As promised, the second installment in a series of chaps. Enjoy
We walked down the hall towards the room, the magic lights twinkling as we did so. Distantly, I could hear a screaming. The closer we got to the room the louder it became. When we finally stepped into the chamber with the graven head, my eyes found the source.
The spirits of the sorcerers killed in whatever sick ritual made the graven mass were all clumped together just like their stone heads had been. A ghostly amalgam within a stone amalgam. It was bloody horrific looking.
The whole chamber had a feeling of wrongness to it, and I let out an involuntary shiver.
Rennala took notice. "If it is too much for thee than we can always return later, or I can clear this blight alone. The graven school was always depraved, and I can see they faired no better in my absence than they did whilst I still allowed experiments to be conducted on the primeval current. I had such practices outlawed for good reason." She said.
I looked over and tilted my head slightly up to meet the woman's eyes. Her face was mildly apprehensive, and she held a tight grip on her staff.
"I'll be fine." I told her with a tight smile as I spread my hands and flexed my new death based power. An invisible wave spread out from me, warding off the touch of the spirits and forcing them to continue about their business.
If writhing and moaning in utter sufferance could be considered business.
The longer I stared at the gross amalgamation the more I realized something. They weren't just writhing in place. No, they were all moving in one direction. All of their spirits trying to lift up and grasp at something, but they couldn't go anywhere. They were tethered, to each other and to the vessel they were stuck inside of.
"It's actually quite curious." I spoke as I studied the graven head. "I've seen a few other spirits wandering around the Academy grounds. They were no happy campers, but these are the first spirits I've seen that have been actively suffering. Yet they still persist here, trying to get at something. Are they still trying to grasp the primeval current? Why?" I asked, wondering at the possibilities.
Of course, it was most likely they were stuck like this from the ritual, and had no choice but to continue to seek out transcendence, or whatever they called it here. The academy was very Bloodborne like beneath the veneer of dark souls style magic.
The souls of those who can't return to the erdtree tend to linger in areas of high foot traffic. Listless and nearly faceless to boot, they reminded me of hollows from dark souls, without the capacity for violence.
"Two reasons, I hath come to believe." Rennala's words called my attention, and I looked back to her. "Knowledge and power. Forbidden knowledge at that."
She straightened to her full height and her eyes were deadly serious.
"The Primeval current is more than just a source of glinstone power to draw from. It's the be all and end all of sorcery. The ultimate expression of both magical might, and raw understanding."
Her eyes were earnest, but her face was grave as she continued, "It is also the most dangerous and inscrutable school, and one I put a stop to because of maddening and reckless rituals like this." She finished.
I nodded along to that, "but like. What is it?" I stressed. "Like, how would you describe it to me if I was a newborn with no understanding of sorcery?" I continued when I saw her confusion at my question.
Her eyes alighted as she comprehended what I meant, and she raised her staff, conjuring forth several little illusions for an impromptu diagram.
"Thee should remember this well. Almost all of mine sorcery's come from the stars." she said as several twinkling little lights appeared like a constellation. The lights began to shift, as if turning into comets that were falling to earth, even though the position of the illusion never changed.
"This is the source of Glintstone sorcery, however, other sources of power may be drawn from." As she spoke, she held up an her open hand, and conjured a tiny replica of her moon spell from her staff to hover above it. "Thou have seen this before already. I draw power from the strength of the Full Moon." She continued.
The lunar body expanded, and Rennala raised her hand up higher and higher as she did, until the pale sphere hung above us, roughly the size of a big beachball. It's pale glow lit up the room, and the souls stuck in the crumbled effigy reacted to it in a parody of fear.
They shifted away from it quickly, quivering when the light hit them, but it's not like there was comprehension in what was effecting them.
"The Primeval current is another such source." She spoke up, calling my attention back to her, as she made her third illusion.
This one was different. It was like a wispy smoke that hung in the air, in a loose circle rap shape. There was nothing there, and yet at the same time I could perceive twinkling multitudes contained within.
"Different from the others I've shown thee, but as thou will see it shares some similarities with the first."
I could see what she meant. The twinkling I saw was like stars, just like the first illusion of starlight.
