by Andur
The manager takes a metal plate out of a pocket and holds it towards Sharid. “I bribed a priest to get one. The whole ceremony by the church isn't needed anyway. Put your hand on it.”
Sharid shivers and imagines the possibilities. She heard that those plates give you a glimpse of your true potential and fate . Sharid had always felt out of place. Like she was destined for more than being the manager of a brothel. Maybe this was her ticket to the world?
She follows her mother's order and as soon as she touches the status plate, it starts to shine and letters appear.
Name: Sharid
Age: Seven
Titles bestowed by the gods:
Cursed:
(In your previous life you awoke the ire of a divine being. You are cursed.)
~~~~~Angrod, King of gods. Divine ruler of the realm of Chimera:~~~~~
(Take that up your cute ****!! Next time try not to mess up the multiverse!)
Divine Beauty (All men will turn their head after you)
Fertile Mother (You are sure to have twins or triplets)
Flexible Snake (You are able to move in wondrous ways)
Siren's Voice (Your voice is too beautiful to behold for every man)
Man among Males (Your mentality is male) (cancelled),
Blessed:
(A divine being took pity on you and gave you its blessing.)
~~~Miruliru, Divine Goddess of the Path:~~~
(Sorry, i can't help more. You aren't under my jurisdiction.)
Limitless One (You may change your fate with hard work)
Woman among Females (your mentality is female) (cancelled)
~~Mornale, Local Deity:~~
(Poor one. Maybe Angrod will forget his grudge if you do some proper prayers. I am just a small deity so I can't do much.)
Psychologist (You may unravel the problems in your mind and those of others)
Potentials:
-Deleted Potential (unknown)-
-Deleted Potential (unknown)-
-Deleted Potential (unknown)-
-Deleted Potential (unknown)-
-Cursed Divine rank Belly Dancer-
-Cursed Divine rank Eyes of Lust-
-Cursed Divine rank Songweaver-
-Cursed Goddess of Lust and Sex-
-Eternal Beauty-
Sharid just stares at the plate with big eyes. Then her mother takes a look at it. “KYAAA! You are the perfect successor! And to be in the favour of three gods! I don't know who Angrod and Miruliru are, but maybe we should start to pray to them?”
79 - A god calls for help?
“I need help! Immediately!” The god goes to his knees before us. I am together with Celes in our throne room in Asheim.
A few minutes ago this guy arrived in Asheim and cried for help like mad. The guards brought him before us after considering to throw him into a cell.
Luckily they were instructed to watch out for uncommon events and to immediately report them.
The guy has blue hair and looks like an elf. His magic power feels a little dim for an ascended being. He seems to be extremely shaken by something.
“I would suggest you gather your thoughts and explain the situation.” Celes answers with a calming voice.
“Ah... Yes. I am Evenguar. I am the god of a small world at the fringe of the multiverse. I never had any problems with anyone and I am happy with taking care of my world. So I never saw the need to join any of these new big communities. But a few days ago something like demons appeared on my world. At first I didn't pay much attention to them. I thought they were just some new kind of prank, a neighbouring god had played on me. Or the failed experiment of some archmages.”
He takes a breath and continues. “But then the demons became more and more aggressive. They destroyed whole cities on my world and plagued the mortals like nothing before. So I took a closer look at them and realized that they aren't just a prank! They are eating the souls of the mortals they kill. I tried to stop them, but they are a serious danger even to me.“
Evenguar rolls up one of his sleeves and shows a blackened bite mark on his upper arm to us.
“I never encountered something like this before! I slayed them by the dozens, but their numbers don't decline. I am at the end of my wit short of cleansing my world completely. The mortals have no chance against these beings and I would rather kill them all than seeing their souls eaten.”
He bows down to us again.
“But before that I hoped that someone from the big societies would help me. I can't save my world alone.”
I stand up and walk towards Evenguar. “Show me that wound.” Evenguar does as instructed and I hold my hand above it while I try to feel for his energy. His soul is weakened. It looks like he fought the demons to his limits. And a part of his soul is injured. Like something tried to rip a piece out of him.
~That wound looks like it was inflicted by a familiar of the great Calamity.~
Wardens voice echoes through the throne room.
