by David Burke
Kyle felt the strain on himself as he did this. A migraine started to build in his head until it felt like it would split. He knew he should wait to do this, but they were under a time constraint. More than that, he didn’t know if he would ruin the reservoir if he didn’t finish what he had started. His teeth started to grind loudly enough that even Skrug took notice. Still, he pushed through the pain.
Soon the belt was done. The next thing to do, was to focus on the reservoir. He began enhancing the crystal’s matrix, building more and more intricate internal connections. If this worked the way he thought it would, he should be able to pour extra essence into it. Then, on a whim, he tried something else. Hilde had told him that a reservoir could only hold one type of essence at a time, but he wanted this one to be able to do more.
Pain flared as he pushed his creation to its limits, but he managed to partition the crystal’s latticed matrix into two sections. His body shuddered with the exertion, but that wasn’t good enough. Kyle knew that he could add War Essence to it, and Gilthan already had Sky Essence, but he felt that he needed to do more.
If he was going to be more than just a war god, then he needed to push.
Kyle pulled down through the floor of the dungeon. He soaked up the durability of earth and stone. It was immutable, lasting far longer than the tiny, temporary beings that scrambled about upon its surface. He drew that identity in and forced a third partition on the crystal’s latticed matrix. From there, he funneled War Essence into it. With his rapid conversion rate, he was able to pack in one hundred points in only six seconds.
Then, he began forcing Earth Essence into the second partition. This took a bit longer, and he felt the strain like he was moving heavy shovels full of wet cement, but he kept pushing. Four minutes later, he had filled the second partition up with one hundred of the tightly packed brown essence.
With the reservoir complete, Kyle opened his eyes. He saw them all staring at him. Hilde had a look of concern on her face, while Kierra simply looked hungry. The other three were all staring at him in awe.
It was then that Kyle realized he was glowing. The flow of power through him was intense. But he still had more to do.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes, my lord,” Gilthan croaked.
Without another word, Kyle handed the elf the belt. Even as Gilthan was buckling it on, Kyle reached out and shoved with all the power he could muster straight into the elf’s chest.
It wasn’t a physical shove, but a spiritual one. His essence expanded and a fragment of his divine soul burst into Gilthan, who screamed. Kyle reached through that connection and began to pull Sky Essence in. He seized control of the man’s power. His essence wheel was much smaller and only had the one spoke—for Sky Essence.
Time lost meaning as Kyle went to work.
First, he reshaped the elf’s wheel, expanding it to accommodate more raw essence. Kyle hoped that would also increase the sorcerer’s conversion rate. Then, he created spokes for both War and Earth Essence. He pulled more and more power through the man. He pushed him to peak Mortal Tier for Earth Essence, well into Monster Tier for War Essence, and, after an exhausting struggle pushed him into the Spirit Tier for Sky Essence.
He heard, as though it was a million miles away, Hilde’s voice saying, “You must stop.”
Echoing right behind the celestial, Lash was saying, “This is beyond anything Krig did.”
Kyle kept pushing and saw a mark upon Gilthan’s cells. He wouldn’t have known what it was, but some of Krig’s memories and knowledge aided him. This was the heritage of dragons. The sorcerous bloodline that gave Gilthan his power truly was that of storm dragons.
Immediately, Kyle saw an image imprinted upon his mind of long, majestic dragons. They were more slender than many of their kin, but no less fierce. They were masters of wind and lightning and danced amidst the storms that pushed other dragons to the ground. Their cerulean scales flashed among the clouds as they played.
This power was inside Gilthan, if only it could be awakened. But Kyle was so tired, he didn’t know if he had the endurance to push through. A weariness settled on his shoulders that pushed him down. But if he didn’t try… If he didn’t try, he would be cutting himself off from a servant who might prove to be even more powerful than Hilde.
So, the war god went to battle yet again.
This time, his foe was on two fronts: his own limits, as he sought to more fully transcend mortality, and that elusive set of genes within Gilthan that would empower him to be more than he currently was. The battle surged back and forth for another hour and Kyle almost lost sight of the genetic thread within the elf more than once, but he finally managed to tease it out.
The beast within the elf roared and from his lungs erupted a gale force burst that would have pushed back any but a god. Kyle stood firm against the gust, basking in the power of this new servant. Gilthan’s mind was scrambling to keep up with all the changes, but they would talk once he had calmed down.
Finally, a peace came over Kyle and he was tempted to think that his work was complete. But instinctively, Kyle knew there was one more thing that he could and needed to do here. He wanted to get something more out of this than another loyal servant. He pulled Sky Essence through Gilthan, using him much like a crystal refracts light, pulling the purified essence into himself.
That beam of brilliant blue Essence burst through Kyle’s barrier and began to fill that spoke of his essence wheel that represented Sky. The misty blue essence filled it up and Kyle knew that he now had access to another elemental essence.