"The reason for this is something of an open secret amongst the sorcerers of the academy, or well, it was an open secret." She trailed off as she became lost in thought. Probably remembering something that had happened way back when. I would have still been a child in Leyndell when this was happening.
She never went catatonic as she had been with the egg, but there were moments in which she still had residual… flare ups? Really it was just her being depressed, but that was something I was no stranger to.
I leaned over and nudged her, "Rennala?" I said to her in askance, though I wasn't looking for an answer to anything. What I was really asking was if she needed a minute.
She blinked, coming back to awareness, before waving me off and starting her lecture back up, "In truth, it is the source for almost all sorcery. When I say be all and end all tis not an exaggeration. It is where the stars above are born from, and what they will return to when they end." Rennala said.
As she spoke she conjured more illusions play out her words, which I watched with naked amazement. Magic would never not be cool as fuck to me. A twinkling star was born in the void, where it burned and died an unnatural death as the energy was channeled back into the void- or Rennala's illusion of it.
However, the feel of this illusion was way different from the previous ones. I wasn't the only one able to tell. The soul mass reacted to it entirely opposite to the way they reacted to her moonlight.
The souls mass practically leapt towards her causing me to startle to bring my hands up, yet the mass remained unable to go anywhere as it was still stuck in the effigy. It couldn't move, it posed no threat to me, even if I was a little startled.
Rennala had no way of seeing them, at least that I could tell. Either that or she was just stone cold, because she didn't react. Me on the other hand?
I got jump scared in a sense.
But that's also what made it sink in; The fact that Rennala wasn't just making illusions to give me fun diagram's. She had actively made this illusion with power from the primeval current.
Furthermore, Ranni's illusion that I fought demonstrated the ability to use comet Azur.
So yeah, these weren't just study diagrams for me.
These were all feats that she had mastered as the most powerful sorcerer to ever live, barring maybe her own sons and daughter, who had great runes and was an empryean, respectively.
…Man, my new girlfriend was a badass.
That same level of power, and there was nothing inherently special about her other than the fact the she was simply the best. Just hard work and talent.
"Are thee well?" She asked with a look of mild concern in response to my sudden shock.
"Fine." I told her, "soul mass just reacted to the current, thats all."
A look of understanding crossed her face, before she took a step towards me. She then looked back at the effigy with a little apprehension, and a lot of disgust.
"As I said before, it is the most powerful, but it is also dangerous. Repeated use of the current energies without proper preparation and skill quickly leads to addictive behaviors within the user, as they fall deeper and deeper into its grasp." She spoke with authority on the subject.
"Past experience?" I asked. When she looked back at me with defiant expression I knew I had stepped on a landmine. I raised my hands in surrender. "Woah. Don't mean anything by it. I just have my own experience battling addiction, that's all." I told her.
"It's not that - I" she cut herself off, before sighing. I went to tell her it was ok, but she steeled heroes and took a deep breath, "When I first dabbled with the current I observed and documented its effects. I ceased the currents usage, and counciled the other sorcerers to do the same." She stated. "The vast majority decided to conduct a ritual with results similar to this one." Her voice was iron.
I held my breath as I listened to her story, practically on the edge of my seat.
"By the time it was over a fifth of the academy populace had been consumed. When I outlawed the study of the primeval current there was no voice that contested the order. I put it out of mind, to never be thought of again accept in mine darkest dream. Never a word uttered until centuries later when poor Azur and Lusat became obsessed with the idea of communion with the current." She trailed off, pursing her lips as she remembered a time long past.
I could certainly sympathize with the feeling. 5000 years was entirely to long for anyone to live, and Rennala had been around even longer than that. Sometimes this immortality felt like a curse. I took my favorite astrologist's hand and squeezed it.
After a moment she squeezed back.
"The effects of its usage were apparent with just a slight touch, to say nothing of what directly exposing your mind to its knowledge can do, though perhaps seeing what these foolish ones have become will suffice." She ready to lecture once again, and she finished her statement by pointing towards the graven mass.
I nodded along with most of her speech, and found myself snorting when she was done.