“I thought they can't create more of them without a piece of that thing.” I grumble at the unforeseen turn of events. Are they trying to flood the multiverse with those soul eating monsters?
~As far as I know the familiars of the great Calamity weren't able to create offspring when the Ascended fought them. We already assumed that one or more familiars of the great calamity survived the hunt. Given how much time it had. It's possible that it learned how to reproduce.~
I gnaw my teeth at the new situation. We have to contain this outbreak at all costs. “Send the Nomad with Evenguar to his world and try to save it if you can. Inform everyone of this turn of events.”
~They are informed.~
I turn around and look at Celes. “Should we go and hunt a few monsters? I need some new test subjects.”
Celes smiles at me and stands up from her throne. “You should always try to keep your training up.”
“Thank you! Thank you so much!” Evenguar suddenly hugs me from behind and gets pulled away by the guards.
He wriggles in their grasp while thanking us. This fellow is creepy...
I don't know what he expected. Did he think we would look away while soul eating demons rampaged through the multiverse? “Don't thank us too early Evenguar. We don't know what we are dealing with. If worse comes to worst, we may have to destroy your world.”
Evenguar drops his head. “I already prepared myself for that after I fought those things.”
Elhort, Domain of Evenguar
After our warriors were ready, we came here with the Nomad and found the planet like that. Tanja and Nicosar joined us on this campaign.
I look down at the planet beneath us with curious eyes. It's one big forest with lakes and mountains. There are no oceans. It's still a beautiful world.
The main population of Evenguar seems to consist of elves, dryads and everything that's somehow connected to nature. I suspect Evenguar had a hand in it and built his own little paradise.
It's currently night and the cities are clearly visible by the little specks of light. The sight would be mesmerizing if it weren't for those dark spots on the map.
There are several cities with nothing left alive. We can sense it with our mana detection system.
Looking onto the screen, I see something like an epicentre from which the dead zone is spreading. “Someone else thinks the same thing as me?”
“There seems to be something like a source.” Tanja speaks my thoughts.
“Then let's wipe it out with our weaponry and clean up the rest.” Celes tilts her head while she's looking at the screen.
“I suggest to go down there and investigate with a small team first. If we use the heavy arms first, we may not find the cause behind this. We would be as smart as before.” Nicosar gives us his thoughts.
“You may be right. Information is always important. And if we use the big guns first, there could be not much left to investigate afterwards.” I scratch my cheek while I think about the situation.
Saving the world isn't as important as getting a clue what the Council is up to. It may be harsh, but one world of mortals in exchange for the possibility to get a clue on the Council's whereabouts?
“Then how about we go down there and investigate it.” Celes grins at us and corrects her combat armour.
“Hmmm. Yeah. We have to go down there and gather information. Just nuking the planet would leave us as clueless as before.” I start to give orders for a small team of elites to gather.
Meanwhile the Nomad starts to bombard the ravaged cities. To the mortals it must look like Armageddon.
It's a vain attempt, but maybe it will slow the demon's progress.
I take my staff and get out of the command chair.
Five minutes later we are on ground zero in our combat gear. There is me, Celes, Tanja, Nicosar and five guards. All of the guards are close combat specialists.
The forest around us looks dead and dry. We landed just a few hundred metres from the supposed epicentre. There aren't any demons here. By Evenguar's description they are partly humanoid, but oddly deformed with many claws and teeth.
They weren't very strong compared to a god, but there were many and they always attacked in groups, not caring for their own existence.
If killed, they would slowly start to regenerate and rise again after a few minutes. The story sounds like a bad horror movie.
“We have to head into this direction.” One of the guards takes the lead and stomps off towards our destination.
Our group advances at a steady pace through a dead forest. There is brushwood, but the guard is clearing it with long heavy cleaves of his two handed crystal sword. I never would have imagined that one of my godly weapons would end up as a gardening tool!
“RWARRR!”
“Kyaaa!”
*BOOOOOOOOOOOM!* ~Sizzle~
Suddenly three -things- jumped out of the crown of a tree and landed close to our group. They started to storm into our direction while waving their claws. Claws and teeth everywhere....
They came directly out of one of my nightmares! Before I knew, I had waved my staff at those somethings which shouldn't exist. Incinerating them and a *Huuuuge* area behind them.
“What was that?” Celes arches an eyebrow at me.
