by David Burke
The most surprising stat jump, was his Mind stat. This had been the stat which had lagged the most. He didn’t feel any smarter or wiser, but he instinctively understood the world around himself better. His perceptions continued to improve, though he realized it would still require him to focus on those perceptions to use them properly; they remained habits he’d need to build.
The six-point jump placed him at the beginning of the Spirit Tier. Somehow, it made him feel that there was even further he needed to go, though. He was disappointed his Strength stat hadn’t made the leap into the Demi Tier, but then again, this battle hadn’t been won with Strength.
Perhaps even more important than his stat gains, were the marked jumps in his essence levels. Obviously, his Sky Essence had taken a huge jump, as might be expected, but all of his conversion rates had improved. He attributed this to his constructed body becoming more efficient.
Beyond gaining access to Justice Essence, War Essence was the only other essence to make a significant jump. At thirty-two, it was now his first essence in the Demi Tier. Somehow, that seemed appropriate. The associated skill of Rage Burst had jumped up to the seventh level and could now deliver blasts that would kill virtually any Monster Tier creature in a single shot.
His reality shaping power, as well as his awareness, had each taken leaps higher. This only drove home the point that while he had become more powerful, the world around him had just become more dangerous. It would be even harder to avoid the notice of the other gods, now. As easily as the Aekor and Barak had fallen, he realized that he still had only a shadow of Krig’s power.
His raw essence capacity, including that of his mantle, had grown as well, but he needed more. There was simply not enough time. The appearance of two more Aekor made that obvious. Why had that fool Barak bargained with such creatures?
Then again, could he blame the demi-god? It was the gods’ fault for not passing on knowledge of the dangers of the void. They’d wanted their creations to feel safe and not have to live in terror—such had been their lot as cultivators seeking to ascend and become strong enough to fight the void.
Looking again at his essence wheel, Kyle couldn’t help but feel that it was still missing some spokes. He needed to expand his understanding of the lost essences. There was something more there he needed to unlock, though even his expanded mind couldn’t tell him exactly what it was.
He would have to dig for it. Speaking of digging, he’d need to have Skrug dig out the entrance to the mine so that Nargossa could open it again. It appeared he’d accidentally buried it under a few tons of rock with his Rage Bursts.
On second thought, he would leave Raina here as well to work with Skrug. The dire troll was probably immune to her charms, as food was his only true love. Kyle needed some space from her, if only to clear his head.
Interlude 2 - The Price of Betrayal
The Sky Realm was abuzz with activity. Air elementals, celestials, and other servants of Himmel flittered around. They were clearing space for a meeting of the gods, as well as setting up protection for their lord. He still had not fully recovered from the injuries Krig had dealt him. At best, he was half as powerful as he’d been before.
For over three years now, he had been cultivating the essence of the world, turning it into sky essence and making it his own. But his wounds were slow to heal. The attack had damaged his cultivation base, something he never thought he’d need to worry about again. He was more than some ascended champion; he was a god; one of the creators of this universe. His cultivation base made up the entire atmosphere of this world.
Himmel paced back and forth as these dark thoughts filled his mind. It was a painful reminder that the gap between mortality and divinity was not as vast as they liked to tell themselves. Perhaps Krig had been right. Perhaps they had grown complacent in peace. They had hidden themselves so well, but maybe that wasn’t enough.
A short time ago, he had heard that one of his Lige’s children was fighting a dire battle. Barak was brash and headstrong. But he was what Lige had made him, so it wasn’t like Lige could blame anyone other than himself. Still, a demi-god dragon was perhaps the most powerful of all the demi’s. Only his half-celestial daughter and Dod’s undead general, could compare.
Thinking about his daughter brought a grin to Himmel’s face. He certainly didn’t mind having fun with some of the gorgeous celestials they had created, or to be fair, that Nade’s death had created. But equally, a shiver went down his spine as he pondered what exactly Dod had done to produce offspring with an undead creature.
The fight which Barak had remained a mystery to him, other than that his air elementals had told him it had ended with the powerful dragon-demi’s death. They’d briefly sensed another demi-god there. As far as Himmel knew, only Raina had mastered Deceit Essence sufficiently to hide herself from gods. Bedrag would have to explain her involvement. The more concerning element was the way Himmel’s elementals couldn’t sense the enemy that slew Barak.
Even he had felt the powerful surge of energy on a scale well beyond anything a demi-god might produce, but then it just disappeared.
Well, maybe that wasn’t the most disconcerting part. More concerning was the appearance of two Aekor. It was well known that a few of the servants of their great enemy had survived, buried deep within the earth. The cataclysm caused by Krig had wakened them, but most of those had been summarily dealt with. Now it seemed that Lige’s son had interacted with the abominations for some reason.