"Yeah, these guys don't exactly look like they had a good time at the end." I commented as I looked on the writhing soul mass. I was trying for levity, but the subject matter was a mood killer to be certain.
Needless to say, I had no intention of ending up like these sorry sons of bitches.
"How long did it take you to achieve the mastery that you did?" I asked Rennala, unable to help myself as I started pacing, flexing my hands. I was far too amped for that. My anxiety was at its peak with what I was about to do.
Rennala's brow rose, "Mastery? It took many centuries to wield the sorcery's that I do now, even longer to tame the barest hint of the primeval current's power. It is a maddening blight. What are thou intending?" She asked plainly.
I thought about it for a moment, before answering plainly. "To cheat." I decided, raising my hands up towards the mass and flexing the dormant power of death that was burrowing just beneath my skin.
The energy poured forth, a red and black haze with the barest flecks of gold that surrounded me as I focused on the mass of souls across from me.
The mass of souls that had definitely reacted to my power. Every single congealed soul froze, suddenly going completely still. Like a prey animal that suddenly became aware of a much larger predator nearby.
I focused my intent and willed the power to do its job.
The red and black trails of energy that was destined death stretched out in tendrils that reached for the graven head. The amalgam of souls contained within didn't move as the tendrils came closer.
They were frozen as death approached them.
As soon as the fiery red vines made contact the energy spread out over the entire mass nearly instantaneously.
The second that happened, the mass finally started to move again. Jumping and writhing all over the place. They let out a piercing shriek, a horrendously loud keening noise that rang inside my skull like a souped up fire alarm and made me grind my teeth together. I could feel blood trickle down my nose, and I let a low growl build in the back of my throat in response to the pain.
Rennala gasped at the sight, and moved forward to try and help me. "Godrick!" She cried in alarm, brandishing her staff at a threat she couldn't see.
"Don't worry" I bit out as I continued struggling against the conjoined spirits.
"Are thou sur-" she made to ask, only to be cut off by me flexing my power again.
"Haah" , I breathed out harshly as I jammed my hand forward harder redoubled my 'grip' on the creature. "It's ok" I told her while sucking in deep lungfuls of air, "I.. almost.. got it!" I exclaimed as I finally felt the amalgamation start to give ground in our tug of war.
The Shrieking reached a fever pitch, and I let out a strangled yell of victory as I overcame the amorphous spirit blob and dragged it towards me. It hit my hand a second later.
There was a rush of power as the soul mass started being absorbed into me. I gasped at the feeling and stared wide eyed at the light show. "Hoooooly fuuuuuck" I cried, dragging the words out as a rapturous feeling came over me.
That feeling reached a crescendo at the apex of the soul absorption, and the second they crossed the threshold I immediately crushed them under my metaphorical grip and shoved them straight down my metaphorical throat.
Absorbed souls could be used in one of three ways. They could be used for spell amplification, granting more power to a spell I already know, which is currently limited only to the spells I could use through various grafts, such as the red wolf.
Not very useful right this second, but a useful power nonetheless.
Souls could be bound to objects. This could enhance the power of something like a magic weapon, or be used to give an aspect to a completely mundane object. Also not super useful right this very second, but something that I would find a way to abuse in the future I'm sure.
Right now, I'm queuing up the third way for a soul to be spent. That would be the devouring of said soul, in order to gain the knowledge I was seeking. Devouring a soul doesn't actually destroy it, instead it purifies it and sends it on its way to whatever respective afterlife it belongs in.
Except in cases where the soul of the person has been tainted by their actions, such as this one.
In this case the souls I'm eating share only one fate: They will be annihilated, the only thing remaining being the knowledge and karma I absorb in the process. A true and permanent death, with the souls being completely destroyed.
A sorcerer treasured knowledge above all else. Still, it was a shame they were missing so much.
Knowledge that was forgotten by a soul was gone; and these guys had been cooking together for what could be thousands of years. Even though it did pull some relevant skills from their heads, I wouldn't be able to cheat and learn glinstone sorcery just by doing this.
However, that didn't really matter to much to me.
I wasn't here to learn basic glinstone sorcery.
