by Tamryn Tamer
“Idiot,” Eberis laughed as Jinx directed her most powerful unit to Eberis’ most fortified area. Three towers began firing at the molten drake as it came into their overlapping ranges.
“I said act like a dragon!” Jinx screamed furiously at the dragon while laying down armor enhancements and wind barriers. “Dragons don’t die from arrows you stupid beast! And what are the rest of you doing! Move! Idiots! Morons!”
“What?” Eberis watched as Jinx moved her units into position behind the dragon. The massive beast was serving as a barricade for the units coming up the rear. Eberis laid down magic barriers of his own protecting his towers as the dragon’s health began to wear down.
“You!” Jinx roared directing the king to join the fray. It was probably the worst possible move any player could make, Jericho loved it. “Nobody’s going to follow a coward! Craven! Wuss!”
“This was your big plan?” Eberis chuckled as the dragon neared death without reaching a single tower.
“Hold!” Jinx yelled at her units while the king rushed to the frontline. The dragon only had a few hits left. “Your sacrifice will not be in vain! Brute! Barbarian!”
“Sacrifice?” Talia asked.
“Wait for it,” Jericho smiled.
The dragon was never meant to reach the towers, reaching them was impossible. He was meant to gain an equal distance between the towers. The molten drake’s passive resulted in a powerful explosion when he died. It was generally a small area and the towers certainly weren’t in range of it. Generally.
“Now!” Jinx slammed three cards onto the table. The first massively enhanced the range, damage, and critical chance of fire magic. The second massively enhanced the range, damage, and critical chance of earth magic. On a molten drake, these enhancements stacked since it was both. The final card was Shared Life and she cast it on the king and his troops which were also in range of the blast. “Protect your troops! Fool! Imbecile!”
“What?” Eberis looked on helplessly as the molten drake exploded and wiped out his three reinforced towers leaving a clear path to the center of his territory. And then he looked at Jinx’s troops wasting no time running through the blaze even as their health trickled down. Every monster in the area was connected to the king. “No, no, no.”
Jericho smiled at the interesting use of shared life. The spell made it so the king shared his life with any units in range of him and was normally used to save the king’s life. He couldn’t help but feel the spectral beasts and the way they shared their spirit energy inspired that particular maneuver.
“Yes!” Jinx roared loudly as her troops plunged into the center of his territory. All of the monsters were sharing their life with the king who was serving as a massive reservoir of life for each of them. If an elf had a hundred health and was reduced to zero it pulled health from the king, if the king started to lose health, he pulled health from the golem. If Eberis wanted to successful kill somebody he needed to either dispel the magic, wait for the spell to wear off, or completely decimate an impossibly massive health pool. “Die! Bastard! Fucker!”
“Move!” Eberis roared as his king attempted to retreat. Unfortunately, any fortification he rushed to was quickly dismantled. They were all organized to defend from an outside threat, not one from inside the territory. Jinx was tearing him apart from the inside. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
“Stop running coward!” Jinx snapped while playing more buffs for her troops. Eberis looked at his hand desperately. “You should have never underestimated me! I’m the strongest! Now die! Shithead! Asshole!”
“What?” Eberis collapsed as his king fell to Jinx’s enhanced archers before he could reach the next fortification. “No, no, no, no, no. You can’t. There’s been a mistake. What? No, no, no.”
The gameboard dissipated as Eberis looked around waiting for somebody to tell him it was all a dream. The priestesses were also dumbfounded as their god knelt on the ground muttering to himself.
“You should have let me do it from the start!” Jinx said jumped down from the platform and rushed to Jericho. “I beat a god! Praise me! Fool! Ingrate!”
“You’re amazing,” Jericho stifled his laughter and patted her head. He turned to Talia, “Now, how do I go about collecting his soul?”
Chapter 12
Death Magic
Jericho held the soul in his hand and it was remarkably similar to finding a relic. He saw over five hundred different abilities he could acquire including death magic when he gazed into the glowing white mass. All he needed to do was select which one he wanted to learn and consume the soul.
