Capítulo 38: Xion CH37: The Beginning Of The Invasion
Lotus flew high over the clouds to peaks beyond even the tallest gods had ever witnessed. Her body flowed over the warm updrafts, gliding to save energy as she watched the world below. She flew forward beyond the forest tribe's lands to give her master an advantage that only she could give. No banshee could fly as high as she could or as fast, and none of them had her connection to him. While her master used lesser undead, it was understood that Lotus was the most important. She needed an early sign, and her master would recognize her. Her body vibrated as her mind lost itself in the fantasy of earning her master's favor.
She was lost in her mind when her upper jaw opened. Her mind targeted thousands of birds all at once and fired. The necromantic dragoness flew down to catch those little treats in her jaws to chomp and lick back their sweet blood and deliciously crunchy bones. She shivered as she tasted the delicate flavors of foreign qi slide down her throat.
It was tempting to dive after the remaining birds to fill her belly. But, the fleeing birds were enough of a sign for her master. He had mobilized preparations for less. It was cute how prey-like he acted with all his preparations completed or as complete as possible.
"Master, see what I see," Lotus said, and she felt her master suddenly give her his undivided attention. He looked through her eyes as the birds fell around her like rain. She banked and shot through the clouds before shooting to the side.
A trail of burning hoof prints littered the ground, and a tapestry of multicolored feathers fanned the monster's back. It smiled at Lotus, revealing massive blocky teeth in a horse's grin. She hissed at the feeling of the God in the flesh as it took a single step at a time approaching her master.
"So, the foreign gods are chained." She looked around to see chains of bone hanging from the God's body. They entered one section and tore through another.
"I didn't expect them to chain the gods down literally. Do you sense anything from the chains themselves or see any other gods?" Her master asked.
Lotus couldn't see a thing through the fire god's giant green and blue feathers. What kind of horse was also a peacock? She gained some altitude from an updraft coming from the fire god's body and saw many more. A black dolphin swam in and out of the sand, and massive insects glowing with various energies bound in chains. Various lizards made their way forward with tremendous heaving stomps. Bone chains covered their bodies.
"So, the enemy also practices necromancy. Should I get closer to see if I can manipulate the chain?" Her master had already suspected how those creatures worked and reacted accordingly. They had only marched out here to deliver these gods as trophies for her master, utterly ignorant of who was really in control.
"No return immediately; you've given me everything I need." Her master said.
Undoubtedly, he already had a brilliant plan, and revealing his power might make the foolish elves surrender. But, no one liked prey that just gave up; the thrill of the hunt makes bringing down powerful prey worthwhile.
She turned and flew away after catching another cushy updraft. If there was one God they should keep, it was the funny-looking horse god. Its fire powers were easier on her wings.
…
Lotus flew down over the forest tribe and landed at the only treehouse with a continuous plume of black smoke billowing from its yellow fire brick chimney. The sounds of hammers pounding and an elf cursing filled her ears with their familiarity. She crawled through a large open window. Lotus enjoyed life here with her master and his mates. She approached a room covered in quickly sketched pictures stuck to a wall. They resembled the many visions she had shared with her master. If not for the invasion coming soon, she would curl up for a nap after her long flight. But her master needed her.
Like a storm hovering over a calm lake, she felt a powerful presence. Her master stood an easy 6ft tall and was practically the shortest person in the entire tribe. He wasn't an elf but could throw elves around like toys. While his muscles weren't absolutely bulging, they looked titanic compared even to the skull tribe elves. Her master's chest was broad as a barrel, and she could feel waves of overwhelming power waiting to be unleashed.
"In two days, the pantheon will finish off the skull tribe and head straight for us. I don't think there is anything the skull tribe can do to stop them."
Every God she had seen had been sketched and their possible abilities listed. Their power levels were recorded, proving her master's senses were amazing. She couldn't detect the strengths of others with any accuracy through her master's eyes, but he could through hers. The numbers he listed were spot on from what she could determine.