I was cheating after all. Giving myself all the best spells right at the start of the game, like a modder coming back for his gibbed playthrough.
I was here to learn sorceries of the primeval current. More specifically I was here to steal them.
They were super dangerous to learn the 'proper' way. As in, 'kill you immediately and leave you a grotesque husk like these poor bastards' type of super dangerous.
Azur and Lusat were the only ones in game who had 'survived' looking into the abyss, yet they were basically hollows from dark souls afterwards. Broken men holding onto a singular moment, a spell to be passed on to whoever stumbles across them in their final endlessly stretched out moments.
To learn the pinnacle of sorcery in this world was to meet a grizzly fate indeed.
So I was going to cheat. By absorbing the soul, I was going to try and get all the rewards of the magic current with none of the consequences. Souls may have lost significant amount of memory after they died, but they retained the most important ones to said person. Which led me to this conclusion:
I could get primeval spells by going after the victims of a failed ritual like this one.
If prized knowledge that was treasured by a person in life is what was taken most when a soul was consumed, then by consuming these souls I would gain knowledge such as the secrets gleaned from the Primeval current before their inevitable fate.
Well, now they have a new inevitable fate.
To be devoured in an instant.
Well, more like devoured over a period of several hours as I immediately descended into what felt like an acid trip from hell.
Turns out the primeval current didn't fuck around, even if the knowledge was secondhand. I think I heard Rennala yell for me, but the rapidly approaching floor seemed a bit more pressin-
-
…Where was I?
I was nowhere
I was everywhere
I was nothing
I was everything.
A paradox, and yet….
Well, you get the idea.
To put it into perspective, picture a vast void. Like space. A vast expanse of seemingly infinite blackness, with nothing inside it.
I was flying, or floating, through that void. Just drifting endlessly throughout the deep black, without a care in the world. It was quite peaceful honestly. We're it not for my racing mind I would have almost thought of it like a long sleep. A place where I can just drift with the nothingness.
Well, almost nothing, because all of a sudden that deep black is filled to the brim with light. I 'turn' and gaze upon the source. The light is bursting from a crack in reality. A jagged glowing line tears its way through the empty space, and the light spews forth in iridescent waves. Like the northern lights of my homeworld, beautiful colors trailing through the dark.
Large pulses of energy emanating forth in a wash of colors that spreads out and paints the cosmos. The primary color is the blue green hue I've come to associate with glintstone sorceries, but there is a myriad of others. Vast swaths of cosmic purple, deep pockets of blood red, and a singular line of burning gold that trails straight through space like a laser beam.
is that what I think it is?
I'm left to ponder for a moment, before I see the most amazing thing.
The stars, those come next. They form slowly at first, then before I know it they are fully formed, vast balls of cosmic fire that burn ceaselessly in the void.
For that to happen so quickly…
It took stars millions upon billions of years to form and burn.
From my perspective, it was a matter of minutes. Was the perception of time being vastly accelerated, or was this merely the only way my brain could handle what it was seeing?
There's no explanation for what's happening, but in my mind I can only come to one conclusion. I'm watching the birth of the universe.
Elden ring's very own big bang.
The vision doesn't stop there. Millions of more years past must past, because eventually I see that gold comet bare down on a planet after ages of drifting in the void. It seemed its exactly what I think it is.
My knowledge lets me fill in the gaps as to what's happening here. This is the history of the world as it were, and I just watched the birth of Marika the eternal.
Well, I watched the star fall to earth. My perspective never shifted from where I was in the void.
What happened after that is more important.
That same myriad of colors that painted the cosmos had gathered around the world like a snake wrapping around its prey. A giant cosmic rainbow that ran around the planet in churning waves that entangled and overlapped.
That changed when the gold comet hit. Much like the stars forming it happens slowly at first, but soon the colors around that world began to fade or be stripped away like strips of flesh peeled from a hunted beast.
Soon enough the entire planet was covered in rays of gold.
It was beautiful.
Shame it wouldn't last.
There was an almighty crack. A resounding thrum of energy felt throughout the entire cosmos. Then another. And another. More and more until finally…
A shattering.
