by Marcus Sloss
“I will ignore the ground loving for now. I need tomorrow off. Spending the day with Linzy and my wife. I was…” Nate said while grinning.
I interrupted him. “That is great, no issue with it. Now, make sure no one else bothers me while I try to remove my soul from my body please.”
With a huff, I settled my face back into the dirt. This time I tried my pink aura. Maybe if Sion was down there he would be more receptive to a passion based magic. I felt my tendrils approach the barrier. A hidden force sense my aura and devoured it. I tried to fight the pulling force, but I was sucked into blackness…
∞∞∞
I found myself in an astral plane seated on a short grass facing a calm lake with swans in it. I sighed at being away from my body again. A ball of sparkling power hovered my way. It was a swirling mass of pink and black mixed. The way it moved was slow and methodical. I decided to watch the swans as it took its time approaching with a bob. It hurt my eyes to stare at the brightness anyway. This place was really lovely, it gave me a sense of calm and happiness.
“Greetings, mix of mortal and god. I am Sion… Excuse my form, it is all I am left to. My damage from… I forget what caused me to be this way. I find I cannot rebuild myself in any other form. What brings you to me?” The voice paused a few times. As if confused.
“I was told to search the core of this planet by Lily the god of magic.”
“Ah yes… I remember her. Not sure why. I am dying. I have been for what seems like eons. All I desire is rest. My excess energy has been given to this planet as I fade. Are you here to collect what is left of me?”
The brightness that once hurt my eyes was now toned down. I observed the twisting tendrils of pink and black that constructed the ball. They did not look healthy, as is the binding elements were dissolving. I contemplated what he was saying. More importantly, I was worried about what he asked.
“If I did collect what was left of your soul wouldn’t that change me?”
“No. I do not think so. My soul is beyond recovery. The most I can do is pass on my passion for vengeance to you. It would unlock those parts in your soul that are bound tightly. It will boost your power on Vin. If there are or will be any adverse effects… I know not. It is either I fade to nothing, or you accept. Creating this place, this plane was my last achievement. Decide before I vanish forever.”
The ball of energy was indeed becoming less vibrant as we talked. The plane and pulling from my body must have taxed the dying god more than he realized at first.
“I accept.”
“Avenge me!”
The sparkling black and pink ball shot into my chest and I felt a pang of extreme sadness. My body tore at itself from my core. I reached into my center and pulled tightly to try to rain in the eruption of magic. It was a dancing, twirling, swirling ball of colored tendrils. I could sense them all now. Green, red, blue, white, yellow, black, purple, pink, and brown. When the influx of magic from Sion stabilized I felt myself slipping from the plane he created.
∞∞∞
Nate was shaking me awake. I muttered to leave me alone and he backed off. I felt hungover. As I tried to sit up, dizziness consumed me. I vomited my eggs from Entrai. Awe… They were really good going down too. Coming up not so much.
“How long,” I managed to get out between heaves. I saw Virtue and Major Ista waiting behind Nate. I waved them closer.
“Few minutes, why?” Nate asked.
“Virtue test me for aura,” I said. While the shaman bent down to touch me I explored my inner core. Sure enough, I burned brighter than before. This time I had blue, red, and green swirling magic added to my center. This meant I had every magic unlocked now. The newest colors were dim, but visibly there. So much to do on my to do list. Learning all the magics was now added.
“By the verse and the almighty creator Gryff. How did you unlock more magic types?” Virtue asked after testing my aura.
