Stormforge (Rise To Omniscience Book 5)

by Aaron Oster

  “She could have left at any time, too, yet she endured, all in the hopes that you would come for her. And you did. Why, then, did you not come for me? I have more in common with you than that wretched human, so, why?”

  Morgan finally found his voice then, using the anger the beast’s voice elicited to force down the fear.

  “I don’t care who or what you are. I did not create you. That honor belongs to the dead god of this world. I have no children, and the only family I ever had was taken from me by you. As far as I’m concerned, you’re just another beast, a rabid dog to be put down for the betterment of this world.”

  The Pinnacle King’s eyes narrowed, and the power within him intensified. Violet light flared around him, and his muscles bulged outward, rippling and twisting as his arms lengthened. His back bulged upward, and a row of spines began growing, joined a moment later by a reptilian tail.

  Two spikes grew from the tips of his elbows, black claws from the tips of his fingers, and scales, white as snow, sprouted over his legs. His feet extended outward, black claws extending from the tips. His face lengthened as well, teeth growing longer and sharper, and his eyes changing to a bright, icy blue. A pair of spiraling black horns sprouted from his head, curling outward until they were nearly two feet long.

  A pair of wings came next, massive and bat-like, with huge pinions, extending nearly twenty feet each as he flared them outward. In all, he’d gained another three feet in height, now topping fifteen and, if Morgan guessed correctly, about ten tons in weight. Never in his life had he witnessed such a creature, an amalgamation of so many dangerous beasts shoved into one.

  Though Morgan already knew what he was looking at, he couldn’t help but use his Aura Sense. After all, the more information he had on this monster, the better their chances of survival.

  Name: Octagon the Bitter, Pinnacle King of Winter

  Rank - 50

  Ability Type - Super/Mage

  Super/Mage, not Supermage?

  “I am no rabid dog!” Octagon roared. “I am the Pinnacle King of Winter, and this world will kneel before me! I came here to offer you a place at my side. As the King of Beasts, you had that right. However, I can see that your human side is the one you favor. Humans are weak and have no place in my new world. And so, you must die!”

  Octagon roared, picking his arms up into the air as a mass of icy-blue light began to gather there. Morgan knew he had only seconds to react, but before he could, Gwendolyn shot past him, her body floating off the ground as mist poured off her in waves.

  “Run, Morgan! Take Sarah and Katherine and go!”

  “No! Gwen!” Morgan cried as the woman he’d thought he’d found once more slammed into the Pinnacle King, exploding violently in a storm of purple light.

  Morgan could feel his emotions threatening to overtake him once again, but this time, he forced them down, bottled them up, and shoved them to the deepest recesses of his mind. Gwen was gone, but Sarah was still alive, and so were he and Katherine. Without the three of them, millions more would die, so he had to put their lives first and do what his mother had told him.

  Whirling in place, Morgan grabbed both stupefied women around their waists and hoisted them up onto his shoulders. Behind him, he could hear Octagon’s roars of rage as he fought to free himself of the twisting cloud of reiki.

  Morgan took one last look back before taking off into the air and triggering his Gravity Warp.

  “Goodbye, mother,” he whispered, feeling one last tear fall from the corner of his eye.

  Then, the world warped around him, leaving Octagon the Bitter to fight the ghost of his dead mother.

  ***

  Arnold watched as the walls fell, feeling a great sense of triumph after waging war for over two months. People ran screaming in the streets, running for their pathetic lives, as his forces swarmed the fallen city. They were merciless in their attack, tearing into the humans and killing them, brutally in some cases, leaving more than one corpse unable to reincarnate.

  Not to worry, Arnold thought with smug satisfaction. There would be plenty of corpses to go around.

  Arnold waited for more of his monsters to swarm over the collapsed walls before he moved forward. The palace stood in the distance, towering far above them, visible even in the blowing snow. Blood splashed beneath his feet as he walked, soaking into his fur, but Arnold didn’t mind. He’d waded through blood before, and there was no sweeter feeling than the blood of one’s enemies ground into the dirt.