He was certainly surprised by how quick everything happened. Eberis’ soul was flying toward them before Jericho and his group even decided to walk over to him. Jericho just caught the small pearl and started examining it. It was astoundingly intuitive.
“So,” Jericho took a seat on a nearby bench as he examined the various skills Eberis learned over the years. It seemed that at his core he was a mage since a vast majority of his abilities were related to magic. He was also happy to see various warrior and rogue techniques in the mix because it confirmed his theory. “Interesting. So, I was right. Death magic is simply a skill inheriting system. You kill a unit to power up another unit.”
“If only it were that simple,” Eberis said scornfully as he approached. The priestesses followed behind him unsure of whether they should shift over to Jericho. Eberis glared at the priestesses, “What are you looking at me for?”
“Don’t be a sore loser,” Jericho said. “It’s not their fault.”
“Yeah!” Ariel said authoritatively. “Be nice!”
“So how does this work?” Jericho asked while staring at the marble. “Can I just command you to do something and you’ll obey?”
“It’s still a choice,” Eberis answered. “It just creates a slight discomfort but nothing you can’t ignore.”
“Like an itch inside of you that you can’t quite scratch,” Morgana chimed in.
“And then there’s the implication,” Eberis said coldly. “If I become too much of a nuisance you could decide my soul isn’t worth the trouble.”
“Fair point,” Jericho smiled at Eberis. “Return all of the souls in your possession to their owners.”
“No!” Cecilia objected while backing away along with the other priestesses. “If you return our souls then we can die! We gave them willingly.”
“Excuse me?” Jericho looked at Eberis for confirmation. “They gave them up.”
“Side effect of death magic,” Eberis smiled. “Technically they’re not alive, but they are. They never age and can’t really die. I mean, you can kill their body of course but you could implant their soul in a puppy or something and they’d keep on going.”
“What happens if you kill the soul?” Jericho asked.
“The body becomes a shell,” Eberis answered. “That’s another way to use death magic. If you destroy a person’s soul you can implant a new one in the shell. Or you can swap souls if you control two. There’s a lot of interesting ways it can be used. But some of these tricks are harder than others.”
“Why are you answering his questions so nicely,” Talia asked suspiciously.
“Yeah. Con. Trickster.” Jinx agreed.
“Few reasons,” Eberis smiled at Talia. “First, if I don’t answer his questions the itch starts to get really annoying. Second, the implication that if I’m not useful he’ll crush my soul. Finally, it’s in my best interest that the person in possession of my soul is knowledgeable. I would hate for him to do something stupid that ends up impacting me.”
“If I die while carrying your soul can it be looted?” Jericho asked.
“Really?” Eberis scoffed. “No, if it were that easy, I’d have created an undead army already.”
“Good to know,” Jericho turned to Morgana. “Do you feel the same as the other priestesses or do you want your soul back?”
“I want my soul back,” Morgana answered confidently.
�
��You heard the woman,” Jericho chuckled. “Return her soul. And give me all of the other ones in your possession.”
“Don’t do anything stupid with them,” Eberis growled as he handed Jericho a handful of marbles far exceeding the number of priestesses he’d seen. He walked over to Morgana and returned her soul to her. The disgruntled god turned to Jericho, “Happy?”
“Mostly,” Jericho smiled as Morgana ate her soul. Jericho didn’t know what he expected, maybe some sort of glowing transformation and a big reveal, but he certainly didn’t expect nothing to change. At best she just seemed slightly relieved. “Did it work?”
“Yes,” Morgana smiled. “Thank you.”
“Glad to help,” Jericho said. “Now become my familiar.”
“What?” Eberis choked out.
“Excuse me?” Morgana stared at Jericho like he must be joking. “I just got my freedom back and you expect me to just hand it over to you?”
“I wouldn’t say I expect it,” Jericho grinned impishly. “And you’ll still have all of your freedom. I’m pretty hands off with my familiars.”
“That’s not true!” Ariel objected. “You have your hands on us all the time!”
“It’s an expression,” Talia chuckled.
