by Marcus Sloss
“When I like to disclose thing I prefer them to be honest. How about we trade questions until we tire of it? We sign a contract dictating only honesty. Missing information is considered a grey area or else we could be here forever.” I proposed and was sent a contract from the contract god herself. The yellow magic twirled my way and I picked at it. I drew it apart and studied it. This raised an eyebrow from Unforina. I cared not though, the bitch had tried to add an escape clause. “Tsk. Tsk. It says you can start an answer truthfully then twist it however you like. I saw the swirl of the fine print.”
She widened her eyes in shock. I flicked the contract back at her and when it hit her… She yelped. Now fright covered her face. I seized on the moment and lunged. I snatched her wrist and applied pressure as I pushed forward. I felt her bones shatter in my grip and she screamed out. My right fist connected square into her nose and her head shot back from the impact. I followed her down and smashed her face until her jaw was exposed. A solid blow to the knockout point and she went unconscious.
Seven hells, never saw that coming. I had my purple aura, figured as much when I could see the tendrils of the yellow magic. The question became where was I, and how did I get back to my body? I did not have to wait long.
A figure materialized in the most intricate set of black and golden armor I had ever seen. He stood hundreds of feet tall with a large double headed axe on his hip. When he gazed down upon me over Unforina, he noticed my hand around her neck. He laughed and then he shrunk. He quickly shifted in size to be seven feet tall.
“A demigod in our presence… It has been millennia since such an occurrence. And you got the better of Rina. Well done! Don’t do anything hasty. I will give you a rewarding contract for her life. She can be a right bitch and a pain in the ass, but us seven need each other.” The man said as he walked around me while I held Unfornia, or Rina as he called her, by the throat. “Forgive my manners, I rarely speak to new faces. I am Wargnextravexor. My minions refer to me as the god of war or simply Warg. It is beneath me to correct them. I still lavish their praise regardless of the slight. And you are?”
“Gryff. My minions call me friend and I am no demigod.” I said with certainty.
“Tell me of your father and mother, please. There is a chance I am incorrect but it is highly doubtful – seeing as how you have nearly killed a god from another universe that predates this universe. Do you comprehend what I said?” Warg questioned with a raised eyebrow.
“I think I do. She is over six billion years old, and I can harm her. Okay, why not. My parents died when I was young…” I was going to go over my tragic orphan back story when he paused me.
“Do you like the ice?” He queried.
“Nope, hate the snow.”
“Do you crave to care for the land and animals?”
“Does fishing count?” I said and he shook his head no. I did like to have animals but I rarely dotted on them or tended to fields.
“Do you have a need to be organized?”
I paused… Uh yeah. Of course I did. Who didn’t need to be excessively thorough in achieving one's goals? Shit… I gave it away.
“Oh, this is a real treat. Preception had a child. In all my years… and the mother a human. Probably seduced him while he was in hiding. Let me fill you in on something. This universe was not always ruled by us seven. It was ruled by another group of five. We call them the retreating five. They call us the invading seven. Both of us are correct. When this universe was barely a billion years old we left ours. Gods can reproduce but our cycle times are infinitely slower. I was in my mother’s womb for five billion years of your years. The upside is when I was delivered it was not through a body but through a celestial creation. I spawned into the fully developed god you see now. I admit I was immature back then, and also, I was not alone. The universe I came from god’s war with such ferocity children and pregnant spouses are often ripe targets for vengeance. Our seven mothers fought on the same side. A few young gods, among thousands of gods, pitted against thousands of others.
“The seven of us arrived here at our parents’ wishes to gain experience and help the main universes war efforts. We were ordered to conquer this universe and ramp up production. We were given a few trillion of the Horde as our tool for dominating planets. We used them efficiently and ruthlessly to establish a foothold here. As you can expect the five residential gods to this verse saw us as invaders when we portaled in close to the universe’s bang point. As it spiraled outward so did we. The five gods that lived here were an oddity to us. They were natural and not sent from the universe of the gods. They are similar, yet different. All gods can die. All gods are immortal. It is contradicting, but a reality. You can kill her. She will never come back, in fact over the billions of years she has wished us to end her a few times. Such are the struggles of an immortal.
