How does one consume a god?
The answer is surprisingly simple. piecemeal.
Within the walls of this city where five wild gods. Every one of them bound to a troll deemed worthy of their power.
But not all of their power. It was Zul'jin who had the lions share. From what Tim has told me on the matter half of the gods power was delegated to the champions of the trolls, and half to their leader.
He had collectively four gods bound to his soul, empowering him into something more than mortal.
The fifth was wholly given to the priest who organized it all, though what loa he bound to himself remains to be seen.
We stalked through the darkness of the city with purpose, hunting those who held the power I desired. I knew where they where, I just had to pay attention to where my wraiths where dieing the most.
I felt them being dispersed in droves, their connections to my mind being severed by the hundred.
A quick climb ontop of a particularly large tree within the city revealed where the defenders where being rallied.
The trolls I happend to be hunting for each kept to areas dedicated to the god they betrayed for power, and centered around those areas where four steadily growing clearings in the "mist".
I jumped down, landing lightly on the soft earth below. I motioned my party to follow me to the nearest champion.
We passed a mixture of huts and stone buildings seamlessly meshed throughout the city proper, looking to countless carvings dedicated to the worship of the pantheon of Loa the Amani served.
"Nalorakk..." Ti'swena whispered to himself, his shoulders dropping as he spoke the name.
From what I understand he hadnt appreciated the treatment the Loa had received before he had been delegated to die somewhere in Eversong.
A number of carvings resembling a mighty bear were inscribed into the stone effigies around us.
Eventually we found ourselves at the foot of a large altar, nearly a temple in and of itself, watching through the shadows as trolls waved torches into the clawing forms of the wraiths I had summoned.
The warriors that hadn't been caught off guard by my little surprise had been doing well for themselves.
Once they began to understand the nature of the mist that sorrounded them they began to take action.
Hundreds of warriors stood in small formations of a around a dozen, clad in some form of plate and shielding each other from the grasping claws of my spectral minions.
From the temple itself I heard I bestial roar. "Hold em back, whateva they are, they're weak!" The voice was rough and growiling. "Thin out dey ranks and we'll be fine!"
I suppose he was right, my wraiths were a little weak for the task ahead of them.
With that in mind I reached out with one arm, extending my claws towards a group of trolls defending their homes, wielding tomahawks in one hand, and torches in the other.
They all withered and collapsed, green life energy fleeing from their forms and into me.
They died before they could even make a sound, reanimating as the undead before they even finished falling to the ground.
Their forms slowed disappeared into the mist, dropping their torches and marching off towards the nearest living creatures, which just so happens to be their old allies.
I repeated the process thrice more, forcing the zombified trolls to gather together, and surround several other groups. I closed me eyes and listened once they grew far enough away for even my sight.
The sounds of trolls screaming as their friends surrounded and tore them apart was almost musical, perhaps it would have been if not for the ever increasing burns on my flesh.
Of course I wasn't the only one who heard them dying.
Several other formations closed in on their position, catching glimpses of their friends being eaten through the wraiths around them.
I led my party through the darkness, up the stair case and above the worst of the fighting.
A few guards tried to stop us as we made our way past, but the combined spellfire of my strange assortment of followers took them down.
At the top of the almost pyramid-like altar our quarry waited for us. It was a massive troll, with size and muscles more suited to an ogre than one of its kind.
He had to be at least ten feet tall.
The head of a bear sat on its broad shoulders, with two tusks emerging from its slobbering maw. "So, you must be da cause of all dis commotion." He let out a guttural laugh "I expected de scourge."
His eyes fell on each member of our party, confusion clear as day. "A dragon comes into our city, and with slaves of our own make no less."
He looked over to Tim. "Ti'Swena, you gonna have a lot of explaining to do when we free ya."
His eyes locked with my own. "Lucky I don't have a witch doctor nearby, drake, or I'd have a feeling we wouldn't be having this conversation."
It was true, I was taking a lot of risk in seeing this through, but I only needed one success to finish the work myself.
If I lost my servants here it would be a shame, but I had them write down all they had learned and gathered from our time together, it would be an acceptable trade off.