  He watched in satisfaction as some of the fallen corpses, those with their heads intact, began to twitch and writhe as the Pinnacle King’s power soaked into them, mutating their bodies and bringing them back from the dead to serve a higher purpose. There was no greater honor than serving the master, and if one had to die to do so, then so be it. Most of them were peasants anyway, bound to live boring, brief, and unfulfilling lives before eventually croaking at the ripe old age of sixty – if they were lucky.

  Now, they would live forever, fighting for the master’s glory. What better fate could they ask for?

  Arnold watched the carnage as he walked through the streets, noting small pockets of resistance as the depleted forces tried to fight back.

  Pathetic, Arnold thought, watching as his monsters tore into the terrified humans, ripping chunks of flesh from their necks, arms, and faces as they broke their defensive lines.

  He marched purposefully through the city, taking his time and enjoying the sights of women and children trying to hide, fight, or beg for their lives. It wouldn’t do them any good, of course, but Arnold had learned to enjoy the begging. After all, it was half the fun.

  “We’ve cleared the streets, no signs of them.”

  Arnold turned his head to see Quicks, a smallish man with a milky white eye and a missing arm. Somehow, despite his obvious weakness, the once-homeless beggar had retained his sanity during the transformation. In fact, he’d even gained some power, boosting him into the 20’s. Nothing like Arnold’s own power, by any means, but respectable for a man who was nearly dead of starvation and disease.

  “I assume that they’ll be holed up in the castle, then?” Arnold replied.

  Quicks nodded, giving him an ugly, gap-toothed grin. Somehow, he looked better as a twisted monster than he had as a human, though not by much. Arnold wasn’t one to judge by looks though, not when he was surrounded almost constantly by monsters more hideous than the one before him. Any sexual drive was long gone, and now Arnold valued intelligence above all else. And if Quicks was anything, it was definitely intelligent.

  “They’re breaking down the doors as we speak.”

  “Excellent,” Arnold replied, feeling a grin of his own spreading across his lips. “Let’s not keep them waiting. It would be rude of us after all, and we wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

  40

  Katherine was the first to shake off the effects of the Pinnacle King, just a couple of seconds after Morgan had taken off.

  “You know,” she said, wriggling around on his shoulder, “this is hardly any way to treat a lady.”

  “Sorry,” Morgan replied somberly. “I was in a rush and couldn’t take the time to make you more comfortable.”

  “No, it’s all right,” Katherine replied, her own voice losing its playful edge.

  She then proceeded to wriggle around until she was on his back, allowing Morgan to shift his grip on Sarah to carrying her in his arms, instead of like a sack of potatoes. She came out of it just a second after he moved her, shuddering lightly as though awakening from a bad dream.

  “That was horrible,” she whispered, her voice low and somber as well. “I didn’t realize just how terrifying the Pinnacle King truly was.”

  “What exactly happened to the two of you?” Morgan asked, knowing that talking would be the best thing for all of them right now, him most of all.

  “I don’t know about Sarah, but I felt as though all my muscles had been forcibly locked up. Sort of frozen, and I couldn�
�t do a thing,” Katherine said, wriggling around some more to get more comfortable.

  “Yeah, same here,” Sarah replied. “It was like he froze me solid. I couldn’t do a thing…”

  She shuddered once again and pressed her face into his chest. They were silent for a few moments after that, before Katherine decided to break that silence and not allow them all to stew over the events of the past few minutes.

  “Where exactly are we, anyway, and when did you learn this skill?”

  “I’m not really sure where we are,” Morgan replied. “But, if I can take a guess, it’s some sort of space outside space if that makes any sense. Like, if you look down, you can still see the landscape passing, but can’t actually feel any wind, or smell anything. No temperature changes, no fluctuations. Pretty much in the world, and not in the world at the same time.