That would be difficult for Lige to explain. He could already feel that Lige and Jordan had appeared for this meeting. Baegar too. Oh… and now Bedrag. That left only Hav and Dod absent. This was going to be an interesting meeting. He had more questions than answers. He hoped some of the others had managed to learn more than the snippets of information his flighty elementals fed him.
______________________________
Following Kyle had been the correct decision. She was even more sure of it now. But it cost her—it had cost her dearly. Barak knew she had betrayed their plan. Well, maybe that didn’t matter anymore; he was dead now.
Kyle really had grown strong.
Yet it terrified her. It was unlikely that the gods hadn’t take notice of this battle. Even if Kyle had a way to hide his aura, Barak’s would have been on full display. At a minimum, Lige would have detected the death of his son. And Himmel’s increasingly present air elementals had likely caught wind of it, too.
Whatever Kyle did to Barak as he’d died, scared her witless. It seemed as though Kyle had absorbed Himmel's divine splinter from the dying dragon. That shouldn’t be possible, but Kyle was constantly surprising her.
He done so from the beginning. He’d shown compassion to some mortal peasants and even played with their children. Yet, he could be hard when necessary. When his lack of control had killed other mortals, he’d displayed no remorse and hadn’t second guessed their deaths. Of course, he hadn’t intended them to die or even get hurt.
In her experience mortals often got all bound up over that sort of thing. Then, he had really shocked her as he demonstrated mastery of other types of essence. There was no doubt that war essence was what he relied upon the most. It was that very aspect though that caused her to question if he was truly Krig reborn. Gods were literally defined by the aspect that they cultivated.
A god shouldn’t be able to handle more than one type of essence, excluding raw essence, of course. She was baffled by such inconsistencies. At first, she had expected him to be an easy treat. Then she saw potential for him to grow—perhaps enough to elevate her to divine status. Now, she realized he was beyond her. Direct combat had never been her thing. But at his side, she figured she could rise higher still.
That was if he didn’t die.
Barak’s actions with the Aekor had undoubtedly drawn the attention of all the gods. Her father hated those creatures with a passion that she didn’t understand. She knew they were remnants of a bygone era, but
none of the gods would speak of it. It had been foolish for Barak to use an Aekor once before in Thena, but now to have summoned some again was the height of stupidity.
There was no doubt about it. Her cover was blown. She’d felt more than one set of divine agents’ eyes on her when she’d aided Kyle. She couldn’t really explain why she’d done so. This was all so confusing. He likely could have won the battle on his own, but when he’d been pelted by Barak’s tornado and stood defiant against the might of a demi-god… she shivered.
The grin she had seen upon his face spoke to his love of the challenge. It was so damn sexy.
Why was she always a victim of her own lusts? She preferred to move slowly and carefully in the shadows. Now though, she was out in the open. If the other gods didn’t know about her yet, they undoubtedly would—and sooner rather than later. Even she couldn’t hide from her father, and she didn’t have whatever aura hiding trick that Kyle used.
Now, she was left with two choices. She could go to her father and confess, begging for mercy—knowing full well that he and the others would be just as likely to destroy her as talk to her. Or she could go all in with Kyle. The problem was that she had to be sure to back the winner; her life depended on it.
The question was, who did she believe in more: Kyle or the rest of the pantheon?
It wasn’t lost upon her that Kyle was different from the other gods. She still hadn’t ferreted out all of his history, but he was doing things that no god should be capable of. More than that, he looked at the world differently than they did.
She didn’t understand his fascination with mortals, but she’d heard what he told the celestial about their child. As she knew all too well, no other god would treat their child in such a manner. She had a great deal of thinking to do. And whatever she decided, she needed to convince Kyle she was on his side.
Chapter 16 - The Requisite Beach Episode
Kyle was able to make even faster time back to the city without Skrug in tow. He had the pleasant memory of watching Raina complain about having to get dirty with the troll. He wasn’t sure which was more pleasant: her oh so seductive begging on her knees to let her skip out on the task, her pouting when she realized he wasn’t swayed by her pleading with him, or the genuine outrage he could feel from her when she realized he wasn’t about to change his mind.
When he arrived back at the guild hall, he dispatched a messenger to notify the Governor of success, but in the process, Selma found out that he had left a dragon corpse laying out in the open.
“Do you have any idea how much that corpse is worth?” The older woman demanded, her fists on her hips.
“I’m guessing a lot?” It came out more as a question than a statement, though.
“Beyond a lot! Enough to found your own noble house, if you can claim the entire corpse. It would take time to sell it off, but unless you can wave your hand and make money, I have to assume it will come in handy,” Selma said, still indignant.
“Hmm…” Kyle said.