I had Godrick's memory of the day. To be there in a moment like that, when the whole world turned upside down and chaos reigned supreme…
It was like being in a terrorist attack.
There was not a single person living in the lands between that day who hadn't felt the elden ring shatter. There was simply no way not too.
It was like hearing a hundred thousand panes of glass shattered all at once overlayed atop the boom of thunder and drake lighting. No one in the lands between knew what a several hundred pound bomb sounded like, but I did, the elden ring breaking was louder.
More than that, it was a sound that you could feel in your bones.
The memory hadn't done it justice.
The shattering roared throughout the whole universe, and the colors responded. Only, I had finally put together that those colors were the outer gods. Driven away or destroyed by the rise of golden order.
And now they were coming back. Big splotch's of rotting scarlet and inky black that spread slowly but surely. Little torches of fiery yellow that either burned in place or went out trying to burn everything around them.
I knew what those colors meant.
However, I couldn't help but have something of a revelation.
Throughout it all, one thing was constant.
The blue green colors never moved. Oh, they changed hues and shined with different intensity's throughout differing ages, but it never went out.
Throughout every turning of every age and through every conquest fought, the stars never changed.
Shackled by Radahn, but still utterly the same. And oh, hadn't that been a sight to see! A tiny purple blip rising up from the planet and standing against the fury of the cosmos. By the time he was done they were all chained in a field that acted as a giant magnetic purple cage.
I almost respected the big red haired lug after seeing that.
Even still, the stars didn't change. They were bound, but that was all.
Even after the star scourges grip would be broken, the stars didn't change, merely began to move again.
No matter which side took power. Whether the golden order was reborn in a holy resurgence, or cast down to be replaced by something else.
That's the truth of the primeval current.
Let the various powers that be war for a planet.
The current lie beyond the boundaries and would never settle for stooping so low as to war for a mere terrestrial body.
No, the current would stay as it was, forever.
It's a force more eternal than Marika. It existed before the greater will took power, and it will exist long after the greater will is forgotten by man.
This was the power that let sorcerers withstand the forces of God.
This was the power that let Liurnia remain free for so many centuries.
This was the power that now belonged to me.
-
I came back to awareness slowly, and then I sat up with a gasp. It seemed to me as if I had never truly lost consciousness, but I know that I had been pretty much down for the count.
I'm pretty sure I was sitting on the floor.
My body was cold.
Except for my right hand, my right hand was warm.
"Godrick? Godrick!?" I heard a familiar voice shouting for me. Ahhh, so that's why my hand was warm. I squeezed a little to try and give Rennala reassurance as I went to stand up.
My body felt lighter than air. I slid up off the ground in one smooth motion like I was levitating. My eyes started to clear their haze, and I could see Rennala's panicked expression as she fretted over me.
Sorry Rennala, but I don't even think I really care right now… this feeling was just too, too…
It was just too perfect.
Everything was just perfect. Was this what Gojo felt like when he got his awakening? Was this the experience Goku felt when he unlocked ultra-instinct? Or even a character like Deku unlocking new quirks to use. Was this what that felt like?
This feeling of boundless strength and energy, like I could lift the heavens themselves on my shoulders and still not be weighed down.
Getting a power up was something else.
Was I even breathing right now?
That stray thought brought me back to reality, and I sucked in a useless breath of air to remind myself that yes, I still could breathe. I had made sure I still had the lungs and trachea necessary to do so. I didn't necessarily need them anymore, but I kept them in anyway, because they let me feel human.
That's why I describe the breath as useless.
It was Useless because I didn't even have to breathe at all anymore.
I wasn't human anymore. I was… well technically I was a demigod now but that's not what I was driving at.
I was a psychopomp now. A being of death. I was more like a Lich than a human at this point.
Hence the useless lungs, to feel human and avoid that whole feeling along with every thought associated with it.
The only thing about my heritage that concerned me was the powers and abilities I wielded from it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Case in point…
I clenched my fist and called to mind the clearest image I saw. It was the memories of one of this little graven cult's ring leaders. His final moments if you will.