  “It’s a skill called Gravity Warp and it allows me to travel huge distances in just minutes. I reached you from the palace in City Eleven in just under twelve minutes if I’m not mistaken.”

  “Oh, wow! That is so cool!” Katherine gushed. “With my portals blocked off by that asshole, I thought we’d be stuck traveling at normal speeds. But with you around, we can finally get places!”

  “When did you pick this skill up, by the way?” Sarah asked, “You didn’t exactly answer Katherine’s entire question.”

  “Yeah, about that…” Morgan said, feeling a bit nervous. “I may have had to break into your hidden safe to get the AP I needed. Don’t worry, the energy is still all there, and I put it all back!” Morgan said quickly as he felt Katherine stiffen against him.

  “Did you take anything else while you were…snooping?” Katherine asked.

  Morgan could detect a dangerous edge to her voice, and one that he could well understand. Of course, he wasn’t about to tell her what he’d seen.

  “Didn’t see anything unusual,” Morgan said, adopting a casual tone. “Just the box. I was kind of in a rush, you know.”

  Katherine relaxed at that, and Morgan thought he heard a barely-concealed sigh of relief.

  “Don’t think you’ll be getting off the hook for breaking into my private things,” she said a second later. “You might have had a good reason, but you still did it, and without my permission.”

  “Oh, leave him alone,” Sarah snapped. “Who cares if he might have stumbled into your private panty collection. Everyone wears underwear, it’s not only you!”

  “Why on earth would I hide my underwear in a safe?” Katherine asked. “Especially if they were flattering, which, if I’m being honest, most are on me.”

  Sarah ground her teeth together and raised her middle finger.

  “Oh, real mature, Sarah,” Katherine said with an eye roll.

  “You’re just asking for it!” Sarah snapped back. “Constantly walking with your goods hanging out all over the place. We get it, you have big breasts! You’re tall! You’re literally a perfect 10! There’s no need to constantly be shoving it in everyone’s faces!”

  “Why, thank you!” Katherine responded in a sickly-sweet voice. “Please, keep complimenting me. Would you care to comment on my perfect ass next, or maybe my long and toned legs?”

  “Gahhh! You’re such a bitch!” Sarah yelled, lunging forward and trying to hit the woman.

  Katherine simply shifted on Morgan’s back, avoiding the blow, and stuck her tongue out over his other shoulder.

  “Careful. Do that, and Morgan might end up dropping you by mistake. Those fat thighs can’t be easy to hold up, even with all his muscles.”

  Sarah’s face went even redder, and had it been possible, Morgan was sure steam would be pouring out of her ears. Until now, he hadn’t wanted to intervene, seeing as how getting in the middle of girls fighting was only bound to end badly for him. But, seeing as they were heading into a potential battlefield, he needed to remind them how to behave, given both of their stations.

  “Enough!” he snapped as Sarah opened her mouth to reply. “The two of you are acting like children, which is weird coming from me. I don’t know what your problems are with each other, but if you’re going to fight, can you do it when I’m not around?”

  Both Sarah and Katherine fixed their eyes on him, the latter wriggling around to his front just so she could.

  Shit. I knew I shouldn’t have gotten involved!

  “Oh? You’ve got something to say?” Sarah asked in a sweet voice.

  “Looks like he does, Sarah,” Katherine replied in a conversational tone. “Funny how he didn’t think of any reason to try and contact us before running away and leaving his communicator with that bitch, Le’vine.”

  “Yeah, that is funny, isn’t it,” Sarah mused.

  What’s funny is how the two of you are suddenly best friends, Morgan thought bitterly as they began mercilessly tearing him apart over what he’d done. The worst part was how they kept their voices calm and conversational, even as they ‘wondered’ about his sanity, maturity, and overall ability to so much as breathe without help.

  The worst part was how they carried on the conversation as though he wasn’t even there, talking to each other, but never directly saying anything to him.

