War God for Hire- Mercenary: A Reincarnation, Cultivation, Litrpg Adventure

by David Burke

  Khepri was the first to answer, “We have nothing that belongs to your Master, but he has taken much that belongs to me and my people.”

  That same hollow voice called back, “In the end, death claims everything, but my Master is willing to tolerate one city of the living. Move all your people here to Nargossa and you will be left in peace. The rest of the world shall be freed from the chaos of the living. But you will have a treaty with him if only you turn over what is his.”

  Khepri looked at Kyle and asked, “Do you know what he is referring to?”

  “Yes, I possess one of Dod’s divine splinters. I believe this necromancer must control the other two that she lost in her battle with Krig. He probably styles himself as the new god of death. Leave this to me. I told you I would protect the people of Nargossa and I would have done so even if you hadn’t asked. The strong protect the weak, but then the weak serve the strong.”

  Kyle lifted off of the wall, his body held aloft by the winds which answered his command. “Gilthan and Lash with me. Skrug, Kierra, Nyda, Meeka stay here and protect the city. Beware of any traps.”

  A few seconds later, Kyle and his two escorts reached a spot ten feet from the hovering lich. The undead creature began to speak again, but this time its eyes pulsed with a green light and the voice sounded very different. “I can feel it. You are the one who took what is mine.”

  “I presume this is the so-called necromancer I am speaking to,” Kyle said.

  “Yes, just as I am told, you are the pretend war god,” the voice replied.

  “You should be leery about who you listen to.”

  “He said you would say that. The current gods seek to dominate and stifle the potential of mortals. The void represents freedom, and you can’t stand that.”

  Kyle laughed, “You are a fool and you are being played. The void seeks nothing but oblivion. However, we can agree on one thing. The old gods have not been proper shepherds of the people. With power comes responsibility and they have forgotten that.”

  They hovered there in silence for so long that Kyle could feel Gilthan gathering his essence for a lightning attack. Kyle shook his head silently to warn the elf off. Finally the green light reappeared in the lich’s eyes and he said, “Very well, I will make you an offer. Surrender the splinter to me and I will allow you to rule Nargossa and everything within one hundred miles.”

  “I can’t give it up to you. You can only claim it by killing me,” Kyle said. He didn’t actually know if that was true, but he had no intention of giving power to this mad man.

  “Then there can be nothing but an endless army of undead thrown against your walls. You may be powerful, but you will be overcome. Life always falls to death in the end.”

  Kyle held up his hand. “Don’t be so hasty. There is another way. I will fight any champion that you send against me. If I fall, you will be able to claim the Dod’s splinter. If I win, then you will withdraw your army and come no further north than Calrissi. I will make no move against you or your undead, although the Aekor and void wraiths will still be fair game.”

  Again, silence from the enemy followed, but not so from his allies. “What are you doing? We can’t afford to lose you again,” Lash said.

  Kyle frowned at her. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  She glared back at him but finally said, “What are you doing, m’lord?”

  “That’s right. I am your lord. I didn’t require it from you but you offered your service and I have accepted it. Do you wish to rescind that choice, now that you carry my power within you?”

  “No never…”

  Gilthan cut her off. “Lord Kyle, she is only worried for you. We all are. You just completed a terrible battle. Now, you are inviting another one. What if the void wraith and Aekor all attack you? Even you have admitted they are powerful.”

  “A short time ago, I would have been more worried about the Aekor, but now, I only worry about the void wraith. Not that I worry for myself, but I worry what his presence here may mean for all of Verden. You are both just going to have to trust me,” Kyle said.

  The two of them reluctantly nodded and a moment later the green light appeared again in the lich’s eyes. “Very well, but where do you propose this battle be held?”

  “Right out here is fine. Halfway between your command post and the city walls, at first light tomorrow morning.”

  “Why not now?”

  “Because I say so. I am offering you the only chance you will have to get what you want. You may be able to destroy the mortals of Nargossa, but you can’t keep me here and I am the one who has what you want. So if you want it, you or your champion will meet me in battle tomorrow morning. It must be single combat and no one else may be any closer than your command post or the city walls.”

  The green light flickered and then finally the necromancer’s voice said, “Very well, till first light.”

  Chapter 30 – Final Preparations

  Queen Khepri was the only one who seemed happy with Kyle’s decision. His team all complained, either silently, with body language that wasn’t hard to decipher or quite verbally. He forced them all to wait until they got back to the guild hall, though, and at least they complied that much. Before he left the wall, Kyle asked Saber to make sure and see him with any officers that had not been enhanced and could be spared from the wall one hour before sunrise.

  Then he headed back to the guildhall and from there to the council room. He insisted on quiet again until everyone was seated. Raina shed her Meeka cover as soon as they were in the throne room. As soon as everyone was seated, she said, “You do realize that they will do anything they can to beat you. It isn’t going to be a fair fight.”

