigned, I looked from atop of my throne onto the planet. I sat there for days until I once more felt that spark.


    Latching onto to it, I again found Gerren.


    I could see him making weird gestures in the air and sometimes drawing runes on the ground.


    These runes were the most interesting, as I had never felt something like it before. It gave off a red glow and seemed to encompass out of Chaos Corruption while mana kept it together in this shape.


    Then a flash came forth and a few of the runes just evaporated or disappeared. When the light subsided, some creature that I could only describe as a demon stood there. The demon looked around itself in confusion before noticing Gerren and then charged athim.


    As he got more than a meter away from where he first appeared, another set of runes started to glow faintly and restricted the demon¡¯s movements, holding it still. As the demon seemed to put more power his attack, the runes glowed more brightly for a second and even if it was miniscule in both time and difference, I think that they too would evaporate whenpressured enough.


    Gerren made some more gestures and a different set of runes disappeared, after which the demon stopped struggling at all and stood there meekly. Gerren appeared to stutter a bit when he finished before he went still again. Then he slowly turned his head and looked at where I was seeing all this.


    Yet, his eyes, they were not his.


    The light that burned behind it was hardly a living thing. Undaunted by his impossible feat, I looked closer at the being inside my old champion. What I found there was what truly shocked me.


    The actual Gerren who was my champion was missing rents and bites in his light while the unliving¡¯s creature possessed the bits Gerren had lost. Interwoven in this creature where parts of other lights, Lights and even that of a god. They were all damaged and broken but bound together by the Corruption, it once more came to life.


    Because ofthe influence of mine that it had eaten from Gerren, I would not be able to subdue this thing. The only thing I could do was to break its hold over Gerren, temporarily of course but that was still quite damaging for it in the future. While Gerren will one day feel my wrath, until then the greater threat deserves their death more.


    For good measure, I also cursed them both and then left as the being of Chaos lost control of its power. On the white moon of Lucais, a god of creation could be seen smiling. If you were to know this Lord, then you could see that his anger had lessened somewhat.

 The Chapter of the Eleventh Summoner

    The Chapter of the Eleventh Summoner


    I walked into the sun light with my minions in tow. I don¡¯t even have to distrust them, as they are all truly mine.


    I sadly only have a dozen of them, but I gleaned enough from the other that I am confident in being able to recreate the summoning. If I had time for it, that is.


    ¡°The strongest of all of you come here¡± I told them when they were all gathered. A demon came forth that threatened any other which most likely made it the strongest as well.


    ¡°Master Geraos, what is it that you wish?¡± said the Lesser Demon in a respectful way.


    ¡°Call me that again and I will sever your tongue, slave. Call me master Gerren; don¡¯t refer to me as that other one. The same goes for all of you¡± I berate my minions. Immediately the demon lost his previous manner and posture and took on one of simmering anger and slight rebellion.


    ¡°Anything else? Please do tell¡­ Master¡± it said with a mocking grin at the end. I looked at it with cold, warring eyes.


    ¡°Peel of all the scales or skin on your back. Come back to me when you have finished¡± I commanded the Lesser Demon. While the demon forcefully obeyed my command, I ignored it hateful wails of pain and went to address a new demon.


    ¡°Go with five other minions of mine and go north until you find a wyverns carcass. Bring it here in pieces if need be but get it all and if not found in the north, go westward¡± With a glance to the other demon, he willingly did as I told him. It chose the only demon with wings and the ones with the most strength among the rest after that one.


    As they fade into the distance, I looked upon the rest. Then he suddenly collapsed and his eyes began twitching while his limbs moved in random spasms. Then I stood up and looked around me.


    Noticing a demon that was slowly removing his remaining scales and skin, I called out to him.


    ¡°Stop what you are doing, you foolish demon. Instead go back down and fetch me my sword¡±


    The demon thankfully stood up with a wince and bowed. ¡°Yes, of course master Geraos¡± After which he promptly left. The demons were once again noticeably a lot more subservient and compliant.


    ¡°Clear out the area and bring all living creatures here to me except for corrupted ones. You shall kill those or chase them away¡± I said with a mad smile. As all the demons went away to do as I ordered, I once again went on with preparing the runes for the summoning for my demons. I used my body¡¯s blood for the runes until some of the beasts were brought in where after I used theirs.