  “I wonder where he was when we were fighting off swarms of monsters?” Sarah asked.

  “Probably sitting with his feet up on a beach somewhere, sipping from a coconut,” Katherine replied.

  How did she know?!

  “I wonder if he was shirtless,” she wondered a moment later.

  “Probably,” Sarah replied. “Maybe even slathered himself up with some tanning oil…”

  “Ooo! I’d like to see that!”

  And now this.

  Morgan was half-tempted to just chuck them out into the empty air and let them fall, screaming until he caught them. Honestly, they’d probably be fine falling from this height anyway, but they’d probably kill him as soon as he did catch them. Their strange and ever-shifting conversation did get his mind off all that had happened, and it was something for which he was extremely grateful.

  He’d lost more in the last few minutes than he had in the last few months put together. Sure, he knew he should be mourning for all the lost life, but he didn’t know those people. Gwen had been like a mother, and his time with her, aside from when he’d been younger, had been all too fleeting. Even now, when he’d found her, she’d stuck around for all of five minutes before vanishing again.

  He’d made his peace with her death a long time ago, and now to have her come back, only to leave so soon after, was more painful than he wanted to admit. So, he kept it bottled up. There would be a time to break down, but now wasn’t it.

  “You know,” Morgan said, breaking into their conversation about the best types of underwear to wear when they’d wanted to seduce someone. “If you’d just asked me about how my mission went, I could have told you that it was a success. I got both Le’vine and Herald to join us, and they’ll be arriving in less than twenty-four hours.”

  That shut them up. Both of them looked genuinely surprised as Morgan inwardly cheered at pulling out a win.

  “Well, why didn’t you just tell us that right away?” Katherine asked.

  “Because we were being mean,” Sarah replied, leaning in to kiss him on his cheek. “If you’d just been nicer to him, we wouldn’t have had this problem.”

  And here we go again.

  When Morgan deactivated the skill just a couple of minutes later, he was the happiest man on the planet. Never had a flight been so long as the one taken with the both of them, and he silently vowed to never travel with the two of them at once ever again.

  I need more guy friends, he thought as he flew towards the walls of City Eleven.

  It was strange to him that he didn’t really have any. Not that it was any mystery as to why. His life had been so hectic ever since he’d gotten his abilities that he simply hadn’t had the time. Everyone he’d met was out to use him for their own ends, which was hardly conducive to a good relationship.

&nb
sp; The storm clouds were gone as well, which could only mean that they’d succeeded in driving off the enemy forces, which Morgan found to be quite odd. Normally, an attack would last for several hours, and while it may have felt like he’d been gone that long, in reality, he’d only left the city a bit over an hour ago.

  However, as he approached the walls, he could see several soldiers standing there, waving their arms and cheering.

  “Did they know we were coming?” Morgan asked.

  “Not as far as I know,” Katherine replied, seeming perplexed.

  As they landed atop the walls and Morgan set the two of them down, they were quickly surrounded by excited soldiers, all chattering at once.

  “Quiet, please!” Katherine said, her voice once again that of the commanding queen, and not the five-year-old arguing about who was prettier. “Where are Bell and Fuza?”

  “Right here, Your Majesty!”

  Morgan looked out over the crowd to see Fuza forcing his way through.

  “What’s all the fuss about?” She asked as the general came jogging up.

  He was out of breath, which was strange for someone of his rank. However, his excited tone let them know that this could only be good news.

  “We just received an alarm at the border with the East. This can only mean one thing…”

  “They’re on their way,” Katherine said, feeling a grin of her own spreading across her lips. “That is excellent news. What about the battle? Morgan told me that you were under attack when he left.”

  “They barely put up a fight,” Fuza said. “Perhaps ten thousand or so. We took care of them easily enough. It was barely a challenge.”

  “And where’s Bell?” Katherine asked, looking around.

  “I believe she said something about going to your office to fetch some papers…” Fuza began.