As soon as he finished, Gilthan slumped to the ground.
Kyle knelt over the elf and instinctively checked for a pulse, before realizing that his enhanced senses could have told him that the elf was just fine, if exhausted to the point of losing consciousness. Once the thought occurred to him, Kyle allowed his senses to sink into Gilthan.
Reassured that he was well, in both body and mind, Kyle let him rest. He began to feel the connection he had with the man. It wasn’t invasive in any way, but he knew that a piece of his power resided in the sorcerer. Gilthan was now his servant, through and through.
As the glow faded from him, Kyle looked at the others and said, “It worked. He is bonded and now has access to Sky, War, and Earth Essences. Additionally, the reservoir belt will hold power beyond what his own body can manage. Oh, and I also manage to awaken the storm dragon bloodline within him. It will be interesting to see how Gilthan changes over these next few months.”
“You did what?” Hilde asked. “How is that even possible?”
“It is a simple matter of combining a modern Earth understanding of DNA with the power of a god. But now, I’m weary. I need to rest. Watch over me, Qua’ardet Flammaurorae.”
His formality in using her full name caused a pained expression to flit across Hilde’s face, but it was gone before Kyle had the chance to notice it.
“Yes, m’lord.”
Chapter 20 - Clearing the Hall
The next morning, Kyle awoke feeling much refreshed. Helping Gilthan ascend had taken more out of him than he had expected. Well, that and crafting the axe and then the belt.
He was probably pushing too hard and needed to remember the advice of a wise coach: Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither was a ball player. He had to assume that the same thing was even more true of a war god. The memories he retained from his vision, showed him that the other gods had tread a long path, to get to where they were now.
He looked at himself and realized he had experienced more significant gains in War and Earth Essence. His divine ability Reality Shift had leveled up, and both his Will and Charisma had gotten sizable bumps. But most exciting, he now had access to Sky Essence. It was only at six out of a potential twelve, with a conversion rate of only one per five seconds, but that was still much more than he’d had before.
Thanks to this new essence, he could feel the flow of the air ar
ound him in a brand-new way. His connection to the world about him only continued to expand. It was almost intoxicating, but he pushed his elation down.
He also felt something else. He knew exactly where Gilthan was, and what the man was doing—flirting with Lash, to be precise. The man couldn’t help himself.
More than that though, Kyle knew to his core that Gilthan was loyal. Foppish, but loyal. What he didn’t tell the elf, was that he now knew that Gilthan couldn’t disobey Kyle if he tried. As long as the divine splinter remained intact, Gilthan had no free will when it came to Kyle’s orders.
Rather than feel bad about it, Kyle simply determined that he would be sure to be worthy of such a trust and never abuse it.
Lash must have noticed that he was awake and used it as an excuse to stop being pestered by Gilthan about what it meant to be an emissary of the war god.
“I’m glad to see you are well. Everyone got at least a little sleep last night, but there were no new attacks. The tunnels moved three more times, but I don’t know how many settings there are. Are you still intending that we work our way down to the lowest levels?” she asked.
“Yes, nothing has changed about that. Whatever it is I am sensing down there needs to be dealt with. It is turning these Mor’dverg into something far worse. Dark dwarves are what they were before, but now they are being turned into something walking the line between life and death. Beyond that, their weapons are being infused with Death Essence, and it would be irresponsible to allow such to find their way out into the world. Right now, they are relatively contained, but we need to clean this up,” Kyle answered.
“I know that Lash wanted to use this as an opportunity to work on our teamwork, but is that really necessary, now? I mean, are you even planning to go back to the arena?” Hilde asked.
“I think we should go back. But our time to leave is fast approaching. I’d rather give Meeka the chance to let us go freely on our way, though. It might limit future annoyances,” Kyle replied.
“As you wish. But I was just thinking that with the dungeon helping to shield your aura, maybe it would be a good time for you to cut loose a bit. Stretch those divine muscles, as it were,” Hilde said.
“Maybe. But we still need to see what Gilthan can do, and I have this sense that my strength is going to be needed for whatever we find at the bottom of this dungeon.”
“As you wish,” Hilde said.
Kyle could tell she was messing with him, because she knew how worked up he got.
Lash cut in. “Let’s just try working together, and see where it goes from there.”
Kyle nodded, and they all got moving down the hall. It was actually quite boring for a while. The shifting of the tunnels had left them with no enemies to fight until they reached the far end. They cleared a number of rooms but found no enemies. There were a few incredibly old and desiccated corpses, but they had already been stripped of anything valuable.
After a good thirty minutes of searching, they finally found a stairwell leading downward. As soon as Kierra opened the door, a crossbow bolt launched straight at the lycan.