When he peered into the current, he witnessed a grand battle against a red-maned warrior. There was a feeling of desperation, and the scholar beheld the stars clustering together for a final gamble. One clean strike to end it all.
It's failure would resound throughout the cosmos.
When the memory cleared from my vision, I let out a gasp.
I was holding a Carian great sword in my hand. Only it wasn't actually a Carian blade. Made of blue green starlight, it held a swirling cosmos within its ethereal edges. The blade itself was jagged, malformed, the lines obscured by cosmic clouds. It seemed as if it might even fall apart in my hands at any moment.
Yet the feeling coursing through me was unmistakable.
This star saber was a spell blade without compare. The final final form of the Carian great sword, easily outstripping Ranni's little pet Adula's moon blade.
This was a legendary spell like no other.
A mythic tier spell.
My eyes turned from my blade to the now empty graven heads. The dead eyes stared up at me mockingly, sadistic knowing grins as their sinful euphoric power flooded me.
Oh yeah? Thinks it's funny?
I grinned a manic smile and held my magic Excalibur high in the air, poised to swing right down the middle of the graven mass.
How's this for a joke?
I brought the blade down.
There was a sound in my ears that was like a whining scream. My brain instantly connected that noise to the closest thing that reminded me of it. The atomic breath sound effect from shin Godzilla was an apt comparison, and though the blade wasn't purple it probably contained just as much destructive power as the big nuclear lizard.
The sword was already larger than a great blade reasonably would be. The wave of pure power and energy it released was even greater in size, a massive arc that seemed to get bigger and bigger as it traveled.
I absolutely destroyed the graven mass. One second it was there…
The next it wasn't.
Obliterated by the power they had given me.
That was entirely expected.
What wasn't expected was that the wave of power released would continue on without stopping. Most of the room and tower I was standing in disappeared along with it, the stone work eaten alive by corrosive energy that left glinstone crystals trailing in its wake.
I supposed in this case, the word annihilated would be considered the proper terminology.
That was just the start of it too. The shockwaves that reverberated from the attack echoed throughout the room, which only further destabilized things. Sunlight peaked through the cracks in the stone, which were rapidly widening as the whole room started to crumble.
For my part, I just stared at the glorious destruction in rapture. All this destruction, this raw power…
This was what I was capable of with a single magic sword stroke.
Just one sword stroke from a spell I hadn't even come close to mastering.
I had only taken the first steps forward. This was merely the beginning. Once I had mastery of my new abilities I would be unstoppable.
And there was still so many more souls ripe with ancient secrets scattered all over the lands between!
I laughed, high and loud and free. I let it taper off into a chuckle and grinned cruelly.
Who was gonna stop me now?!
Then I felt a tug on my arm. I turned, looking to see.
Over the ringing in my ears I could hear a garbled noise. It was only when I felt that tug on my arm and turned to see Rennala that I realized she had been shouting my name. There was a panicked expression on her face, and she was trying to pull me to the hall.
I reoriented myself, and it hit me all at once as my brain rebooted. As the high left my system and I finally took stock of the situation I was in.
That feeling of 'Oh fuck, I'm in danger' that I couldn't feel before flooded my senses.
The stonework beneath our feet ruptured, pushing Rennala up higher and me lower. The sudden jolt of that sent me right into a fight or flight mode, and there was nothing here for me to challenge besides maybe my own stupidity, which had come out on top.
My legs shifted into my favorite pair of draconian feet, the tail sprouting from my ass in conjunction with the shift. The rest of me grew to compensate in the span of a second. I was now standing over Rennala, who I scooped into my arms without hesitation as I bolted for it.
Curling many arms over us to shield from falling debris, I charged through the door and down the hallway we had entered through as the building collapsed.
Taking great lunging strides with my draconic limbs to clear the distance, I jumped up and threw myself through the door way as the floor beneath my feet crumbled.
When my feet touched back down I took two more big steps forward before I turned to see if the destruction was still coming.
When I saw what I had done, my jaw went slack. My arms holding Rennala felt boneless, and she pushed the ones covering her out of the way with ease. When she saw what I was looking at, her jaw dropped right along with mine.