    I didn¡¯t really know why I was out of the cave but I could feel more magic in the air here than down below there. Yet it was still to far away from the gateway for the Chaos Corruption to properly settle in, so he made a trip back to connect the corruption between ritual locations and now even if over half is lost in the process, its way better than could be achieved by making an artificial gateway.


    I must have summoned a few dozen or so, one or two at a time, but it got hazy there. I can hardly remember it all as I find myself on the ground, surrounded by demons I must have summoned. Standing up, I called out to my slaves around me.


    ¡°Go and collect enough tree trunks to encompass this cave entrance and summoning circle with a palisade¡± The foremost demon spoke up in response to my order. ¡°Of course master Geraos¡±


    I looked at him and slowly spoke out my next command.


    ¡°Bite of your tongue and swallow it, slave. Then proceed to do so to any who calls me the same and protect me for the rest of your life¡± Surprised, the demon quickly bit of his tongue before he could struggle.


    ¡°If you can somehow still speak after this, defer to me as master Gerren¡±


    It merely spat black sizzling blood at me before he fell to the ground, writhing all the way. I smiled before going back into the depths of the cave.


    It will take them a month at most to gather all the trees and make a palisade. Then after I have some more minions, maybe they can start mining in the cave to build a better wall.


    Mining. Why does that¡­ Idea seem so familiar? He broke into a grin at this unexpected knowledge of which he had a¡­ concept.


    The chaosborn did however know it truly. It was after all what one of the pieces it existed out of knew. One would rather make himself great while the other merely destroy those that are.


    They can hardly be the same person.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Within the settlement of Jure, a scant hundred Carns lived.


    Yet by the order of their god, they acted like there were many thousands.Among the buildings, some empty and unused while others were lived in by a small family or House, there was one that stood taller and stronger than the rest.


    In this hall, several Houses were arguing on the main floor that was in turn surrounded by the patriarchs and their entourage of many local Houses and even a few of the Great ones that weren¡¯t currently in the argument.


    They could though, as they had equal rank to those that were.


    ¡°No, we shouldn¡¯t stray from what our gods have taught us. We stick with their plans and that¡¯s all!¡±Said the carn patriarch of House Vurium.He currently had the support of most of the temple Houses but his great House didn¡¯t have any further position in the fledgling community.


    ¡°If they left us and made us lead then surely they had trust in us? Thus I say once again that we should try to subdue the local beasts¡±The current great House in charge of the non-existent military said.


    ¡°Foolishness, the gods have warned us of the fallen one. Venturing out now is begging for trouble. No, we must fortify and continue construction of Jure. When our population is high enough, maybe then we can do something¡±The previous carn called back.


    One of the sitting men stood up and came forward with dignity and authority in his stride and power in his step.


    ¡°It would be counter intuitive to stop construction but the local beasts and monsters will attack us if we leave them alone for too long.¡± Was said by the current ruling House¡¯s patriarch, Azuran stormblood of House Erghal.


    ¡°So we should of course do both. Construction takes priority while we try to increase our skill from what the gods taught us. The culling of the beasts will be done periodically in large groups to minimize casualties. The occasional monster hunt still takes place of course¡±


    The patriarch of the House in charge of the city''s army deemed this acceptable and resigned from the floor.


    ¡±Honourable Houses of faith, has the gods given you any more insights?¡± The lord regent asked.Berren came forward as a representative of the Houses that serve the temples.


    ¡°Ever since the fallen one, there have been no new revelations of wonders. My fellow priest of Eris¡¯ her temple has been visited by the dead with grave news though.¡±


    ¡°What news?¡±With a glare as the lord regent interrupted him, Berren continued.


    ¡°New creatures have been sighted from the mountains. The dead come with warnings of something known as demons and the fallen one who summoned them. We don¡¯t know where he is.¡±


    The lord commander stood up as he finished.


    ¡°Lord regent, I will increase the current amount of shades patrolling the palisade. I hope the lord of construction can come with better plans in a decade or so.¡±The lord of construction just sat by silently. The House of Brachai was never really a talkative one.


    Silence resounded through the largely empty hall.


    ¡°I propose another meeting next passing. After that one we can maybe look into doubling the time between meetings to one year.¡±Said the lord regent after some time passed.


