I rose up from the remains of the ritual I had wrought. Months of effort and study by masters of several different crafts.
The power I had gained from the bear loa was quite something, on its own and split as it was it was still a little more than a quarter of what I had just gained.
An uncountable number of wraiths, two scourge crystals used to keep their armies active, and all the mana me and mine had, and it was still a sizable piece.
Of course I hadn't come here for just the quantity of power. Given enough time I could gather an amount just like this under far safer and less conspicous circumstances.
It was what the power was that caused me to seek it out. The wild gods are manifestations of life and nature, and now so was I.
I could still feel the unnatural nature of my power, and the damage it inflicted on my body, but it was nothing to keep it in one piece now.
My flesh did not burn, my power was not halphhazardly contained in a form barely capable of holding it. In a way, Anastriels work was what saved me.
Blood magic was the corruption of everything the Loa, druids, and shamans venerated, but that very corruption now existed in every pour of my body. It worked as the bindings holding so much conflicting power together.
It had been easy to heal myself from my pitiful state, to restore my malnourished muscles and even make up for the growth said malnourishment cost me.
By the time my eyes grew back, and I was standing fully over an army of dumbfounded trolls I began to have an understanding of what my new place in the world was.
I could feel the souls of each and every one of those beings, I could feel the twisted spirits of the Scourge in the distance, making their way en masse to the elves. I had just promoted myself into a Loa.
I had just grown from a large drake to a young dragon.
It felt good, and it left me hungry for so much more. A glance at my scales called my attention to my new coloration.
Whatever magics I had used in the ritual, and those I had used to put myself back together must have bleached the color away.
Bone-white scales glistened in the night, protecting the barely visible flesh that had been left vulnerable by my battle.
A crimson glow that had emerged from my neck and arms slowly disappeared as my scales returned to their proper places.
I looked to the Amani, still frozen in fear, still unsure of what was going on. I roared, watching the worms flinch as my call echoed throughout the forests of the Ghostland.
I readied to attack, to tear them apart one by one and find my prizes in the wreckage of their empire. Then an idea struck me.
I spoke out to the city below me.
"Amani. That's what you are, is it not?"My laugh echoed out across the whole of the city. "The great troll empire reduced to a single cluster of lightly connected cities and peoples, no longer even united in name, let alone purpose."
I began with their pride."a great wolf, beset on all sides by jackals."I reminded them of what they had been reduced to.
I spread my wings, keeping several warriors from charging by giving them new perspective on my size. "You're leaders failed you when they allowed your empire to shatter into almost nothing."
I looked to where I knew the other Loa where kept, where I knew Zul'Jin watched on in horror, knowing what I was doing.
"Your gods failed you when they could not protect you from your enemies, or even warn you of the menace to come."
I presented them a target to direct their blame.
"How many of you prayed to your gods to save you from the Scourge? How many of you begged them to grant you the strength to defeat the Elves?"
I shook my head in mock sadness.
"I do not blame you for betraying them as they betrayed you, I do not fault you for taking matters into your own hands."
A reptilian grin spread across my face."Even reduced to almost nothing you fought the Scourge when they betrayed your pact. Even with what little you had left you continued your crusade against the Elves that stole your homeland."
I looked to the warriors who where ready to attack just moments before, who now listened with their full attention."Because the Amani are strong. Even when they are dying."
I've illustrated whats happening, and now its time to present the alternative.
"But they do not have to fade into nothing like so many of the old empires already have. We could be restored! We could be greater than even what we once where!"
I roared out into the sky, shaking the city with it's volume "I am Malius, Loa of the dark hunger, lord of the blackened mist, and I would see the Amani conquer once again!"
My power stretched out to the crowd of warriors that once protected the one known as Nalorakk. I forced their blood to rush through their veins, I forced strength into their limbs and rage into their hearts.
A simple application of blood magic, something even the apprentices used with proficiency, if on a far larger scale.
"Some of you can feel it now! The strength I have already granted you!"
The warriors around me began to chant. "Malius!" they called. "Malius!"
"Those of you who would become my children! Those of you who would see the Amani restored to conquer a new land!"
My magic spread into the city, spreading into a fervor of rage and violence. "Bring me those who have failed you! Bring me those who would allow this great empire to fall into nothingness!"
My claws raked across the stonework of the altar I sat upon, carving through a representation of a bear, for all to see.
"Bring them to me! So that I may show them what the punishment for weakness is!"
Then the fighting started.