Comparing them to her master wasn't fair. The mule god's 700PL might have been nearly 20 times greater than her master's 40PL, but he still wore his weights most of the time. She always suspected her master liked to hide his real strength for just the right moment.
She watched him stand in front of the sketches and shake with excitement. What else could her creator feel about a battle against gods? He was truly beyond her understanding. If she were the one in his place, she would have fled. There was no way she would be strong enough to fight something like a single god, much less many gods on the warpath.
…
Valigael believed in the cause of her Khan. As she led her band in the great army that had conquered the great Ugal plains, her confidence in her leader grew. Few could have held so many of their tribes together and led them to sack the silk slippered lords of the North, the barbarians of the west, or the hardy skull tribe of the south. Those elves were so ugly that not even the most beautiful couldn't compare to a Plains Tribe girl. Destroying them would do the world a favor, and it was possible with the pantheon.
She rode on the back of her trusty steed and kept her bow on target. Another band retreated in their direction, and Valigael raised her bow. Without a word, the rest of her band did the same. Their tactics had been ingrained into them by the teachings of their Khan and experience on the battlefield. The skull tribe might look big and tough, but they were soft on the inside.
When she saw the whites of their eyes, she opened fire. The tired skull tribesmen fell like wheat before a scythe. Every arrow struck home, and her band advanced over the corpses of the ugly skull tribe. They usually tried to take the most beautiful of the other tribe and offer them to the great Khan, but there was no point. The skull tribe was a bunch of ugly barrel-chested barbarians.
A scout rushed in and stopped beside her. "I have news Valigael; you can't let the others know about this." Her band got in close to listen to the scout's words.
"Just beyond the skull tribe lands, there is a forest full of the most beautiful young elves. Each has skin as supple as any noble or princess, and they are all as white as ivory. Some even glow in the dark. The great Khan would reward us if we captured some. I'm going to report right now. Do you want me to suggest your band be added to the escort detail for the ambassadors?" The scout asked.
"The last group was butchered by the skull tribe, and their hand and feet were sent back to the khan," Valigael said.
"These aren't savage skull tribe but a gentle ivory forest tribe. Once they see the pantheon, they will beg us to join. I'm sure they will give themselves to you to sweeten the deal." The scout said.
It had been a while since she had any. The skull tribesmen were ugly with their flat chests and angry eyes. She preferred to fill them full of arrows and call it a day. However, the vision of a tribe of beautiful elf maidens with ivory skin and gentle hands pleased her.
…
I stood over a deep hole in the earth filled with seawater and floating golden river lilies. Like stone gargoyles standing atop a tall building, dozens of forest avatars remained frozen as they sucked in starlight and fed that power to their master, the forest god. The corpses of hundreds of different silver animals stared back at me from the bottom of the hole. A few elves even laid at the bottom forever, a part of something more. Some of them moved connected to each other in an unfathomable way. Unfortunately, the forest god wasn't something I got a handle on quickly. Instead, bark and fish scales grew across the edges of the pit, revealing the true nature of the hole in the ground.
Even if God only meant really strong here, I wasn't at the level of these gods. Try as I might, my power level only increased by increments.
I could feel the monster as it slowly adapted to the power of the sea god. It wasn't just adding a little power to itself; it had absorbed all of the sea god's potential. Once the forest god awoke, I estimated its PL could be between 500-700, by what I felt. That power increased a little every day until this last week. I had grown a hundred points in a day. If I wanted to get a handle on it, maybe it would be better to kill it while it's assimilating the power. But, of course, the hundreds of avatars guarding the forest god made that impossible.
That's where my problem comes in; how was I supposed to kill it. It wasn't the same as when I saw it last. The God's body wasn't a collection of trees any longer; it had become a hivemind of living beings who shared in its power. Moreover, the avatars had begun stealing elves from the village and tossing them in the pond. Did that mean the forest god was ready to emerge, or did it need more time?
I envisioned a plan that could work, relying on Zosimael's potions and the stolen flesh of multiple gods. A smile threatened to break across my face. Once again, I would rely on my regeneration to see me through the day.