“And why would I want to become your familiar?” Morgana crossed her arms. “What’s in it for me?”
“What do you want?” Jericho asked.
“Talia,” Morgana blushed. “I want Talia.”
“What?” Talia squeaked. Jericho could feel the beautiful blonde snuggled up next to him trembling. “Me?”
“That’s up to her,” Jericho wrapped his arm around Talia and pulled her closer to him. He could feel her heart pounding as she pressed her body against his. “I wouldn’t make Talia do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
“Talia?” Morgana scowled and waited for an answer.
“No,” Talia said sternly.
The entire room fell into an awkward silence as Morgana stared at Talia in disbelief.
“Of course, she said no you idiot!” Jinx laughed breaking the silence. “She has my master! She’s not going to leave him for you! Nitwit! Dunce!”
“Shut up!” Morgana snapped. She turned back to Talia and Jericho. “You understand that I’m not asking you to leave him, right? I just want you to be with me.”
“I understand,” Talia said stubbornly. “And I don’t care. You’re always like this. Everything is always a deal or a negotiation. Well, I’m not going to have it hanging over my head that you gained me as part of a deal with Jericho. Either you want to be his familiar, or you don’t. No deals.”
“Excuse me!” Morgana looked furious. “I am a reaper! I make deals! If he’s going to get me as a familiar, I want something in return!”
“You are getting something in return, you idiot!” Talia snapped back. “You get a master who loves and cares about you! You get a home! You get friends! You get family! You get dragons! You get the best damn dressmakers I’ve ever met and trust me that fucking means something! You would not believe how comfortable our underwear is!”
“It’s true,” Ariel nodded. “Huit, Ocho, and Acht are amazing tailors.”
“Theia’s an amazing cook and she’ll make whatever you ask for! Dummy. Dunce.” Jinx added.
“And Mirage is the hands down best cuddler I’ve ever been with,” Talia turned to Jericho. “You’re great too.”
“I’m with you,” Jericho shook his head. “Mirage is so warm, soft, and curvy. I could cuddle with her for hours.”
“And you’re seriously going to try to barter for more?” Talia snapped. “We should be asking you what you have to offer! Death magic? Really? Jericho could eat Eberis’ soul and gain it right now without binding to anybody.”
“Let’s not go offering unsolicited advice.” Eberis grinned nervously.
“You did say we were coming to live with you, right?” Cecilia asked Ariel. “And we get all of this too?”
“Uh huh!” Ariel said excitedly. “And we’ll throw a big welcome party for everybody! You’re going to love it!”
“I don’t care about any of that,” Morgana glared at Talia. “You can offer all of that and it means nothing if I don’t have you.”
“Aww,” Ariel said sincerely. “That’s so sweet!”
“It really is,” Jericho could feel himself blushing. “She’s really putting herself out there.”
“Except she’s not,” Talia stood up and challenged Morgana. “She wants me to tell her that if she joins you, I’ll come rushing into her arms. She wants a binding contract that forces me to stay with her.”
“Are you judging me for that?” Morgana yelled. “You already ran off once!”
“I ran off to become a god so I could kill this idiot and get your soul back!” Talia yelled while pointing at Eberis.
“That’s not even how it works!” Morgana growled.
“Well, I didn’t know that!” Talia said. “So, what’s your answer? Are you going to become my master’s familiar or not?”
“You are the most aggravating woman in the world,” Morgana yelled. “Of course I’m going to bind myself to him!”
“Then do it,” Talia pointed at Jericho on the couch and Morgana defiantly walked toward him.
The dark-haired reaper straddled Jericho like she was preparing to give him a lap dance and he found himself staring at her breasts. Reflexively his hands found her narrow waist and began exploring until he found himself cupping her ass. He felt a finger applying pressure to his chin and suddenly he was looking up into her eyes.
“Do you want me as your familiar?” Morgana asked Jericho in a much sweeter tone than the one she’d used seconds before.
