A Flesh Golem's Ascension

by John Domus Cruo

  "Um, hmm. You have a point here. That was quite impressive, but how many of those can you make? How long will you last in an extended battle?" I asked.

  I really didn't want to take her into a messy fight after she had already been through so much. Just as I had told her, I would feel obligated to protect her. It would tether me to her and hold me back.

  She shot a cocky smirk at me before holding her new staff in front of her. She began chanting again and I saw two log sized icicles form above her.

  She shot them one after the other into the same group of trees. Each time one would detonate, she had another one forming.

  She did this for a couple of minutes before shooting off both of them at the same time.

  "After you brought me back, I could feel my mana building constantly. I should have no problems fighting a battle. With a better staff I could even fight a war," she said with confidence.

  I took the piece of ember from my harness. I wasn't about to use it to bind anything against its will, but I had a great idea. I used Fleshcrafting on her staff to surround the amber in a cage of bone. I bound the wendigo soul into it. This way the wendigo would still be used as mana. I also took this opportunity to clean up the staff and fuse the bones together correctly for her, making it smooth and around five feet tall, just a foot shorter than her.

  She added two more symbols to her staff then marveled at it.

  The wendigo was an amalgamation of several souls. I knew it had a significant amount of power.

  Green soul flames now shot out of the top of her staff. She began her chanting again, mixing her bright blue magic with the green of the wendigo's soul, producing a light teal flame. Seven icicles the size of logs formed, then she willed them to merge into one giant one. She shot it off into the forest. It split through trees and earth alike, burying itself into a faraway hill before detonating. It began to snow all around us.

  Bob and the girls had been watching for a while now. The girls were marveling at the snow falling around them. I walked in the direction of the icicle, examining its path of destruction. It looked like she actually killed a small group of deer, or were they antelope? I dragged the bodies back over to the parts pile; they may be useful.

  After examining everything, I couldn't argue with results like these, even if I wanted to. There was, however, one glaring imperfection. She was basically a glass cannon. Her offensive potential was massive, but she had to remain stationary while she chanted and concentrated.

  Maybe this could work if she was at least as fast as Bob, then she could fire from a good position and move before they could react. She could also put distance between her and would-be attackers, thereby voiding the chances of a direct fight. I had much to consider before agreeing to take her with me.

  "If I were to take you, I would like to ease my mind first. What is your actual age?" I said as I marveled at the falling snow.

  "I stopped counting at twenty," she replied with a smirk before continuing. "That was probably twenty years ago."

  Does this mean that she is actually older than me? I suddenly had a different opinion about her. She wasn't a girl, she was a woman.

  "What is your name?”

  "Evangelina, but you may call me Lina."

  "No! Just no! I will call you Eva." I said with unrestrained frustration.

  There was only one Lina, and I had thought I was being original when I named her.

  "I don't like Eva, it reminds me of someone I despise. How about my middle name Lireathia, Lirea for short," she replied.

  "What the hell is wrong with you? No, are you just messing with me? That's too similar someone I love."

  She seemed to be taken aback by this. "Okay..," she hesitated for a moment before continuing, "My last name is Nexializ."

  I cut her off. "No! You are definitely trying to get a rise out of me now!" I stuck my fingers in my ears and started humming.

  "Liz for short!" she yelled.

  I took my fingers out of my ears. "Oh, okay. I can agree to that." I said as I breathed out in relief.

  She smiled brightly at me, again tucking her hair behind her ears.

  "That's quite a name you have there. Evangelina Lireathia Nexializ, is it your family name?" I asked.

  "No, my mother abandoned me when I was a baby. The Roserethian orphanage took me in because of my ears. The followers of Rosereth hold elves in high regard. My name in fact comes from one of the early gospels. They were closed down when I was twelve and I had to leave." Her eyes seemed to be searching the ground.

  "How did you come to learn magic?" I asked, trying to change the subject to something less depressing.

  I was curious about how I could maybe acquire a few spells without killing people, or at the very least get Leera some much-needed tutelage.

  "I have a high affinity for water magic. When they saw me manifesting small droplets of water they gave me a book to study. When my efforts didn't yield any results they took it back." She seemed to getting gradually more depressed.

  Well, that had the opposite effect. Unfortunately for her I had no time to waste. I needed to know her motivations.

  "Why is it that you want to come with me, even though I warned you about the danger?" I asked.

  She seemed to hesitate for a moment, still looking at the ground.

  "If you come I won't coddle or protect you; you will find yourself in the midst of people that only want you dead,” I told her blatantly.

  She raised her head to look me in the eyes before responding. "I've lived with that for half my life! I couldn't even get a job to earn coin for food. I had to steal and scavenge. I was eating scraps from the trash before I took the Duke's son's offer." Her face had turned red in anger as she continued to speak. "You gave me life once more! You gave me back everything they had taken from me, and asked nothing for it. You gave me the power I always wanted, and now you reject me!" I could see tears starting to form in her eyes as her face contorted in sadness.