"Leave my father be and follow close. I won't defend you if you trigger my father's macro immune system." Uriel said.
The avatar had agreed to help me since it wouldn't affect his father. "Why do you even want a piece of that god's useless shell?" Uriel asked.
"I think it could make a powerful weapon with the right amount of tempering," I said.
"Don't bother using it against father; he consumed the God that shell belonged to. The only part he couldn't eat was the shell." Uriel said.
We arrived to see a half-buried tree-covered mass of metal only partially glowing. I grabbed ahold of the mass and pulled with all my might, but it wouldn't budge. My hand hurt a little, but other than that, nothing. Finally, I punched it with island obliterating fist, and the metal sang a long sad tune. Still, it didn't so much as dent, much less crack. I turned to see the 6m tall tree man cross his arms in pure smugness.
Another blow capable of rocking the shell knocked a few beetles off it. Before I punched again, I saw something odd. The beetles had the same silver color shell as the metal. I gave the metal a closer look to see that it was covered in thousands of beetles, slowly eating away at it. That gave me an idea.
Instead of trying to take the metal itself, I knocked down a bunch of beetles and took them instead. Once they were safely in my inventory, I relaxed a little. While beating the gods still felt impossible, I might have a cool sword to improve my odds.
"Even if you manage to get the metal out of those beetles and make a weapon. You are still just an ant before my father. So remember to be humble before your betters." Uriel said.
I sucked in a breath and let it out. My power had increased, but I couldn't bridge the gap between mortal and God. Avatars were one thing, but I needed more time and another factor to fight a god and hope to win. But I didn't have to beat them myself; all I had to do was guarantee the gods would fight one another. They were heading this way, and the forest god would fight for its territory. Unfortunately, as intelligent as those kaiju were supposed to be, they were limited to instinct, just like any other animal, including humans.
…
Steam crackled in the air with the death of hundreds of beetles. A mass of silver metal hovered among the coals, hot and malleable inside the forge. A pair of iron tongs gripped the mass of molten steel, slowly lifted it from the coals, and placed it on an anvil. It didn't rest long before Samael ponded it with a hammer. With every hammer bang, the mass of metal looked less like a pile of bugs and more like a lump of steel. I watched her shape and bend the metal before reheating it.
Numerous training videos, thousands of SP for equipment, and time for training took Samael from a tribal to a competent blacksmith. Finally, after thousands of failures, a few halfway decent spear tips, and some good knives, she worked on what could be my god-slaying weapon.
She slowly worked runes into the metal as she beat the metal into the shape of a sword. It lengthened with every fold as she thinned the metal. When the weapon was set, it would channel qi better than any normal metal weapon.
"You really know how to make me work; you know I expect you to rub my back after this. I'm not talking about a little rub either you're going to use the oil you bought me and rub me for hours. Just the thought of getting rubbed down makes me want to hurry up."
I glared at her.
"Of course, I won't; this can't be rushed."
"Did you hear about the ambassador party?" I asked.
"Mother asked them to come to dinner. I think the ministers plan to jump ship and sell the rest of us into slavery. The warrior minister won't be found until tomorrow; well, pieces of her will be."
"So, no one wants to give in to the great Khan's mercy," I said.
"We've heard tales from the dolphin girls about what kind of badass the Dao Khan is said to be. She's the type of bitch who would kill us all for betraying my mother. Because who could trust women who sold out their leader. If we all decided to join them, that would be a different story."
"So, what's the plan? Are we going to offer tribute to the Great Khan and hope they don't decide to just take us over? With the number of gods they have under their control, surrender may be the only option for this tribe." I said.
"You're defective; they would kill you. Then, Elorael and I would be fucked and castrated," Samael said.
"What does that involve?" I asked.
"The great Khan would have us castrated to ensure we wouldn't impregnate any of her other flowers. Then, she would breed us like a moose in the rut until we were pregnant. After that, our children would become the equivalent of governors in this territory." Samael said.
I nodded my head. "That's what I thought, so it's best to remove the temptation from their hands then. Don't worry, I'll take care of this. Please have my sword ready in the next few days. I'm going to force the great Khan to attack me with her full strength." I said.