The tower we were just in was falling. Not just a crumbling apart, but falling. My blade literally sliced it apart, and now it's halves were sliding away. Like a Jenga tower that had been cut into two right before it fell.
Rennala shifted out of my arms, the abruptness of it causing me to fumble and still try to support her.
She batted the hands away and hopped down, moving over to the edge of the newest raya lucarian cliff face. She stood there in silence for what felt like the longest minute in existence.
Just staring down at the dust plume rising up from several hundred feet below.
Then she turned a blazing glare on me. I wanted to cringe away, but stood straight and looked her in the eye.
"Of all the hare-brained, shortsighted, stupid ideas thou could have come up with!-" She began, before immediately falling into a rant.
The words were coming rapid fire, and if it weren't for the pale Casper the ghost ass skin she had I would think Rennala was a Latina woman. All she had to do to was start speaking espanol and the image would be complete.
I mentally snorted at the comparison, then tuned back in to make sure I didn't get in worse trouble.
"-I swear it's that golden order lineage going to your brain. Only Marika could scion a line of bastards as thick-headed as ye!-"
Yeesh, ok, maybe go back to tuning it out.
I didn't once try to gain say her though. She had more than earned the right to ream me out for this.
I had fucked up, plain and simple. Time to take it like a man.
"-Leaving severed appendages all over my academy! Why I should-" She continued her rant.
Alright that one was kinda fair. Still, looks like she was going to throw everything and the kitchen sink at me.
For my part, I just knuckled down, determined to weather the storm. However, as the rant went on I started to feel more and more drained.
Come to think of it, my arm was bothering me too. I didn't want to get in trouble though, so I kept my gaze on Rennala and waited for the wright moment.
Rennala turned around to gesture at the destroyed tower yet again, so I sneaked a glance down, to see what the problem was.
Then I was boggling down at my arm.
I had looked down at it, the same one that had held the primeval spell. Glinstone crystals were sprouting up from my skin. Some thinner, some longer, hell; there was tiny little crystals growing from where my damn hair follicles were supposed to be!
The corruption was spreading down my wrist and towards my elbow.
I narrowed my eyes.
I had watched far too many damn zombie movies to go out like some rando infected.
My Sword spear appeared in my other hand with a flex of willpower and a little shiver of electricity. Pocket space was a very useful ability. I lifted my decayed hand up at shoulder level, moved the blade to be right under my armpit. Better safe than sorry in this case. My brain recalled an old memory, and I snorted despite the grim situation.
"Sunny, forgive me." I growled out with humor on my lips just for the hell of it, and then I ripped the blade upwards and cleaved my arm off at the shoulder.
Rennala turned back, this time to focus on me, "and another thing-" she went to say, only to cut herself off, her eyes widening at the sight.
The arm came off alright. In a spray of viscera and accompanied by the sound of meat and bone getting chopped.
It was only thanks to my newfound death power that I didn't howl in pain.
That said, I still had nerves and pain receptors that I was forcing to still function through my non-catalogue power, and those motherfuckers were howling in agony.
"GODRICK!" Rennala yelled, rant forgotten in shock and panic at the sight of what I just did.
I ignored the yell in favor of dropping the blade back into my inventory and clamping my now free hand onto the bleeding stump. She crossed the short distance between us in no time at all, fairly throwing herself at me, and I caught her with newly formed limbs.
"I'm alright, I'm alright." I reassured Rennala as two hands began console her, stroking her face and cupping her chin. "I'll fix it in a second."
Two more hands went to work on my severed stump, ripping out the rest of the damaged sinew so I could sprout a fresh new limb.
A couple seconds later and I had done just that, I flexed and tensed it a few times, both to test it to make sure it was working properly and to show off.
"See?" I gave her a wry grin as held up the new arm. "Good as new." I told her.
I walked over to the severed appendage, held it up to examine for a moment, before haphazardly tossing it over my shoulder so that it would go sailing down the new cliff face.
"There, one less severed appendage on your academy grounds. I'll be sure to keep it that way in the future. " I gave her my best apology smile.