“Back to the five though. When we arrived and conquered peaceful planets and advanced species reliant on electricity we were finally challenged. The god of passion or Sion was sent forward to confront us. Now Sion was no pushover, even if his name was girly. The god could fight, and after we taunted him one vs seven he let his passion for vengeance run rampant. It was a battle for the ages, planets exploded and black holes were formed. A thousand years we raged until he finally realized his allies were never coming to his aid. They would not risk what he was facing. When it eventually sunk in he was going to do die, he accepted his fate. I delivered the killing blow myself. To kill a god is much the same as a demigod. Remove the head and the heart and you win. If not they will come back with time.”
Warg pulled out his axe and spun it with precision. The god put on a show for a while to emphasize his point.
“What about the other four?” I asked.
“We seven had our hands full, seven hells we still do. That term is for us by the way. Love that one. We let the four leave to the outer edges of this universe. I will let you in on a little secret. The portal from our creation universe to this is one… No idea how it was opened. Even Maurta is clueless about its creation. We wanted to keep warring at universe centers instead of reaching out to the depths of expansions. Think about it. One portal to another universe and you instantly have advanced lives to conquer and enslave. Instead we have to search further and further to find the rare exceptional life to battle. You humans were our first challenge in over a thousand of your years and we ran right over you. Sure we made some deals, which… Hello, they all help us. If we erased you, which we can, and have done to other species, it would mean you were a waste. You are one step above a waste… Well, you were until today. Congratulations Gryff of humans, you have elevated your species. This means that AI Mastermind bitch did not realize the dead Gryff on Earth was not the original. You are.”
A contract was sent my way verifying everything he said was the truth. I pulled it apart and sighed. The bastard was indeed being honest or he believed he was. I was summarizing his admissions to clarify where to go next with the conversation. Gods battled on another universe and expanded to support that initial war by conquering other universes. Question.
“What do you send back to your home universe?” I asked.
“Easy answer, slaves! The gods don’t fight much themselves, but instead by proxy. They thrill for the proxy battles on the disputed worlds. This plane of existence is a farm for our main universe. We find creatures and sentients worthy of battle and portal them up to our alliance of gods. For instance, those ice cats on Vin. Just another creation of infinite possibilities. Well… Those cats are great at fighting over ice and also make fantastic mounts. One of the best for both. Sure dragons can freeze them, and yetis can swarm them. Oh, and the nivera poison them with one dart, but they outfight many foes. I think you are missing the age gap thing here the most. We are immortal. Do not let that fly past you again. We get bored. Everything grows stale with enough time. I have had sex with Rina hundreds of millions of times. Nope, not interested anymore. I know you may think she is an old bitty, but if
she wakes up she can swap into anybody at a whim, the same as I went large to small. Are you getting it yet?”
“The gods war because the gods bore?” I asked.
“Seven hells Gryff! I am reusing that one. Spot on. So with that in mind, you will understand why we conquer and expand. The Horde is one of our tools. I ask you to see past them as that tool and view the cause and effect. The cause of the invasion seven is the war in our universe. The effect is trillion sentients die so our parents have new toys to use in their useless fight. Is it fair, nope? Can we be stopped? Doubtful. You would have to kill us seven, then portal to our universe. Once there you would have to kill nearly ten thousand battle hardened full gods. Never would happen, and let me give you another tip. Nevers do happen, but rarely. At one point thirty billion of your years ago, the gods battled and the winners conquered. They eradicated their foes and sentenced all those captured to death. It was less than a hundred thousand years into the peace that two new factions grew and the war started again. There is an endless cycle that no demigod or even a god like me, can end. I think the creator wanted it this way. The most logical decision we could determine is this is how it is supposed to be.”