…
There weren't many actions more disrespectful to an ancient society than killing their ambassadors. But, of course, how I killed them would also matter. Even if they had a whole pantheon of gods chained to themselves, they were still a primitive race. Their weapons were tipped with rock or bone, and their sentries were just as drunk as the others. A few forest elves gave the rough riding elves of the plains some company. The sounds of lovemaking were in full swing when I made my way to their camp.
I grabbed the sentry's face, and for a second, she froze before I snapped her neck. My wet work continued with knives over throats drawing red rivers, and my steel blade cut clean. Samael had lovingly strapped my leather-wrapped handle to make it tight with no slippage. As a result, I could cut hundreds of throats and never slip once on my weapon. A few runes drawn into the blade made the blood drip off the weapon.
While I was busy, I hobbled the horses and planned to use them for breeding my own calvary horse. An arrow impacted my back but failed to pierce my Kevlar vest. I turned to see a tipsy Plains Tribesman fumbling to draw another arrow.
I crossed the distance instantly and delivered a gut-wrenching blow to her stomach. She puked and choked on her vomit. Someone ran out of the tent, and I threw a knife catching them in the side. I heard something shatter and knew my target wore ceramic armor. I watched her run for a horse and throw another blade. Just as she climbed up the saddle, my knife buried itself to the hilt in the horse's neck.
At a glance, my visor read her PL at 10. The one who shot the arrow had a PL of 13. While that was powerful, it still wasn't a threat. I kicked the elf's legs out from under her and watched her fall. She glared up at me.
"The Great Khan won't be fooled by the treachery of the skull tribe. She will see this for what it is, a sad attempt to stop the inevitable and end your rebellion against the ruler of this world." The elf said.
The ambassador gave up taking a horse and ran bowlegged for her life.
I flicked another knife and watched the blade hit just a little wide of the ambassador's head. A click from my tongue was all the frustration I allowed myself to show. I had one more knife, but it wasn't for throwing. So instead, I pulled my bow from my inventory and fired.
The arrow flew true and hit just where I wanted it. While it missed anything vital, it would still slow the ambassador down. Once I was sure she was gone, I continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.
"That would also work in my favor. Really the only thing I don't want is peace. It would be great if I can make the Great Khan mad enough to charge." I said.
"What are you, a degenerate mutant. Your ears aren't pointed, and I don't see any scarring." The elf said.
I slit her throat and moved on to double-check the survivors to make sure I didn't miss anyone and collected my steel knives. After blabbing my plan, the worst thing I could do was not do a thorough job of making sure everyone was dead. Some people might say my actions make me a monster. But if everything falls apart and I don't get a single kill, it's my ass on the line. Besides, getting the Great Khan to charge down my throat was the easiest way to ensure the pantheon joined in the attack.
Once I was sure everyone was dead, I stacked their heads into a pyramid. While that was monstrous, it would drive my message home. The forest tribe would see it and realize there was no going back, and without someone to blame, we would legitimately go to war. So now all I had to do was make sure the skull god died. The last thing I wanted to do was let the thing slink away.
…
I yawned and stumbled towards the door to the familiar sensations of Mekael's qi. The second I opened the door, she barged in and slammed the door behind her. The woman paced back and forth before growling and shaking her hands. She plucked mango-looking fruit from my kitchen table and took a bite. Mekael still hadn't said anything, only ravenously eating more of the fruit. When she grabbed another, I started to feel a little worried.
My schedule today was rather full. It was still early though Samael hadn't come to bed which meant her message came before anything else today. She wouldn't let me off the hook just because she was tired. I wasn't about to skimp on rewarding her after beating my sword together. I just hoped the calcified forest god wood made a good handle.
"Can you hear me; I said the ministers have fucked us." I nodded my head. Everything was going according to plan. They would try to hold on to power, panic, and force the civilians to usurp them in a bloody revolution just before a battle for survival against the pantheon. But of course, I still had to ensure the skull god died first.
"Who did those idiots give dementia to now?" I asked.