Rennala was less than Impressed. Her face was stern, and then it flickered through a series of expressions, but the one I identified was the furious one, before she settled on a face that was…
Well…
Her eyes were narrowed, and she was clearly still pissed, but it also almost looked like she wanted to-
Rennala's hands fisted into my collar and she dragged my face down to her level. Before I could make any kind of noise- either to protest or to ask her what the hell she was doing, she shut me up.
She shut me up in the best possible way.
Her lips planted on mine so hard our teeth knocked together with a clack. I startled, then went to try and pull back at the hit, but Rennala just pressed in, not caring nor stopping in the slightest.
To be fair, I didn't really mind in the slightest either, and my many idle hands quickly found a task.
After holding the kiss for another couple of seconds Rennala pulled off of my mouth with a wet sounding pop. She was still glaring at me, but was also super turned on.
It was probably the hottest thing I had ever seen in my life.
"This isn't over." She threatened.
"No, of course not." I agreed with a shaky breath.
"Shut up and fuck me against that wall." she demanded.
I took a second to process that, and my eyes blew wide before narrowing as I gave her a mean look.
"Yes, mistress." I agreed with a smarmy grin, as I lifted her into the air and moved towards said wall. The woman let out a gasp of delight when I did, and a full moan when I pressed her into the wall and slipped inside.
"I thought I told thee to cease thine remarks." She tried to glare at me again, but her cheeks were flushed and her eyes couldn't focus properly.
"You did." I agreed shamelessly as I started to set a steady pace, rocking back and forth. Rennala covered her mouth with one of her hands, but I quickly snatched it with one of my many hands, so that I could hold both her arms behind her. "But I think you like it when I talk dirty to you" I said low in her ear.
She let out a wanton sound at that, and I rewarded her by having two more hands knead and squeeze her breasts. She was pretty much coming apart in my arms at this point.
"Haah, ahh, no." She tried to deny around the noises she was making. "Thou are a liar, and a-a pig !" She finally gasped out.
"Calling me a liar immediately after telling one yourself? You're a hypocrite, queen Rennala."
"Thou-"
I cut her off with a harsh smack on her ass. She let out a moaning cry when I spanked, and rolled her hips while arching her back further.
I was supporting her entire body weight on multiple appendages; I could feel every move she made, and had complete control of her body. The power dynamic never failed to make me even more excited. Something about having the most powerful woman in the world beneath me, ya know?
When she had finally reached her first orgasm, Rennala had forgotten all about why she was mad. For the next several hours at least.
There was no doubt in my mind that I was gonna hear about this tomorrow.
For now my only goal was making my woman feel as good as possible.
And praying to the Greater Will she doesn't geld me in the morning.
-
She didn't ask until later that night, after a long evening of fucking like it was our last day alive. We were cuddled up together in bed, sweaty and exhausted, but in a good way. There was a pleasurable haziness behind my eyes, and I thought I might just drift to sleep like this if I still could. Nonetheless I closed my eyes and basked in the moment like I might still be able to.
I opened them back up when I felt Rennala shift beside me, and saw her sitting up. Her leg swung over my body as she did, and she was staring down at me, straddling my hips. Despite the position, there was no lust behind her eyes, only curiosity.
"Godrick," she asks in a deceptively light tone that's betrayed by the bright intensity of her eyes gleaming in the moonlight. "What exactly dids't thou see?"
I smiled up at my lover, and opened my mouth so we could start theorizing on the greater mysteries of the universe.
We wouldn't stop talking until early in the morning, when Rennala could no longer keep her eyes open.
It was the happiest I could ever remember being in a long damn time.
Well there we are. Let me know your thoughts, and ofc I hope u enjoyed. Been waiting to post this one for a minute. I wrote most of it before I even finished the conversation with big boggart. Hope you like my take with the death based powers. If you guessed that the first person to get Shang tsunged was the graven mass above the cuckoo church, then congratulations, you are a candidate to be the Kwisatz Haderach. Let me know whose soul you think should be devoured next and I shall make it so, Lissan Al-Gaib!
…the dune movie was pretty fun ngl.
Once again, I'll see you fuckers tmmr. Expect a later post that day, because I have a double shift.