Well damn… I was going to have to do some soul searching after this. I wished King Aves or Lord Nova was here. I had never felt so insignificant. I was truly proud of all the achievements I had made on Vin. With this information, it was the tiniest drop in the smallest of buckets. It was nothing. Our lives were nothing to these gods. Wait…
“So the four retreating gods that still live, what happened?”
“They hid and fled. After Sion died, we saw very little of them. Us seven assumed they found a way to leave this universe. You have proven that not to be true. It is clear they are inferior and not meant to war, or at the very least are pacifists. Apparently, one fathered a demigod. Which, is smart. There are rules to demigods. The ultimate creator in his wisdom put them into place. I can have one champion. My champion can only be created by birthing a mortal with a god. This rule does resonate with us as a worthy one. If I could touch a mighty warrior and make him a half god or full god the universe would quickly spiral out of control. We instead have to risk that our child will be useless or maybe great. Natural evolution will dictate the results. Then there is the one champion per god rule. If your father were to impregnate another woman, you would die before that new champion is born. It is random and terrifying for the demigod. I remember when I had a weak son who wanted to be more diplomatic than brutal. I told him I was having another baby. He locked himself away for months trying to avoid his demise. A few days before that baby was born an asteroid hit a moon, it deflected at a perfect angle, and boom. My son was removed to make room for the next. I rarely exude my seed into mortals though.
“Our kind tend to save our seed for our attempting to conceive a full god. It is a one in a trillion chance to get a female goddess pregnant and us three males cycle our four females endlessly. That is our crowning achievement. Sure we can conquer some dvaren or elvath and easily best you humans. We can then regiment breeding on isolated controlled planets and send divisions to our upper universe to battle. There are many thanks given and accolades received. Minor, it is all minor. Except to create an offspring. I do envy you humans for that. The only species I feel bad for are the elvath. Those females take a millennia to conceive. Almost as bad as our one every ten billion on average for a goddess. Oh… she is waking. Here accept my contract of peace talks so she can’t go ballistic, and this way you do not kill her. I really do need her alive. Ah… don’t think about it Gryff. You may be a powerful demigod but I do not barter. You gained more knowledge than any physical item I could have gifted. Your contract with me will hide you from the seven and let you grow in peace until you are ready. I look forward to battling you later.”
Rina stirred under my hand and yellow contract magic flowed from Warg to me. It was essentially what he said. I could not be touched by one of the seven advancing gods and in return, I could not touch them. In exchange, I could never know where they were and they could never scry my location. That was how it roughly translated. This ensured I was not hunted and would have time to grow and plan. It was indeed a mighty gift for sparing Rina’s life. I did debate ending her right now. I was not certain I could escape alive though. Actually, I had no idea how to leave this plane of existence. I was in essence trapped behind enemy lines. I accepted the peace deal to fight another day.
I hesitantly released my hold on Rina’s neck and the moment she could talk she seethed in rage. I was expecting her to attack me, but she did not. I knew I was wearing white loose clothing after accepting Wargs contract. She launched at Warg.
“We have been hunting her for billions of years and you let her champion have a peace agreement. You are insane Warg. If the other five don’t kill you for this mistake, then I will. This is the closest we have ever come to her.”
I raised my hand. “Warg gave me a truth contract. The god Preception is my father, I verified it by testing the yellow magic.”
This caused Rina to calm and Warg to become infuriated. The god of war grew until he was back to his massive form and he screamed with incoherent rage.
“No!!!” Warg yelled with his head tilted back. I was insanely confused. Rina now gazed upon her fellow god with less anger, but the scorn was still there. That was immediately deflected onto me as she shifted to look down on me. The old bitty had swapped to a gorgeous elf in a yellow hip hugging dress. She snapped her fingers as I watched her morph. A pulling sensation yanked me from this plane of existence and then there was darkness.