“I consumed a god. Sion is dead now. There was a barrier to Vin’s planetry battery that I think I managed to remove when Sion sacrificed himself. I sensed a lot of power. More than enough for us to move around our troops on our own portal system once Maurta wises up. See if you can find it…”
Virtue’s eyes rolled into his head and he collapsed to the ground. I guess he found the ball of reserve energy inside the core. I myself sensed for it again. When I tried to call a portal to existence I never bothered to watch where the energy was generated from besides what was pulled from my aura. This time I did study it as I pulled on the black and linked it to Vin. The result staggered me and I barely gave it a glimpse in hesitation. There was a lot of stored magic inside Vin. If Glowvia generated enough energy to move planets every million years than this made sense. Sion had been trapped inside a planetary core ejecting his excess magic into the world for billions of years. Vin was indeed a magical place. I saw where the other four had been adding to the excess energy collected as well. This was their planet in a bottle among the sea of stars. And it was mine to use for war. I needed to get to work so I walked to Virtue and shook him from his daze.
The old shaman blinked as he focused his eyes on me. “Something tried to pull at me from there. I am not talking about the power source, which wow, I can feel there is a lot down there. Maurta steals more but there is enough to last a long time even with moving large amounts of troops. I retrieved Major Ista for you.” Virtue said as he dusted himself off. “I would avoid having others look down there for now. Are you ready to go to Parxa, we need to leave soon if you intend to purchase as much as you do?”
“Yes, ready the portal. Welcome to the fun Major Ista. You are here to help me buy dvaren.” I said and the commander nodded with a grunt in understanding. I chuckled at thist. Half the dvaren language was grunts and gestures. Words were for the weak.
A new portal that was wide enough for two opened from Virtue’s palm and I stepped into another void.
∞∞∞
Parxa was another world with a perfect climate. I rationalized that I had visited enough Horde planets by this point that every trade world was perfectly in orbit. If Glowvia was tasked to move planets into a predetermined orbit once every million years – than the central commerce hubs would certainly be the first to be moved. The sky was clear of clouds, a few biponi were the only things I saw in the distance. The area we arrived in was quiet and calm. Far different than our arrivals into Kikra.
We stood inside a fancy garden with a few colorful birds eating out of feeders. There were paths and benches showcasing certain plant life. A fountain fed a meandering pond with seven tailed colorful fish inside it. Tall shrubs walled off the space that was only a hundred feet wide. At the end of the garden, a wide trail meet with a wooden office building with a wide wrap around proch. A shaman walked a trail to us from the storefront. He was in a plain black robe with a walking staff that held a dragon at the head. His orange eyes were focused intently on Virtue. He seemed to recognize the shaman and they greeted each other with a gesture I saw for the first time. They both entended open palms forward to each other that did not touch.
“Welcome to Parxa honored guests. I am shaman Wilvert. My friends call me Wil, which Virtue is among them. What brings you to our fine planet?” Wilvert asked and Virtue handed him the marker from Glowvia. “By the seven… She never spends. We have been trying to get her to spend for years. Instead, she always sells us her problem children. I cannot complain though, we now have a reputation of selling the best fighters of elvath. It works to our advantage so we get to charge a premium. Most of her elvath end up arena fighting until their deaths. I am going to assume you are on Parxa for a different species if you are presenting this much wealth.”
Virtue handled the conversation for now while I watched from the back.
“Yes, Wil… Indeed we are. Dvaren, I know you have a lot here normally. We have a nasty Horde rebellion on one of our worlds. Very well organized. Maybe even another cyclops uprising. The seven are taking it so seriously they want the
best dvaren. They also want a lot. Even sent a champion with me. This is champion Frundzy. I hope you can help us,” Virtue said as he indicated to me.
I walked over to a metal pole holding a bird feeder. With my aura, I yanked it out of the ground. Even though the base was solid stone, it was light in my arms. I bent the thick metal in half. There was a lot of aura applied to pull this off, but eventually, it succumbed to my will. Wil gulped at my display of power. I think the marker would have been enough. Maybe this would stress the vitalness of my mission.
“Incredible, this must be some uprising. The slavers guild allows certain leeways when the seven themselves become involved. Which is evident they are. We are flush with dvaren and wopax at the moment. Both have been overbred and undersold. Do you have a need for water fighters? The wopax we have are efficient at removing monsters from the water. I say this because I can toss some in for really cheap. I hate having to mention them in the sales pitch but it is on my contract as a sales shaman.”