    For them it was merely as spacious a time as a second.


    Everyone slowly stood up or leisurely left the floor except for Berren, representative of the temples, and Danai Vorruluis, lord sage.


    ¡°Congratulations on your House¡¯s new position as a great one.¡±Danai let out a short laugh.


    ¡°It¡¯s more like all the work just falls on me.¡±Berren gave an understanding look as nearly all Houses still existed out of just a few people.


    Some already have had some Juris Carn children but like the others, he now had none too.


    ¡°True enough but I still wanted to talk with you about the invaders coming to this plane. The gods were quite clear that some would start the spreading of their filth quite nearby. Is there any way that your House had found out how to block their coming?¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s why you told me. However the answer is no, we can¡¯t. At the most we could try to disrupt the portal but even though we have a lead on how we could achieve that, it would take some time to discover. It seems that just killing them as they appear would be the best option.¡±Berren stayed silent as he thought but glanced around the room every so often.


    ¡°Lord sage, I can understand if you can¡¯t produce any result so soon but if you could try to create some way disrupt any portals nearby then that would be helpful. I am sure that the temples could even arrange some samples for your current research from the dead. Surely they wouldn¡¯t mind.¡±


    One could see the carn sway as his desires dispersed the promised difficulties of the task.In the end, all things return to the rewards.


    ¡°Of course. Yet remember, these are exiled gods we are dealing with, unfit to be in the realm of Jurak. Who knows what they can do and how they would react.¡±


    They had nothing else to talk about as with so few people in the settlement they knew most of everyone else, except what they forgot of course, so they leisurely left the room.


    Outside, all alone, sat a seemingly young boy.Sometimes he would look up from what he¡¯s doing and often spoke to what looked like air.Even though it was seldom done, the boy was free to leave the temple of Eris and he did that often.


    ¡°Brother, where are you?¡± he called as the bones he played with fell.


    ¡°Here Ostortiem, in the tree. I was getting tired from playing with the pieces.¡±The boy looked up and faintly smiled.


    ¡°I was afraid you left me again. Don¡¯t please, not so sudden.¡±


    The branches of the tree rustled in the wind and leaves were scattered around the tree.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid, I am always here. I will die for you, you know that.¡± The boy let the bones fall back on the ground and closed his eyes as he rested against the tree.


    ¡°I remember. I just don¡¯t want you to go. You must know that¡­¡± The boy mumbled as he fell asleep from exhaustion.


    ¡°I always come back when you are here.¡± The slightly older voice said before fading away.


    High upon a moon, scattered pillars and stones could be found. Put together they would barely resemble a castle and keep.


    Everything was silent and still, even the figures that were sitting on their thrones.A slow gust came upon the barely habitable moon.The gust expanded to a great wind as air came to the moon through a portal. Through that portal stepped a great dragon that announced its presence with a terrifying roar.


    The man that sat upon the greatest throne opened one eye and grinned from ear to ear.


    ¡°Banneroth! Welcome my good friend, you¡¯re among the very first to arrive.¡±The dragon gazed upon the imposing figure on the throne. Behind Banneroth, wyverns, drakes and other smaller dragons came out of the portal.


    ¡°Asen or should I say Jurak, it¡¯s nice to see a familiar face. I hadn¡¯t expected to see someone else on this moon.¡±


    ¡°Why not? It¡¯s mine after all. Also can''t blame my foresight of not starting upon the planet." I let out a small chuckle at that.


    "It¡¯s good to see you however. Now that you¡¯re here, what would you say if you settled your people near mine? I assure you that it will be quite amusing.¡±


    The dragon was silent for a moment before baring his teeth in a dragon grin.


    ¡°I am sure my Xeloths will love to play with whatever savages you have created.¡± I immediately shout out in indignity.


    ¡°Hey! They are Carn and they have barely any culture to speak of because they only exist a few thousand years or so, I think. My memory fails me sometimes.¡±


    With a dismissive wave I motioned my friend Banneroth to sit somewhere.


    ¡°For now, just locate your Xecons¡±


    ¡°Xeloths¡± He interrupted.


    ¡°Same thing. Just place them along this river that runs between the two mountain clusters. Or whatever you name a group of mountains in the same range. Oh, if you ever see this guy could you then please kill or torture him in the most¡­¡±