by David Burke
There were plenty of monsters down here. Kyle would occasionally feel one of them brush against the edge of his senses. Monstrous creatures who were throwbacks to the earliest days of this world or, even worse, were magical creations.
Hav definitely liked her beasts.
As terrifying as those creatures were, they weren’t the true monster down here. That distinction was reserved for Kyle. Maybe it was, in part, because of the pendant he now wore, but Kyle didn’t feel it was that. He knew he was putting off a tremendous aura. Even beings without refined senses could sense the amount of power rolling off him.
The result was that he had this area all to himself. That was fine by him. He was going to strengthen his body and attempt to gain control of his Sea Essence.
Kyle breathed in, not with his lungs, but with his essence. He took onto himself the full force of the ocean. He embraced its crushing power and let it forge his body. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours. The entire time, he invited the challenge. He pitted the power of his godly Strength and Constitution against the surrounding environment.
He felt the power flow around and through him. For Kyle, it was a rush. The essence here was more concentrated than it was in the air. He could feel the Sea Essence flow through him. He pulled both it and raw essence into himself.
Kyle felt it flood his very being as he absorbed more and more of it. The sensation was akin to being drunk. His essence wheel became larger and larger as he filled it with raw essence. For several hours, he simply absorbed essence, allowing it to push his body to its limits. As he spun his wheel and began sifting out the Sea Essence, he tried to understand its fundamental nature.
The more he tried to grasp its nature, the less he understood it. Kyle could feel the power. It was raw and untamed, but it resisted being held. He felt like a child at the beach trying to hold back the tide with just his fingers.
Sea Essence flowed into him, but he couldn’t sift it into his essence wheel. That spoke remained empty. Not even the bonus essence from the pendant was there. He assumed he needed to have some of his own, before he could use that perk of the gear. Thinking of the pendant made him consider what else it might teach him.
He delved his senses into the seashell, seeking to learn more about Sea Essence. He closed himself off and let the essence within him circulate on its own. After so many hours, it was almost a reflex. The errant thought skipped across his mind like a tiny fish, that this was the longest he had ever spent focused on growing his essence in a single session.
Truthfully, he was losing track of time.
Now though, as he began to pull the pendant apart, examining its connection to Sea Essence, he saw that—just like every other essence—there was more to it than just one concept. Raw essence could be converted into it, but first he needed to form his own connection to it, the same way he had done with Earth, Sky, and Death Essence. He had a small amount of Deceit essence but had never formed a connection to it. That had come when he’d slain a foe possessing a portion of the shadowy essence.
Sea Essence was more than just the ocean. It was the fundamental makeup of all water. But it was also the storms, waves, and the plethora of life that made the sea their home. In his mind's eye, he saw the sun beating down along countless beaches kissed by the sea all over Verden. He saw creatures so small that they could barely be seen living symbiotically with massive whales and other mysterious monsters like krakens.
None of this was exactly Kyle’s forte, even less so since becoming the War God. He was a fighter, and no stranger to conflict, whether that struggle was on a baseball diamond or against a dragon demi-god. Sky Essence had been relatively easy to connect with because he loved freedom. The same for Earth Essence, because he appreciated its sturdiness. Death Essence had taken a bit more effort, but he eventually had mentally connected with it through his own sense of loss. Everything and everyone he knew had been stripped from him. While he wouldn’t take it back now, it had still been a shock to his system. Yet that system shock was the essence of death—loss and endings.
His mind went first to the healing properties of water. Nyda’s abilities were new but already impressive. Yet that didn’t resonate with him for some reason. Kyle knew he needed to forge a connection with Sea Essence that was personal, a connection of his very own.
His mind started to wander as he continued drawing in the essence and cycling it through his system.
Kyle thought about the oceans of Earth. They covered more than two-thirds of the planet. That had to mean something, didn’t it? Then it struck him. He had been taught that life had first been born in the oceans.
The sea was the true cradle of life. It was a new beginning, just like this was a new world. He would create a new beginning for this world, just as it had for him.
He knew that the Sea meant much more than just one thing. He felt all of that, but wasn’t quite able to admit it. Not yet, not even to himself. It was enough to forge a bond with Sea Essence, though.
A part of him wanted to stay down here. He wanted the peace that came with this place. He could already feel the way his body had been changed. But he also knew his team must be worried about him. They would undoubtedly know that he was still alive, but knowing he lived without knowing what was happening to him would likely be traumatic for Lash, after her experience with Krig.
Kyle allowed himself one more luxury, pulling up his character sheet. The changes were significant, but somehow numbers on a page couldn’t convey the sensations he could now feel with the changes in his body.