He looked over at a small stone bust that was apparently meant to represent a former leader of the Adventurers Guild. He held up a hand and focused on the earth essence inside it. He built a connection between himself and the bust. The thought made him chuckle; this was not normally the type of bust he liked to connect intimately with.
He allowed power to flood through him. Raw essence fueled the transformation, earth essence gave him the necessary elements, and Kyle’s will forced the change to happen. It took all of fifteen seconds, but he transformed the entire bust into solid gold.
Selma just stared, slack jawed. Finally, she asked, “Is that what I think it is?”
“If you are asking if it is solid gold? Then yes,” Kyle admitted.
Nyda gasped, coming down the last few stairs at that moment and dropping to her knees. “You really are the greatest of gods. Praise Kyle, Lord of War.”
Kyle just shook his head. He really needed to get through to Nyda. He cared about her. He appreciated her loyalty, but he also needed her to be a little less high strung. He never would have expected this from her, but apparently, feeling like he gave her a purpose in life really pushed her to a new level of devotion. He couldn’t help but think that what she really needed was to get laid, properly.
“I can do that, but I agree with you, Selma. We shouldn’t leave something like that just laying around. Meeka and Skrug are already out there. You can take Saber and all his new recruits. They can guard the dragon corpse while you extract or sell access to it. It’ll be a good mission for them.”
He started to turn towards the stairs, but then looked back over his shoulder at Selma. “Feel free to sell the gold bust to get enough weapons and armor for all the trainees,” Kyle said.
“You aren’t going to go with us, M’lord?” The flesh mage asked.
“Actually, I think it’s time that I spend some alone time with Nyda,” Kyle answered.
His elven priestess didn’t blush as she dipped her head. “I will be waiting in your room, M’lord,” was all she said.
“No, not that I don’t appreciate that idea, but I meant our time together to be more of a field trip.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “We can go to the forest, or the beach, or a quiet river… Just let me know what you’d prefer.”
Wide-eyed, Nyda looked at Kyle for a moment, as though she wondered if this were a trick question. Eventually, she asked, “You really want me to decide?”
“But I don’t want you trying to guess what you think would please me—this has to be about you. I can’t command you, because then it won’t be about you.” He shrugged, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I just want to spend time with you—as a man and woman. Just to be together, as friends, if you will.”
She blushed when he tilted his head to the side, studying her closely. “We were friends once, before this all got awkward. I’d like to get back to that.”
Her gorgeous smile lit up the entire room. Finally, she said, “I like the beach. Our last trip was all business, but I’d like to feel the sand between my toes.”
“The beach it is, then,” Kyle said.
It took half a day, even with Kyle running non-stop and carrying Nyda tucked into his chest in a princess carry, but they made it to the beach by midafternoon. The sun was up and unlike any of the beaches back on Earth, there weren’t any sunbathers.
Out past the surf, barely visible in the far distance, he could see a few fishing boats. It must not have taken a bit longer than he’d thought it would for word to spread that the waters were safe again.
When he finally set her down on her own two feet, Nyda stumbled a bit, which was unusual for the normally graceful elf. Then again, he had just carried her at high speed over for a couple of hours. He held out a hand to catch her, but she stabilized herself before turning towards him.
“I’m sorry if I’ve been coming on with the priestess thing too strong. I just want to drive the point home with the others.”
Kyle hadn’t expected that. “What point is that?”
“That you are a god. I mean… I know you are still growing into it, but you deserve their respect, their obedience, even their worship.”
“You know that isn’t really what I want.” He frowned. “Well, I mean, I’ve always wanted respect. The expression that comes to mind is ‘to be desired by women, envied by men, and respected by all.”
Kyle grinned at her, pleased he could remember the witty quote.
“But…” Nyda left the word hanging in the air.
“Yeah, yeah,” he groaned. “I know, this isn’t my world. You’ve been spending too much time with Hilde.”
“She’s right, you know. The rules here are different.” The petite elf stared up at him with her brilliant blue eyes. “She just wants what is best for you. Same as I do. Same as Kierra and, for that matter, as Lash does. Even Gilthan and Skrug are firmly on your side,” Nyda said.
“I know. There is just a
lot going on,” Kyle said.
“I get it. I can feel how tense you are. Did something happen while you were out with Skrug?”
Kyle didn’t answer for a moment. He allowed his senses expand to check the area around them. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he wanted to make sure they weren’t being watched. He didn’t detect any divine eyes upon them. Of course, the question was if he would even know if they were watching him.
He had become much stronger but didn’t have a way to compare himself to the other gods. He could sense the fishermen out on their boats. There were children playing up a couple of miles up the beach, but that was near a small village where most of the fishing boats were likely from. As he pressed a bit more, he detected some marine life. It wouldn’t surprise him if Hav was watching them through some of her creatures. Two, in particular, stuck out at him, though.