"That's been neutralized. Zosimael finished identifying the moth whose scales cause dementia-like hallucination. Teams of warriors are moving throughout the forest to kill them all as we speak. The colony within the tribe has been neutralized as of last night and burned. Unfortunately, the poisoning of our elderly by a joint plot between the priesthood and the ministers is the least of our concerns." Mekael said.
"The ministers either killed the ambassador party or the skull tribe are invading because we listened to the party. Which is it?" I asked.
"I'm afraid it's the former. We could survive a skull tribe attack, but a whole group of gods ruled by the whims of a single elf is beyond us. The ministers denied it even under torture. We managed to track down the ambassador, and with her dying breath, she claimed a mighty warrior from the skull tribe attacked them." Mekael said.
I couldn't help but think Mekael was lying to me. My arrow hadn't hit anything vital, especially not on a cultivator. She shouldn't have died; that much was certain. Mekael would only give me misinformation if she suspected me. Or someone could be feeding her misinformation. There was also a slim chance I made a mistake.
"I want to see the body," I said.
That would settle things easily enough. If the ambassador had been decapitated, then the body wasn't that of the ambassador, which would mean Mekael was going against me. On the other hand, none of the guards still had their heads, so everything should fall into place once I saw the body.
My eyes widened at a sudden realization. What if I hadn't counted the bodies correctly, and one managed to sneak away while I was distracted? She could have snuck away and heard everything. The body Mekael was about to show me would have to be a fake no matter what. If it wasn't decapitated, then it had to be the ambassador. There was also a chance she died from an animal attack.
…
The body had been found by a young warrior's patrol; in other words, girls no older than 15 found the body and quickly reported it. If the young warrior's patrol found the body, the ambassador hadn't made it very far, bowlegged and shot. My arrow was nowhere to be seen or omitted from the report I was given. All they needed was my arrow, and they could prove I killed the ambassador. There were claw marks all over her body and several bite wounds. The ambassador had stumbled upon a nest of raptors who fled when the warrior guiding the young warrior patrol stepped into their territory.
My arrow might have been dislodged early on, leaving it on the ground for anyone to find. But, we killed the ambassador of the Plains Tribe, and our path has already been decided. Mekael didn't want to say it, so I would.
"We should aide the skull tribe. It doesn't matter that we didn't kill them at this point. No amount of wishful thinking or tribute will matter now. If we don't stand firm with the skull tribe now, we will fight the Plains Tribe alone." I said.
Beating back the Plains Tribe wasn't my objective; so long as I saw what the pantheon could do and the skull god died, I would be satisfied. Then, all I had to do was keep my eye on the prize and stay out of most of the fighting.
"That won't work; the skull tribe is already done for. Before we can gather our greatest warriors and march them out of the forest, the skull tribe perish." Mekael said.
"Then let's send scouts to observe the battle; I'll join them to ensure the information gets back," I said.
Mekael wasn't having it. The elf's face blushed pink before she turned away.
"With the ministers under house arrest and the chief still recovering, Elder Zosimael is running things. I use her authority when I make decisions. She wouldn't want you to throw your life away just to get some information." Mekael said.
I reached out and took her hand. She let me hold her while I ran through the possibilities on the inside. At the end of the day, I didn't think they suspected me, or if they did, they were willing to overlook it. Honestly, if there were no survivors, it was likely the ambassador's death could be blamed on the skull tribe. That would ruin my plans. I needed to not only do some damage but humiliate the Great Khan.
Of course, if Mekael wouldn't let me follow the scouts, I would go myself anyway. I couldn't afford to let this opportunity pass me by. Mekael was a mighty warrior and a great training partner. I gained more training in a few months than in years by fighting her with my weights on. She knew the meta and what tactics worked and which were useless. That meta changed when the Plains Tribe was involved. Long-range God Light techniques became very viable, along with a rune buff to boost my damage. I could, under the right circumstances, even hurt a god.
If the Khan's information team was any good, using a God Light technique would expose our side in this battle. That would make showing my hand worth it.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
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