CHAPTER 13
“And so it was with great sadness the two lovers parted for different paths. His was a journey of adventure, while hers was a destined detainment. The end.” Velia said.
I listened to her reading to me as I drifted back into my body. I shifted in the sheets desperate to awake fully. My mind synced with my soul and I opened my eyes. Velia stared down at me sweetly with her brown eyes inches from mine, my movements attracting her attention.
“HE IS AWAKE!!!” Velia belted out with such a force I winced at the sudden noise. She hopped onto the bed and laid on top of me. I was being smothered in kisses.
I noticed a lot of things were odd about my current situation. I was not in a thick jungle on an island. I was in a bed on the top floor of the Tipsy. Many questions immediately ran through my mind. How did I get here? How long was I talking with the gods? Was my contract with Rakmar still valid? The last one I checked. I had less than three weeks to turn in my copied bibles. Oh wow. Not good.
Velia covered me in so many kisses I had to stop her. “I love you Velia, kisses later. My magic is telling me I missed more than a month of time. What happened?”
“I knew you would come back to us!” Velia exclaimed as she raced to a dresser and grabbed a set of clothes. “Yes, lots of changes. Why don’t we get you dressed first okay?”
When I stripped the covers off I notice my body had withered. Atrophy wrecked my toned muscles into a wobbly mess. My bones ached from constant bed rest and I was instantly tired from my minor movements. Could this not have been healed? Then I realized, no it could not. It was not an injury, only deterioration. This was going to take weeks to recover from.
Velia reached me and helped belt on my pants. I had to use the bed to balance myself. While I was thin and lacking muscles I was getting used to the change fairly quickly. By the time I had the tunic on I was walking on my own, merely slowly. My to do list grew into a mountain of epic proportions. What had angered the two gods so savagely at the end? Did this mean my mother was the fourth retreating god Warg never disclosed? That was what I concluded. I was a demigod and Perception was not my father. I would try to barter with Sara the AI to try to find some answers. Realistically though, none of that mattered. I had to conclude my deal with Rakmar and then fix Vin. I had bought myself time with those who hunted me.
“Thanks for helping me get dressed Velia. I fe
ar I will be in meetings all day. I want to walk the Dais track while I talk. I need to spend today slowly awakening my muscles. Go find our wives please, I can make it out of the Tipsy by myself.” I said and saw her crying. I rolled my eyes but did not scold her. I was fine. I would probably always be fine. A snake could not keep me down, regardless of the lethality of its poison. “Okay, you can stay. The first person we can boss around, we get them to get our family together. Then Nate on standby.”
She nodded and snuggled into me. I saw Jak tending the bar on the first floor. A man I rarely saw, even before I was out for a month. I called him over and sent him to find my wives. As we walked to exit the Tipsy there were resounding thuds outside the front door. The griffins had heard me. Velia opened the door as I walked out slowly.
King Aves, Lord Nova, and a new two toned red and green feathered griffin waited for me. We exchanged minor bows at each other before King Aves talked.
“Human Emperor Gryff, I present Lord Wodra. He is the griffin I placed in charge of King Omarr’s region. There is much to catch you up on, but for now, we will bide our time. Your wives are running this way right now. I am glad you are back among the walking. It seems you are a hard human to kill. Until later Gryff.” King Aves said and they departed.
As I watched them fly to Zenith I noticed my wives racing for me. Pipi, Amber, Addilyn, and the slowest was Bella. They were glorious to watch bound my way. Poor Pipi and Amber had their large bust fighting their restraints. I wished they were topless, what a glorious sight it would have been. I braced myself for a tackle when they neared. Velia said I was fragile and they immediately shifted to soft kisses with hugs. I let them dote on me until Bella arrived in a huff. She pinched my ass, bent me down, and planted a long kiss on my lips.
When our kiss broke Addilyn ran her hand over where the snake had sunk its fangs into my face. They were all crying and it was building up from each other crying.