“Yes,” Jericho answered. As soon as the words left his lips Morgana’s mouth was taking his. He felt a static spark ignite inside of him and flow through his body like electricity along a neural network until it reached his tiny marble core. He suddenly became hyper-aware of all of his stats and abilities and intuitively knew that by devouring souls not only could he learn new abilities, but he could increase his own stats going beyond the limitations of the level cap. He wasn’t simply a skill inheritance system. It was a limit breaking system. “Holy shit.”
“Morgana?” Talia pulled Morgana off Jericho and shoved her down on the couch before jumping on her. The buxom blonde practically pinned Morgana down as she began kissing every inch of the helpless woman’s body. She grabbed Morgana’s face and gave her a long passionate kiss before pulling away, “Was that so fucking hard?”
“I’ve missed you,” Morgana wrapped her arms and legs around Talia refusing to let her go.
“Wow,” Eberis tilted his head. “Nice.”
“As for you,” Jericho grinned wickedly at the god. “I need you to offer your protection to Dayrose.”
“I can only protect one place at a time,” Eberis grumbled. “You’re basically demanding I abandon my temple.”
“I am,” Jericho nodded. “And in exchange, I’m going to let you pretty much keep doing what you want with a few caveats.”
“Caveats?” Eberis asked suspiciously. “What might those be?”
“I mean,” Jericho gestured at the beautiful priestesses. “Forcing them to be your priestesses and service you…”
“He’s not forcing us,” Cecelia laughed. “Have you seen this temple? We get literally anything we want and we don’t have to work! It’s amazing.”
“Yeah,” another priestess chimed in. “I used to be a slave for a noble family in Dawn before Eberis won me off my master. I had to cook, clean, do laundry. Now I don’t have to do anything.”
“Eberis found me as a barmaid,” a red-headed priestess chimed in. “I was literally getting my ass groped by drunken assholes every night and could barely afford to eat. Now I can eat anything I want, look young forever, and not do any work.”
“It’s amazing,” another priestess chimed in. “I worked at a brothel in Rend. Men would come in, shoot their load, and skip
away. Eberis actually spends time satisfying me and only engages when I want to.”
“Oh,” Jericho said as the priestesses all nodded in agreement. He looked back at a rather smug looking Eberis. “So, with the whole soul gathering thing. The ones you gave me, what’s going on with them?”
“Those?” Eberis took a moment to think. “I guess you could call them collateral.”
“Explain please,” Jericho said while sorting through the souls of various knights and nobles.
“Well,” Eberis smiled impishly. “Okay, so, as we talked about earlier, I get around a lot and meet a lot of people. I mean, when you have eternal life and access to hundreds of spells and abilities you can basically go where you want and do what you want. At least provided that you’re cautious enough not to get yourself killed. So, I meet a lot of people. Some of the people I meet are just horrible people. Bandits, pimps, warlords, people who are just your real pieces of crap you know. Like those assholes in Raycastle you killed.”
“Got it,” Jericho nodded. “Let’s move it along.”
“Okay,” Eberis continued. “So, when I trick an asshole into betting their soul, I devour it. The world doesn’t need more assholes, right? God knows there’s no shortage. But sometimes, especially in gambling dens, I meet people who aren’t quite evil but definitely aren’t good. A lot of times they’re nobles or the children of nobles. Like Dawn right now, all the nobles spending their family’s fortunes on hookers, drugs, and gambling. On one hand, they’re assholes, but on the other hand, they don’t rise to the level that I should destroy them, you know?”
“I think I see where this is going,” Jericho said.
“Right,” Eberis said getting more excited. “So, for example, there’s this one duke who lost forty-two million gold to me. It was his family’s entire fortune and then he bet his soul in hopes of winning it back. Well, he lost that too. Horrible gambler. Some people should never be permitted near a deck of cards. But what am I going to do with a noble’s soul? He has basically no abilities worth taking and it’s not as though he’s really a bad guy. He’s just kind of a narcissistic little shit, you know? And now he’s broke. So, I offer him some loans at a mild interest rate that he’s expected to pay back monthly. Sometimes I allow them to settle up for favors as well.”