I couldn’t help myself. I chuckled at this. Even the stupid Horde tried to push excess stock.
“Show me the wopax after. I have more stones at home I can bring actually go grab both bags, Nate. Should be resting on my balcony.” I ordered. Virtue opened a slim black portal and never left as Nate rushed to Fernlan. Moments later Nate stepped back with the two bags of stones. “I also have forty three million in another account setup for this rebellion. Here is the bank contract of souls. That is what we have to spend for the first and hopefully only wave. Wars right, never know though I may end up buying your entire stock fighting this rebellion off.”
A young cyclops was summoned from the store in the distance and he ran to us. Both bags were hefted and he tried to run back. Wil handed him my account contract with the marker and then he raced back to the storefront. A minute later he returned with a new soul sheet issued by the banks. I was rich now. I was fairly certain that the marker Glowvia gave me was worth a billion souls. My balance sheet reflected one billion and fifty nine million souls. I whistled at the number. How many goblins did the Horde sacrifice… Apparently a lot. I still struggled with grasping how vast and numerous the Horde numbers really were. Tens of millions of planets with trillions of sentients. All run by seven gods and their champions.
“You came at the perfect time too. We have not had many sales lately on the dvaren, which explains the sudden rebellion. They were probably biding time. The only other species we have an excess of is humans. You aren’t interested in them, are you? I got forty million I can get rid of for four million souls. That is their basic costs. The process to convert them into stones is so tedious I can sell them that cheap. Granted it is thirty to one, females to males.” Wil said and then paused when I accepted his offer. “Interesting… How can you use them? Or is it a soft spot since your father was a human. I am assuming you are Glowvia’s champion.”
“I will use them as I see fit. I need them maintained here until I am ready for them. How much to feed them and ensure they stay healthy while I prepare?” I asked.
“We want to clear the space. How about a million souls for ten days? After that they got to go to where you want…”
I accepted his storage offer and sent another million souls. We simply were not set up to handle forty million new citizens. It would take me at least a week of clearing out outlying Horde cities to expand Fernlan. Not to mention I needed to set up a lot of things to support such a massive influx of new people. At least for now they were spared. I just added an insane amount of work to our griffins and my wives.
“Fair enough… I see no value in these humans. The goblins are cheaper more effective farmers. The orcs, cheaper more effective fighters. Who am I to question the gods? I can send them via the master world portal or direct to a location. Direct will cost you though. We have to use energy outside of Maurta which comes with a fee. For forty million… Seven hells. Two million to… Okay… That settles that.” Wil said as I paid the extra fee to have the human slaves delivered directly to where I wanted. A fresh portal spawned and a shaman stepped out. This one also wore black. “If you give Dirq your ideal location we will have those humans moved over in ten days. Unless you send someone over early to remove them. If that is the case there is a refund of handling fees.”
“Have him send them where we met,” I instructed Virtue who nodded.
He walked over to Dirq and tilted his head to the other shaman. Dirq wrapped his hands over Virtue's head and got the location I wanted the humans sent to. There was going to be a shitstorm of epic proportions when I returned home. We were not setup to handle that many immigrants. My accumulated food would vanish. My new homes would be overflowing. It was going to be a logistical nightmare. I was certain I would never hear the end of it. Another issue was I only compounding the problem as I was going to try to add more dvaren too. There was always time to worry about that later. For now, I had saved a lot of lives. Could always defeat the armies at the master portal defense and eat them to survive. Yum… Goblin jerky. I went and fished some out of my bag to munch on.
Dirq vanished back into his portal and Wil created his own.
“How about we go see some wopax first then get to the dvaren divisions we have for sale. Wopax are excellent at fishing. Many buyers use them to harvest a catch. Then they slaughter the wopax to add to the menu. I have tried the back half… very tasty and they mind the collars well enough. If you buy a million wopax I get a few days off next month… I would love to visit some family. Sorry, we don’t always get big buyers. Follow me.” Wil said and stepped into his portal.