  “I know, but this is also the best option available to me, and what kind of war god would I be if I didn’t fight my enemies?”

  “A living one,” Nyda said, “Hilde would never let you do this if she was here.”

  “The alpha must lead from the front that is the way of the powerful,” Kierra argued.

  Nyda turned and glared at her.

  “You could take a lesson from my sire here, m’lord. Perhaps use a bit of deception. That is certainly part of warfare,” Raina added.

  “Oh, I have plans and we are going to discuss them, but the time that this buys is even more important. Don’t worry though, I’m not the god of honorable dueling. I’m the god of war and war is an ugly business. You think it’s bad here. You should see some of the weapons from my world. I was never a soldier there, but I saw enough history channel and movies to get an idea.”

  They all stared at him blankly for a minute and he remembered for the 1000th time that most of his references flew right over their heads. So instead, he turned to the silent members and started to query them. “Skrug, what do you think? Is this a mistake?”

  Then, since Skrug hadn’t fully understood what Kyle had agreed to, the others explained it to him. The troll opened his mouth with great guffaws and a huge grin that showed off his powerful tusks. “Boss man, smash enemy. Grind them up and then Skrug can help.”

  “Thanks for the support, Skrug. What about you, Gilthan?”

  “I don’t know that I would have made this choice, but I have come to trust that you see things in a way that I don’t. Afterwards, it becomes obvious, but you simply know more than I do. You did long before you became as powerful as you are now. So, I will follow you to the end, m'lord.”

  Kyle simply nodded and then looked over at Lash. Before he said anything, Nyda said, “Lash, you have to talk some sense into him. Without Hilde here you are the only one he might listen to.”

  “I don’t know why you think he would listen to me any more than you. He is sweet on you.”

  “Oh, too rich,” Raina said with a laugh. “Our lord is going into a deadly situation and we are all bickering over who he loves more. You all are just lucky. Once he spends a night between my legs, he isn’t going to want to look at the rest of you.”

  Kyle just shook hi
s head. It was telling that the other women didn’t even snap back at Raina.

  Lash finally spoke again, though. “This just feels like when Krig rushed off to the meeting with Dod. He knew it was a trap. We all did. I don’t know if he underestimated the trap or overestimated himself, but we all know how that turned out.”

  “And what is your point?” Kyle asked softly.

  “Simple. I got mad at the wall. I know I shouldn’t have, but I got mad then and let my emotions get out of control. You are the war god. You will go to battle many times and I have to accept it, even if I don’t agree with you. That last time with Krig, neither Hilde, Skylar, or me and my sisters could talk him out of it,” Lash replied.

  For a moment, Kyle was caught up in Krig’s memories. He knew without a doubt that while Krig had cared about them in his own way, it didn’t hold a candle to what Kyle felt for these women. Not even to the friendship he felt for Gilthan and Skrug, or Saber for that matter.

  But something else she said triggered more memories. He remembered the women begging Krig not to go, but Krig insisting. They had all quieted down quickly. Krig didn’t brook any argument. With him it was either his way or the highway and by the highway he meant death. More than that, though, he remembered Skylar.

  It was so odd to know a person that you didn’t actually know. Or at least to have the feeling of familiarity. He had experienced it before with Lash, and it had created untold amounts of tension between them. A part of him hoped he would never meet Skylar, especially since having an elder dragon angry with him didn’t seem ideal even for a god. But another part of him hoped she had survived that day in Dod’s realm. He knew Krig had valued her and he suspected that it would have been easy for him to like her too.

  But he had his hands full with four women. Well five if you counted Raina. With that thought, Kyle realized he was getting closer and closer to accepting her. He had to harden himself, though, and not in that way. She made that all too easy. No, he had to make sure he wasn’t being taken by her. He was still just as worried about being tricked by her as he was by the necromancer.

  “Lash is correct. I am not going to be dissuaded from this, but I won’t be stupid about it either. In the meantime, though, I want to take care of some things that I haven’t been able to do yet. I would like to work on further upgrading all of you. That way no matter what happens to me, you all will be in a place to protect yourselves and the rest of the guild that has come under our protection.”

  “But listen, my orders if anything should go wrong tomorrow are as follows: you look out for each other first. Then you think about the guild members. After that, the people of Nargossa. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to risk yourselves for anyone else.”

  They each nodded and once Kyle was sure that they were on board, he said, “Tomorrow will serve another purpose. If they mount enough of an attack to kill me, then even the other gods will have to take notice of the threat. It will be a wake up call, hopefully.”

  “But before you start yelling at me, you should all know me. I don’t plan on losing. The war god only goes to battle to win. And here is my plan…” Then for the next hour, he explained what he had in mind. At first they were quite skeptical, but by the end of it he saw more smiles than frowns.