Name: Krig-Kyle Hudson
Race: War Godling/Demi-god of Death
Stats: (Current/Max)
Strength: 29/42
Agility: 15/42
Constitution: 33/45
Will: 37/45
Mind: 15/39
Charisma: 20/29
Essence: Current/Max
Sky: 7/12 Conversion rate: 1/5 seconds
Death: 25/25 Conversion rate: 1/5 seconds
Sea:10/12 (+5) Conversion rate: 1/8 seconds
Deceit:1/13 Conversion rate: 1/10 seconds
Earth:17/33 Conversion rate: 1/3 seconds (Durability)
War:27/50 Conversion rate: 20/second
Raw Essence: 19,880,773 (construct)
563,197,582 (mantle inside you)
Skills:
Flowing Earth Armor 1 - 2 Earth
Earth’s Sucking Snare 1 - 1 Earth/target
Divine Ability:
Rage Burst 2: 5 War
Reality Shift 1: Variable Raw Essence
Expanded Awareness 2: Passive, based upon circulation
His gains were tremendous with +7 Strength, +11 Constitution, and +7 Will. His Agility and Mind were definitely starting to lag, but now wasn’t a time to complain. Kyle had also gained +5 Sea Essence, though it was enhanced by the pendant to +10.
Even his War Essence had increased. The biggest gain, though, was with his raw essence reserves.
For the first time since gaining access to the mantle, he had increased his overall essence without simply drawing it from the mantle. He had drawn essence from the mantle, but he had matched that amount with an equal amount drawn from the great pressure at the bottom of the sea.
Kyle had pulled in almost eight million essence, from both his mantle and from the environment. He had nearly five times as much raw essence at his command as before but was still spinning it at a dozen revolutions per second. Each time he had an increase like this, he felt like he hadn’t known what godlike power was before.
Of course, there was a danger with this type of intoxicating power. It was true that when he could properly use all his essence, he’d be far beyond a mortal creature. But that was just it, his challenges were no longer those of a mere mortal.
He was still no match for any of the other gods.
But they weren’t what worried him. The vision he’d had in the mantle warned of a threat more dan
gerous than any of the gods. As he rocketed up from the deep of the ocean, the chill he felt had more to do with realizing how far he still had to go, than the cold water he passed through.
Interlude 1 - When He’s Away
While Kyle was pitting himself against the strength and power of the deep to cultivate essence, his team was dealing with their own chaos. Lash and Gilthan had carried Kierra out to Nyda. Closing the wound in the lycan’s arm had been simple. Cleansing the poison though, had been much more involved.
Nyda was only too happy to do it, though. The elven sorceress was new to her power and Kyle's divine splinter only gave her the power to fulfill her innate nature. But she liked that she had the power to heal. And despite all of their differences, she and Kierra were starting to become friends.
The larger lycan woman called Nyda her ‘little sister’. Kierra promised to look out for her. She even offered advice for what to do during her private times with Kyle. Those bits of sisterly advice were always quite explicit and detailed.
Nyda found it odd that Kierra was so direct with everyone about everything else, yet when Kyle was around, she became quite submissive. Well, except during her private times with Kyle. Then everyone heard just how direct she could be. It was probably a good thing there hadn’t been any others staying in the guildhall—Nyda worried the noise would have caused complaints.
She didn’t want to rush any of these new experiences. To her, this was all just the beginning of a journey, and she was quite content with how it was going. She cared about Kyle and knew that he cared about her. The rest would fall into place as it was supposed to.
Her biggest concern now, was why Kyle had yet to return. She could sense that he was still alive, even though it felt as if he was a great distance away. Nyda wasn’t the only one who was worried. Kierra, Hilde, and even Gilthan seemed to be similarly on edge.
Finally, it was Skrug who expressed what was on all their minds. “Boss man taking long time.”
“I can still feel him,” Gilthan said. “He doesn’t seem to be in any distress.”
“That is what my sisters and I said for months after Krig was gone,” Lash muttered. “After we had been killed or captured by Begaer’s servants, even while we were starved, beaten, and tortured in more subtle ways, we always thought that Krig would come back for us at any moment.” She looked down and drew in a ragged breath.
“It was when we lost that hope, that our splinters went dark.” Lash half mumbled this last as a dark shadow covered her face.
“And how quickly did you give up on him?” Hilde asked.
Lash’s head jerked up, her hands bunching into fists so tight her white knuckles cracked. The two women glared at one another. Once upon a time, they might have been peers, but not now. Lash was still enhanced well beyond what a normal human might be able to do, but she was no longer a match for the celestial, and they both knew it.
That fact didn’t cause the former battle maiden to stand down. Her words came out through clenched teeth. “I was the last. I held on for three years. Even then…”
Nyda listened as the fierce blonde’s words trailed off. She prompted Lash to continue. “Even then… what?”
“Nothing,” Lash’s eyes locked onto Hilde in a weary yet stubborn defiance. “She won’t believe me.”