  After a few moments of silence she spoke again. "I have nowhere else to go. I have nothing else to do. When I showed you my ears you smiled genuinely; you seemed happy. You even touched them. You took joy in something that I have been condemned for my whole life, and now you're pushing me away. You're basically telling me to, what, just go back to starving in the streets? To hateful glares and snide comments? I was even raped and beaten, and no one did anything about it. Until you — you even made me a maiden again." Tears were streaking down her face as she glared at me.

  "I noticed it when you were in the tent. I noticed your other gift, too." She dropped her pants and raised her shirt showing me her thighs. Blood was dripping down her legs.

  "You knew! It was like you knew what I had been through. You made me this way to protect me! But you didn't take me. You fought against your satyr side and resisted." She pulled her pants back up.

  "Do you even know why there aren't that many satyrs anymore? They were known to go berserk when a woman was present and violate them. They were hunted to the very brink of their existence, and you still didn't lay a hand on me, not on any of us. Not until someone was willing. Just what the void are you? That's not how things work here." She wept quietly, her fists held tightly to her staff as she shook in rage.

  "You even gave me this." She held up her staff. "A modern warmage with top-of-the-line military gear could only manage three normal-sized ice spears at best. I can now make seven giant ones, and you did it as if on a whim." She drove her staff into the ground and started to walk away, now audibly crying.

  I rushed up to her, hugging her from behind. I rested my head on her shoulder and spoke quietly into her ear. "I wasn't trying to hurt you, and I wasn't rejecting you. I just didn't want you to get hurt. I didn't save you just to have you die again hours later."

  Her hands reached up to mine as she hugged my arms.

  I spoke again. "If you want to come with me I won't stop you, but I'm not a hero. In all likelihood I will be the end of this world someday. Coming
with me is the same as throwing away your humanity."

  Her body stiffened as my breath touched her ears. I used Fleshcrafting to mend her wounds and she shuddered.

  "I've seen enough of humanity."

  I felt her tears falling on my arms. I looked around and saw the girls watching our spectacle. She released my arms and turned around. She kissed me briefly before bringing her mouth to my ear I felt her hot breath as she spoke. "I don't care what you turn me into. I could be an ogre or a hellhound as long as I can stay with you, it will be worth it." I felt her pressing her bony body into mine.

  She hugged me for several seconds as I ran my hands along her protruding spine. I could feel each vertebrae prominently. I wondered about just what kind of life she could have led. I felt my heart grow heavy. No wonder she was mad at me. I had basically shown her a world of possibility, then told her to go back to dying slowly of hunger in some gutter somewhere.

  I looked at the other girls. Some of them had sad expressions, and some looked confused.

  "If any of you don't wish to return home, just tell Bob and you can live with me. I don't expect anything in return and you can return home at any time." I didn't want to force them into a fate they didn't want. Nor did I want them to feel obligated to me.

  They seemed to understand.

  "All right, Bob, it's time. Get them out of here."

  Bob laid down and the girls mounted him, and before I knew it they were gone.

  "Are you going to mark her?" Nex said from beside me.

  I could feel Liz's skin heating up through my cheek.

  "Not yet." I replied teasingly.

  Liz pulled back from me suddenly. She bit her lower lip as she looked me in the eyes briefly before averting her gaze. I just smiled at her. She attempted to break our embrace, but I held her tight. After saying all that did she really expect me to allow her to get away?

  She buried her head in my shoulder. I kissed all along her neck up her jawline until I was nibbling on her ear. I heard her make a cute whimper.

  "Are you ready to give up your humanity? As you are now, you're still too vulnerable. I will improve and modify you as I see fit. I will remake you again and again until I am satisfied." I said in a whisper.

  She shuddered again, then nodded.

  "Take off your clothes, I can't do this otherwise." I commanded.

  She separated from me and began undressing as the goblins watched. Her body was all skin and bones. She had no breasts or butt to speak of; her legs were thin and long. There was a thick shock of blonde hair and a gap between her thighs that existed even when her legs were together. She looked around as if feeling self-conscious. This would be the first time I undertook so much on someone who was conscious and aware.

  I told her to lie down. She complied while still covering herself. I placed a hand over her eyes, giving her the Life Sense ability. I ran my hands along her ribs. I could feel each one under my fingers as I moved slowly along her skin. She opened her eyes, watching me as my hands came to rest beneath her breasts. I granted her the wendigo's fog capabilities. She inhaled suddenly, exhaling fog as she breathed out.

  Even though the twins showed obvious interest, there was no way I could bring myself to mate with her yet. When I looked at her body all I could see was a life of sadness. She even had frown lines that I hadn't noticed before. I was worried that she was doing this out of desperation to stay with me, or obligation for saving her. It just didn't feel right to make a move on her right now. I would let her stay with me. I would see her fattened up and happy, smiling a natural smile. Only then would I take her as a mate. To stay with me, however she needed strength.

  I thought about how to make her faster. I remembered the dear she had killed during her demonstration. After what I had done with Bob, I remembered how the Sha'Dwarg's muscles worked. I should be able to duplicate it on a smaller scale as long as there were four legs.