Kyle wanted to rush to her side, as he’d seen her flung backwards clutching at her chest, but he knew he had to secure the doorway first. It wasn’t anything that Kyle had known in his previous life. But it was something ingrained in him, now. He couldn’t help his teammates if he didn’t stay alive himself. That meant securing the area they were in, first.
He burst through the doorway, his strength knocking the door off its hinges and busting apart the stone walls into which it had been set. Mounted on the wall in the corner of the stairwell was a crossbow. It had already shot its payload, so the trap was spent, but Kyle didn’t want to take any chances.
He sent a surge of Rage Burst down the stairs. As the War Essence ripped into stone, he heard more traps being sprung. The twang of other crossbolts, the sound of chains sliding through mechanisms, and an axe smashing into the stone wall all triggered in rapid succession.
He stepped back from the doorway and said, “It looks all clear.”
Lash was already kneeling next to Kierra.
When she didn’t say anything, Kyle demanded, “Is she okay?”
Lash still didn’t respond but rolled the lycan girl over with a grin. Kierra was clutching the crossbow bolt between her palms. Its tip had pierced her leather armor, but it had not pierced her skin. Her quick reaction must have saved her, but the force of the weapon and the shock of it had still knocked her back.
Kyle sighed in relief.
Hilde smiled and said, “I told you, he truly cares.”
Kierra just smiled while Lash snorted, “That isn’t much like Krig.”
The celestial snapped back, “No, he is better than Krig.”
“I’m glad that you all got to have a laugh at my expense, but yes, I care about my team. Now, can we get going?”
Kierra hopped up and apologized. “That was careless of me. Did you want to clear the floors one by one?”
“No, we have a limited amount of time. If we were here for treasure, then I would agree it would be best to clear the floors. But the thing that we need to get to is at the bottom. So, we head straight down. If nothing attacks us, then we should get there in good time. From what I am sensing it is only a couple hundred feet below us, but we will have to pass through four more floors to get there,” Kyle said.
“It is risky to leave enemies behind us,” Lash warned.
Kyle nodded at this wisdom. “I agree, but speed is important, too. It will be good for us to work together.”
They headed down the stairs. Kyle could see the looks that they each gave at the destruction his Rage Burst had caused as they walked past the mangled metal that was all that was left of the traps.
Gilthan whistled, “Remind me not to get you upset with me.”
“Kyle, while it is true that you can let loose more down here without drawing unwanted attention, perhaps this would also be a good time for you to work on controlling your aura,” Hilde said.
“So now you want me to hold back?” Kyle asked.
“Not at all, what I’m suggesting is that you need to be able to use your power without glowing or giving off an aura so strong that you cause the mortals around you to cower,” the celestial replied.
Kyle got a crooked grin on his face and laughed. “Fair enough,” he said. “I guess no better time to learn if you can really do something, than when you are under pressure.”
“Good, now rather than sitting and meditating or anything, I want you to focus on thinking about your skin as a barrier. Allow your power to surge inside but try to keep it within yourself. Not only will that reduce the aura you are putting off, but it will also make you more efficient with your use of that power. Right now, you are sort of bashing everything with a club, instead of striking with finesse,” Hilde said.
They all paused in the stairs for a minute while Kyle closed his eyes and tried to picture what Hilde suggested. He assumed she knew what she was talking about because while he knew she was stronger much stronger than the lycan, if he thought about it, he also realized that she didn’t put off any more aura than Kierra did.
When he thought of his skin as a barrier, everything went wrong at first. He felt the density of his skin increase until it felt as hard as stone, but also that it would slow his movement. It also prevented any of the essence around him from seeping into him.
Since they had been in the dungeon, the essence concentration had increased, and he had naturally been absorbing more of it than ever. The rate had actually increased by almost a factor of ten. As he lost that intake, the spinning of his essence wheel started to feel off. He didn’t know what to equate it to, other than the grinding sound a garbage disposal makes in the sink when you shut the water off.
Kyle didn’t need to be told that was a bad thing. He needed the energy to continue to flow into him or even his massive reserves would run out, at some point. Especially since
he was slowly absorbing refined Death Essence in the dungeon, too. It was so thick in here that, in less than a day inside the dungeon, he had already grown his pool of Death Essence from 1/25 to 8/25.
These realizations prompted him to change the way he visualized the barrier that was his skin. He tried to think of it more as a one-way membrane, a membrane that allowed essence in, but kept it from leaking out.
Lash said, “Better. Whatever you did is helping. For a second there, I couldn’t feel you at all. Oh wait, I’m starting to feel your aura. It's growing stronger than you probably want it to be.”
Kyle left a part of his expanded mind working on the aura problem while he said, “At first, I just hardened my skin. While that might make for great armor, it also kept out any ambient essence. Now, I’m trying to focus on allowing essence in, but not letting it leak back out.”