  When they finished planning, he was surprised that it was Skrug who spoke up first. “Now make Skrug stronger? Skrug want to smash ugly bones.”

  “Initiative is good, buddy, but we have a saying back home. ‘Ladies first’ and I intend to abide by that here.”

  Skrug looked crestfallen, but Gilthan started explaining to him about why women were so great. Not wanting his faithful follower to be left out, “Don’t worry, Skrug, after we handle this matter, I’ll see what I can do about finding you some troll girls.”

  The promise seemed to pacify Skrug, so Kyle added, “I can do something for you tonight though Gilthan. You still shacking up with those three elf girls from the arena?”

  “Of course, there is a shortage of elves in Nargossa, and it would be unfair of me to deny them a bit of Gilthan,” the sorcerer replied.

  “Okay, well, meet me at your room with all three of them in fifteen minutes. I have a surprise for you.”

  Gilthan looked a bit worried for a moment. It made Kyle chuckle and say, “No, nothing kinky. I’ll leave that for you and your girls.”

  Reassured, the elf left and took Skrug with him.

  Half an hour later, Kyle was walking down the hallway to his room. He had just spent a few minutes enhancing the girls in Gilthan’s harem. He still wasn’t sure he knew all their names, but he had made them stronger and more resilient. It was akin to the same process as he had done with Saber, but he was better at it now.

  His own personal growth helped him understand how to modify a body better, than well as helping him control his power more precisely. The biggest jump though had been the knowledge he had gained when he destroyed Marie’s body in order to merge his divine splinter with her soul and create a construct body. It was sorta like reverse engineering. He had learned a great deal as he broke her body down.

  The knowledge and power paid off with much greater results. If Saber had been upgraded to version 2.0, then these girls had definitely been upgraded at least a half step beyond that. They were probably more like version 3.0. None of them had a draconic bloodline. It was too bad because he could have used more essence users with that level of power. But he was able to awaken an affinity within each of them. One had a sea essence affinity, another was earth, and the third one was air.

  Beyond giving them peak Mortal Tier essence abilities in at least one affinity, he really focused on their bodies. He did his best not to perv on them. These girls were, after all, with his bro and he figured he would be busy enough on that front soon enough. That combination made it surprisingly easy to work on modifying them. He strengthened their bones, made them more flexible, made their muscle fibers more dense and enhanced their nervous system. They would be more sensitive in certain spots, while less sensitive to pain over most of their bodies. He couldn’t even help himself at the end, either. They were all still rather young for elves, but he gave them all a refresher down there, so the next time they were with Gilthan he was gonna be in for a treat.

  From the noises Kyle heard before he had even reached his room, his gift was already paying dividends. Now, though, he had his own room to walk into. Kyle purposely held back his senses. It would have been easy to peek and see who was waiting for him in his room, but sometimes it was better to just let life have some surprises. He had to admit he was really curious which of the girls had won the inevitable argument about who got to go first.

  When he opened the door, he smiled to find Nyda sitting up against his headboard with the blanket pulled up covering her while still revealing the pink spaghetti straps of one of his favorite nighties. It was the sorta of lingerie that enhanced instead of hiding. It seemed odd in some ways that as much as he admired the female form, it could still be enhanced by the right bits of clothing.

  “Hello beautiful,” Kyle said as he walked in.

  The tension was obvious on her face, but it was blended with excitement. This had been too long in coming. A part of him felt he should have pushed her to it sooner. But he had let it work out naturally and in the end he had to trust that was going to make her feel better about it, since it had happened on her own terms.

  He came over and sat on the edge of the bed. He leaned in and gave her a warm kiss. It was more affectionate than passionate and he tried to convey his love for her with the kiss. His fingers brushed through her beautiful magenta hair, but again gently. “You shouldn’t think that you are second to anyone.”

  She looked back at him. Those wide eyes of her were pools that a man would happily drown in. Elven eyes were just slightly wider than those of human women. He had looked at her many times, but her beauty still captured him each time.

  “I know I’m not the strongest or most useful of your women. I
can see the passion you have with Kierra, the deep connection you had with Hilde, and now that Lash is a demi-goddess, you two will only become more connected. I even see the way you respond when Raina flirts with you.”

  “All of that is true, well, maybe except for the last part. What you are forgetting to mention is the tender affection and simple joy I have being in our presence. I did warn you I couldn’t say I would only love one of you.”

  “You did. What makes it harder is that I care about all of them. I even want to see Raina come around. My power shows me the hurt deep inside her and I would very much like to see her made whole. If anyone can do that, it is you, my love. I was so afraid of what was in me. You made me see that the power was a part of me. And wonder of wonders, it has taken the shape of a helping power, not a hurting power.”