I followed him and we did not travel very far. My head never left for the void of far travel. We appeared on a large balcony overlooking a port. Inside the shallows swam a creature not too different than the Mer. They had gills, webbed arms of which there were four, and had fishtails. These could not get on land. That was the main difference between the two species. They were also faster in the water from what I could tell. They carried tridents, wore no armor, and were generally gently swimming in the waters. The lived in a city of coral reefs. Their homes entwined with the structure of the rocky outcroppings. There were hundreds of thousands of the wopax swarming the shallows.
“How many to appease your bosses? I want your best dvaren so I am willing to placate you shaman. Do not mistake my kindness for weakness. I tire of this planet already,” I said to the shaman. I could use the wopax in trying to rid the oceans of monsters.
“This harbor full will do. A million for a million souls. Private portal another million…”
I halted Wil. “I require a demonstration please, I will pay for the creature they hunt.”
Wil nodded at this. He left via a portal. Nate spoke up. “Umm. Frundzy… my lord. What will we do with these creatures? They are great in the water, I do not see their purpose or value. Also, where would you store them.”
“Have patience Nate. They may be masters of battle in the water. If that is the case, it may drastically increase our fishing numbers. Our ships do not get to fish the deeps because of monster leviathans. I hear nothing besides how shorelines can be fished. These can change that. Also, there are unknown catalysts for research in those monsters. Think back to what destroyed the population of Livina and then apply that power to other scenarios. Do you not wonder about Nagolands like I do? Maybe it is empty and a barren useless continent. I do not think it is. My belief… I believe it exists and is full of more adventure and possible human allies. If that is the case we need to open shipping lanes. Our current advantages give us zero superiority in the water. If our corridors are full of giant ocean monsters that sink ships then these wopax may change the situation. Two million souls… worthy investment. Worst case I force them to catch fish until they perish themselves. Just because I am nice to my recent slave acquisitions does not mean I am weak. I can lash the whip when needed if it means our survival.” I said dodging a few direct statements.
Nate frowned. “You should find out how prone they are
to suicide against the slave contracts then. If you do intend to keep them as such. It would be prudent to know…”
Virtue interrupted Nate. “I can instruct our champion in how best to control and utilize these creatures. I have utilized them before in many invasions. Whatever demonstration Wil has planned it will be fun to watch.”
A small portal not far off the harbor waters increased in size until it was ten humans wide. A hundred foot long octopus squeezed through the portal. The way it was acting when it splashed into the water was in desperation. I wondered at what they used to get it run into the portal. That terror it previously displayed vanished as it relaxed in the deeps. Wil returned to us.
“I will signal the wopax to kill the octvi.” The shaman said as he focused a hand down toward the fishy humanoids. “And there… Watch now.”
A few young wopax eager for the hunt outpaced their swarm. The pool of attackers was over half a million. The rest of the settlement watched on from the underwater city as their brethren swam toward the octvi. Those young that jetted toward the massive eight legged creature were snatched up and gobbled defensively. This was the wrong call by the octvi. If it had fled from the onset it might have escaped. The swarmed arrived as the monster ate its meals.
Completely surrounded the octvi panicked. It was too late though. As the tridents pierced and tore at the monster's flesh the ocean boiled with desperation. Until it stilled leaving a behind a blotch of blood staining the ocean. There were simply too many attackers for the one defender and the whole battle was over swiftly. I noticed a hundred thousand souls were deducted from my balance sheet. Well, that was on pricey meal, at least they would be well fed for a while. The wopax dragged the carcass back to their settlement. I knew the perfect place for the wopax on Vin. In the shallow long protected reefs north of Goblin Isle.
I made my decision and ordered the million and paid the extra fee for shipping.