“I’ll believe the truth,” Hilde nodded to herself but then her eyes narrowed. “Do whores even know how to speak the truth?”
That seemed to push Lash over the edge and she uncoiled her namesake weapon. In return, flames began to swirl around Hilde. The others all stepped back.
Kierra and Skrug watched intently. They seemed interested to see the outcome, or maybe just to watch a fight. Gilthan slipped back a few steps further, not wanting to end up on the receiving end of what either of the powerful women could dish out.
Lash struck first. Her magical weapon snapping as it crossed the distance. Her words were just as sharp as she cried, “You have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.”
The air became super-heated around Hilde as she lifted off the ground. It was too graceful to say that she leapt over the whip, but not quite true that she flew over it, either. Once in the air, her wings extended and she hovered there on the thermals her flames created.
With range on her side, she could burn most enemies to the ground. Not to be denied though, Lash ran forward. In a surprising move, she sprang forward and pushed a blast of war essence out as she leapt. The celestial obviously hadn’t expected that. She looked even more shocked when she took a fist to the face.
The two women grappled for a second before the ferocity of Lash’s attacks forced Hilde out of the air. The two women rolled around on the ground. Hilde was the stronger of the two, but Lash made up for that by being more skillful at this type of close in fighting.
Looking to the others, Nyda said, “Do something!”
Kierra and Skrug both had fierce looks upon their faces, but they ignored her. Gilthan at least had the good grace to shrug, admitting he didn’t know what to do. Anxiety rose in Nyda.
She remembered, though, that she was not helpless anymore. She grimaced as Lash’s flesh burned, simply by being in contact with Hilde, and flinched when the angel shrieked as her long red tresses were yanked to the breaking point. The two kept tumbling around, neither able to get the upper hand.
Nyda remembered she was meant to be a shield. It was just as much a tool of war as a blade—just as she was as much the priestess of the war god as the celestial or battle maiden. Air began to swirl around her. She rushed forward, but even the buffeting wind couldn’t push the two women apart. Their long-held grudge kept them going at one another.
Nyda looked deep inside herself. Water from her sea essence might weaken Hilde or an earthen wall might force them apart. Either strategy would simply help one over the other though, and that wasn’t her intent. War essence could create a shield of force between them, but if she used enough power, she was likely to hurt both of them. That wasn’t her goal either.
She needed something else, something she didn’t possess. If she had deceit or love essence, she might have been able to trick their minds. As she looked inward, though, she saw something she hadn’t considered before. Of course, before meeting Krig, all the users of essence that she knew only had the one type, and they used it for battle.
Essence, in all its forms, formed the very building blocks of reality. So, she should be able to do more with it. Inside her, Kyle’s divine splinter pulsed in response to her creative thoughts. She realized she could combine all of her essences together and forge something different.
The pattern seemed obvious after she’d created it but was completely alien to her just moments before. She wove fine threads of sea and earth essence together. They were the foundation of the world, one fluid and changing, the other firm and unyielding. But what many didn’t realize, was that both nurtured life.
Nyda didn’t forge a weapon. Rather, she wove a tapestry with Sea and Earth Essences. Then, she threaded war essence into the pattern. If this worked as she envisioned, it would create a deep conflict.
Once the pattern was built layer upon layer and then weaved tightly together, she delivered it. With a surge of sky essence powerful enough to force her weave into the noses and gasping mouths of the two fighting women, Nyda struck. A green glow suffused the little elf as she imposed her will on both of the women.
It might not have worked, if they hadn’t been so intent upon hurting one another. Their animosity formed its own kind of bond between the two. Nyda just pushed that bond a bit further. For the briefest of moments, their consciousness flowed between the two combatants. The ever-changing nature of the sea forced Hilde’s mind to absorb Lash’s memories, and vice versa.
Both women’s eyes bulged in shock, and the same green aura that surrounded Nyda formed around them. To the elf, the process had felt slow and tedious, even though it couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds. At the s
peed of thought, their memories were shared, and then their minds were separated once again.
The strain to Nyda had been beyond anything she’d expected. She collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. Both the others were left lying flat on their backs. It was as if all the fight had simply been drained out of them.
They saw the world differently now.
When Nyda sat up, Lash glared at her. “You had no right to do that,” the blonde said.
“Please,” the little elf narrowed her eyes, “you pledged yourself to follow Kyle. And before that, you faithfully served the former war god. I am now the priestess to the war god you each proclaim to serve, and it was not just my right, it was my duty, to help both of you see the truth.”
Gilthan stepped up. “Don’t keep up in suspense. What happened? That cluster of essence was such a tangle, I could hardly follow it. I don’t even know how you did that.” He shook his head. “It was like you tapped directly into the power within your divine splinter.”