  If you duplicated the speed and strength with only two legs, you would basically make someone exceptionally good at hopping in random uncontrolled directions. If everything wasn't timed just so, they could end up leaping into the enemy or flinging themselves into the nearest tree. A front-heavy balance was required to maintain control, while the rear legs were for providing power.

  I stood up and walked over to the deer carcasses. They were a bit shredded. I combined them all together while condensing and Blending them. I removed their heads as I layered the muscle on their back legs.

  I dragged it back over by her.

  "Lie on your side, please." I told her as I dropped the carcass.

  She gave me a worried look before rolling over.

  I placed the deer next to her as I melded her body from the waist down with it. I combined her long legs with the deer's front legs, giving them power but making them narrow down gradually to hooves. I had her keep her womanhood between her front legs. The deer still had functional lungs and a heart.

  I gave its heart mana regeneration, which I would guess was at about 4 or 5 per hour. I opened up two holes on the sides of the deer similar to Bob's setup, allowing her to open and close them while also linking them to her normal lungs with a thick, flexible, two-way line. Using some of the other nearby bodies I reinforced the rear legs, giving them the qualities of both the monstrous bear and the Sha'Dwarg. I changed the deer's sex into human parts, as I was fairly certain she didn't wish to mate with animals. I guess she's twice the woman now.

  "Mors, I'd like to give her a little more fat to even her out."

  I felt her take control of my body as she began pulling and distributing fat until you could no longer count her ribs by sight.

  "That's enough, Mors."

  I didn't want her to think that I didn't find her attractive before. I would allow her to put on weight normally from here on out. I was just giving her a little headstart.

  I looked down on my work.

  I kept her deer half small but powerful. Maybe just four feet from her waist to her butt. I still wanted her to be maneuverable around other people and in small places.

  I looked at her front. Where her waist met deer, I had it trail off in a V-shape with the fur and muscle from the deer covering where her hips used to be. Her front entrance and anus now faced forward, ending at the bottom of the V, as I knew there was no way she could cover herself if it was underneath.

  Her deer half was a beautiful mix of light brown with black stripes and white spots. I debated running the deer's fur up her back but decided against it as it would make wearing clothes itchy.

  I reached down to her ears. I grew the points back to the length the elves in my world had. I rimmed her ears in black fur with a white spot at the top similar to the deer's coloration.

  The wendigo's capabilities had changed her eye color to a light brown. After debating for awhile, I decided to change the color to a frosty light teal color similar to the color of the flames on her staff when her blue magic met with the green of the soul flame. I used Blend and gave her fur mana-gathering properties.

  I used Blend then stopped Fleshcrafting.

  She had been watching me as best she could the entire time I was working and had remained silent. I reached my hand down and helped her to her hooves. She rose shakily as if unsure of how to stand. She leaned on me for support.

  Now that she wasn't emaciated, I could plainly see she was a beauty. She noticed that I was looking her over, and her face began to redden slightly.

  She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me close while breathing heavily. She gave me a long, lingering kiss before releasing me and standing on her own.

  I gave her shirt back to her. I somehow doubted that pants would work for her anymore. The shirt was long enough to cover her front to just below her knees.

  "Did you increase my mana again?" she asked in a sheepish voice.

  "Yes, you now have two hearts — among other things." I replied while smirking.

  She gave me a confused look. I walked behind her and gently ran a
hand between her rear legs. She gasped as the realization of what I said hit her. Her legs buckled momentarily before she regained her balance.

  She looked back at me in a half-glare, but her eyes showed something else entirely. Was it lust or curiosity?

  She examined her body in fascination as she maneuvered herself around to face me. She reached her hands up to her ears and her eyes went wide.

  "You actually made them more prominent!?" she said as she ran a finger along the fur. "I know you have strange tastes, but I didn't know they went this far. These have been a source of shame and ridicule my entire life, and you make them stand out more?" she stammered, seeming to be on the precipice of another tirade.

  I moved forward and began stroking them between my fingers. Her face melted from one of shock to one of bliss as she lost herself in the feeling. I may also have subconsciously added several nerves to them. Now that I think about it, all my mates have pointy ears. I guess I do have a type.

  "They aren't that bad, are they?" I asked.

  A slight moan was all I got in reply. As I started to move my hands away she grabbed my wrists and moved my hands back to her ears. I continued rubbing her ears for some time before she regained herself.

  "No one has ever touched them like that, and now you have done it twice in one day,” she said finally breaking the silence.

  "I liked them then, and I like them now." I replied as her grip relented and I got my hands back.

  She looked at me warmly, a small smile slowly spreading across her face.

  As much as I loved doting on her I needed to get a move on.

  "You should try moving and running. The reason I have given you these legs is so that you can fire off a spell and change locations rapidly." I told her in an even tone.

  She nodded and began trotting toward her staff.

  I looked around. Nex and her father seemed to be drawing a map in the dirt. The oni had used collapsed tents and rope to make a sort of loincloth to cover their nethers. The blue one was busy tying together a series of logs, and the red one was swinging an uprooted tree around for practice.

  I walked towards Nex and her father. I knelt down to examine their map. I saw several dots and lines.