A little bit of words, a little bit of magic, and a city burned. Thousands of Trolls, young and old, sickly and strong, tore each other apart in my name, seeking the death of the leadership I had directed them against.
It wasn't perfect, they were not all of one mind, many were killed by mistake. Many still tried to defend the masters they knew and were comfortable with. I felt so many souls call out to my own, submitting themselves to a god who promised the old glories.
So many more were untrusting, unwilling, and unconvinced, but it didn't matter. I had allies now, and my prey was scattered around the city, unable to unify.
I jumped down from the altar, spreading my wings and flying for the first time. I caught the scent the lynx first, leading his men in crushing assault against those who decided to serve me.
I landed with a crash atop stone architecture, snarling down at the prey below, shielding my eyes at their response.
Spears and thrown axes useless bounced against my hide, only one flying true enough and with enough strength for me to notice at all.
I looked to my palm, were a spear was nicely embedded into my flesh, and then to the lynx faced troll staring back at me from below, nearly as large as the bear had been.
He fought other trolls even as he made his way toward me, instincts compelling him to face a challenger to his title. I frenzied those who fought for me even further, letting them ignore pain and giving them speed and strength to fight even the greatest warriors.
I watched some aged troll woman take a spear to the gut, before she pulled it in farther and tore her opponents throat out with her teeth.
I watched a child take up an axe twice his size, cutting the legs off a troll who had ignored him moments before.
It grew to such carnage that the only warrior who could do anything against the tide of blood-lust allayed against them was the troll with a portion of godhood inside of him.
I forced trolls to tear their own muscles apart as they fought opponents who seemed weaker and slower than before, pushing them into a frenzy of violence.
The Loa of Lynx tore through their ranks as easily as he would have if they didn't have my help, ignoring them with speed beyond their abilities, overpowering their newfound strength with nearly no effort.
He fought through nearly thirty of the trolls chanting my name into the sky before he found himself alone, the servants and guards with him falling behind, facing my ranks with far more difficulty.
An axe struck the back of his leg, forcing a roar out of the troll and hobbling him. A sword reached his side, stealing his attention away from the defense for just a moment.
It was enough
My servants rammed a spear through the trolls midsection, halting him completely. He struggled on, calling out for mercy even as they lifted him into the sky, toward me. "Well done." I called out.
"Blood! Blood!" they chanted back to me.
I laughed at the sound. How long had I waited for something like this? I laughed even harder , my claw wrapping around the struggling form of a god bound into a mortal.
"Blood!" The city roared around me. Jaws snapped around the creatures torso, ending its life in an instant. No ritual of power to keep me alive, no font of energies from the world around me to boost my power.
The runes along my back reappeared, bloody as if freshly carved, burning as the power of the Lynx flowed into me. Burning as I laughed, burning as my power grew and my connection to the world hidden underneath my own grew.
I ate the rest shortly after.
I felt those who worshiped me granting me some small sliver of power, I felt the world grow smaller as my perception of it grew.
Then I felt the chaos of it. Corruption below, Corruption above. It pervaded everything, coming in so many different forms, damaging a balance a part of me wanted nothing more than to preserve with all my being.
I felt a spark in my consciousness demanding I protected the world that had birthed it, that I exist only to preserve it as it grows into something more.
Another part of me relished in the thought of its destruction, of being the one to stand above the ashes as the absolute lord of it all. This was the real part of me.
I laughed as the purity of a loa was pulled apart within my form, dispersing from a representation of a single animal and the concepts associated with it, turning into nothing more than just another portion to my power.
I watched as those who defended the lynx were either torn to shreds, or falling to their knees in supplication. A light push directed them to where I knew the Eagle waited for me, cowering behind an army of subjects who had remained loyal.
"You're gods failed you, and then they proved their weakness further by allowing themselves to be bound! Punish them!"
Perhaps saner minds would have argued, claimed with some truth that their gods were not all powerful, that they had done all they could.
I forced their blood to stir and their hearts to rage, I chanted in their minds what their gods did wrong, I showed them visions of glorius and bloody conquest. With so many different kinds of power pouring into them, they were so easy to control.
I could control their rage, and with my connection to their soul I could control what it was directed at.
Saner minds no longer existed in my city.