"I suppose not, troll, but its time I took my prize." I stepped forward, half the trolls height on all fours.
He didn't look too worried about us coming to blows.
Two large glowing tomahawks rose up, and the bears face twisted into something like a smirk. "Neva killed a dragon before."
He charged at me, covering the ground between us with speed I wouldn't have been able to follow before my transformation.
My claw rose up in a flash, raking across my own chest. My attacker slowed for a moment, confusion dawning, before his eyes widened and he came to a halt.
"No!" He said with dawning horror.
The blood pouring from my chest immediately began to form around us in the shape of a gigantic circle, quickly taking the characteristics of a ritual I had practiced hundreds of times.
My servants ran around us, taking places on individual circles surrounding the main array.
I lept onto the trolls back as he turned, sinking my claws into his thick hide while he tried to escape the circle, using my weight to keep him inside the bounds of my ritual.
The form of the troll shifted as we fought, becoming that of a massive brown bear. It slammed into the ground with enough force to nearly knock over a few of my servants as the readied themselves.
The force tore me from the beasts back, freeing it to move, but it was too late.
Chanting rose up around us, the bloody inscriptions glowing as my project began to finally come together.
The full weight of the bear slammed into an invisible wall, and it uselessly clawed at the forces keeping it inside.
From outside the form of First hunt, and the dark mage I had killed rose their crystals into the sky, letting the ritual take on the power of the Ziggurats.
My servants began to pour their combined mana inside the circle, and I joined them even as the bear turned, slamming into me now.
I fought for the first time as the smaller beast in a physical contest, channeling mana even as the bear tore into my right arm.
I snapped uselessly at it's ear as it broke my limb, snarling in pain as it's paw dug into my rib cage.
The smoke covering the city rose up as the forms of the wraiths I had summoned began to draw into the circle as well, forming a tornado of darkness around the position my ritual was being cast.
The blood runes kept my heart beating and my body fighting even as massive jaws wrapped around my throat, breaking my neck and seizing most of the flesh that came attached to it.
The fel runes lit up as they recognized the power suddenly pouring into me. The arcane runes helped them to absorb the energy.
It was the Voodoo and Necromatic inscriptions that helped the most, reaching into the corrupted specter that was my soul and connecting my to my opponent.
I wildly swung with my claws, tearing out the bears eye even as it ripped my other arm from its place on my body, taking advantage of the fragile nature of my form.
As we fought, the bear weakened, growing smaller as the strength behind it faded away.
I watched as the being turned back into a troll, screaming out "No! No! You can't do this!" as the power began to drain more rapidly.
I watched as the head of a bear slowly faded into the ugly face of some troll champion who had thought to name himself after a god and steal it's power.
I let out a gurgling laugh through the remains of my throat as that troll grew skinnier and skinnier, before wasting away into nothing as his life joined that of the master he betrayed.
I collapsed as my body stopped responding to my commands, the magic tearing it apart taking its toll.
As the chanting faded, and I looked out to the stunned forms of what remained of the trolls guard, I died once again.
For a moment, all that remained of the dragon Malius, who had ambition above all others, was a pile of rapidly decaying flesh, supercharged with magic.
The guards, frightened and confused of what had just happened, stepped forward, readying to kill those who had struck down the avatar of a god.
As my own servants began to lose hope, as failure and false love rose up inside them the blood twitched, bubbled, and rose up.
Enemy and slave alike watched in horrified wonder as gore and blood came together, mixing together and growing larger and larger, taking up more and more space and forcing those surrounding the circle to back away as it grew.
First bones came together, than flesh, nerves, and finally scales.
Trolls stepped back in horror at the sight of a dragon rising up, its eyes a burning glow of purple, now focusing on them.
Pale armored plates covered red softly glowing flesh beneath them. The entire city watched as its wings spread, the beast now nearly the size of the Altar it stood upon.
It's lips drew back, revealing rows of shark-like teeth, before breathing in, the sound echoing across a city that was now in perfect silence.
It's roar could be heard across the whole of the Ghostlands.