I steady myself and try to regain my composure. “I changed my mind. I don't need those things as test subjects.”
“I think she meant that girly scream of yours.” -Nicosar
Shut up Geezer! “Since I fell into that pit with the Razor Claws inside, I may have a little phobia of things with too much teeth and claws.”
At that moment another bad rumour about me was born as the guards started to whisper to each other.
In the distance a huge tree crumbles to the ground and the fire slowly starts to spread.
“That was when you were a little kid!” Tanja answers shocked.
“It was still a formative experience for me! …... One moment! Why do you know about that! We didn't even know each other at that time and I never talked about it!” I make an inquisitive look at Tanja, who starts to fiddle with her fingers.
“Um... you see... My family wasn't completely uninvolved in that. But your mother found out and we changed sides afterwards. Please forgive me for not telling. I thought your mother informed you. It was just a badly paid assignment at that time. And when your mother suddenly turned up at our main house and went on a rampage we learned which side was the right one!” Tanja bows down to us with pearls of sweat on her forehead.
Just what did mother do to them? If I think back to those times, she was pretty protective of me back then. Didn't she say once that any assassin who touched her family would wish to be never born?
“Anyway. Your spell saved us the time to search, your majesty. It looks like you wiped out the guards for the entrance.” One of the guards points towards a big hole in the ground. It was freed of the brushwood by my spell.
We carefully walk closer to the ominous hole and I throw a glance down into it. It's a long tunnel and the end is not in sight. After a few metres, it looses itself in darkness.
“Whohoo. That feels like a dungeon! Aaah. Those good old times when you went on quests and tried to save the world.” -Celes
Is that her viewpoint on the matter? When I was a normal reincarnating mortal and ended up in a fantasy world with dungeons and heroes, I always almost puked.
Who in his right mind would crawl down into a dark and dangerous maze out of his own free will?
“Can't be helped. Let's go down there and see for ourselves where the demons come from.” Nicosar jumps down into the hole first.
One after the other we follow.
80 - Dungeon Reward: ****?
We walk forward into the darkness. I light the way with a few spheres of light. It's a very easy spell.
The tunnel is relatively broad and leads us at a steady angle down into the earth. From the left to the right wall, there are about ten metres.
The walls look like they were scratched out of the stone by claws. It gives me shivers if I think about hundreds or thousands of those creatures digging this tunnel with their claws.
After a few minutes of walking the tunnel splits into two. “Great. Now we can choose to split up.” Celes's complain is right.
I don't really want to split the group down here.
“What disturbs me more is that there is nobody down here. Just those things at the entrance.” -Nicosar
After looking down both tunnels, I think about the smartest possible solution.
“Psst. You hear that?” Celes points a finger down the tunnel to our right. I concentrate and after everyone is silent, I can hear it too. Are those screams? Of people?
I start to walk into the direction. “The right tunnel it is.” The others follow me without objections.
We walk for another five minutes when I suddenly see demons coming out of the darkness. I ready my staff and send a fireball into them as a greeting.
But they just strive forward undisturbed by the death of two of their comrades. It's an unending wall of claws and teeth!
The others make a stance beside me and seconds later those things are all around us. I strike one of the things to the ground while another starts to gnaw at my shoulder. But the armour is protecting me.
I cover my left hand in magical energy and strike it into the thing where the heart should be. It lets go of my shoulder and starts to wriggle on the ground. But it's still alive.
One of the guards gets torn to the ground by five of the monsters at the same time and I jump to his aide. Luckily the armour is protecting him from any serious injuries. It's enforced by mana crystals and shouldn't be penetrated that easily.
Swinging my staff, I wipe one of the monster off of him. He kicks another away and casts an ice lance spell at a third, nailing it to a wall.
I try to invade the mind of the things, but I slip off like from a solid wall of glass. Either they aren't thinking at all or their magical resistance is extraordinary.
Kicking the fourth demon, his chest dents in with an unhealthy crack. Having just one opponent left, the guard grabs the demons head in a contest of strength and twists it off like plucking a flower
Something jumps at me from the side and I go down. A huge jaw is suddenly in front of my face and I grab it in order to stop the thing from biting my head off.
Then I realize the hole in it's chest. It's the same one I skewered just moments ago! They heal that quickly?