บท 39: CH46-50 The Mystery Of Pantheon
It was hot, and ashes constantly fell in the skull lands. A venomous lizard nearly took a scout off, and it still followed us. Even after we washed out the girl's wound and wrapped her leg in a clean bandage, she grew weaker. It wouldn't be long before she fell, and the lizard got his meal. Every step forward weakened the girl and slowed the rest of us down. Finally, I turned to see more lizards gathered, following just close enough to keep their eyes on the little elf scout.
"Maybe we should go back; this venture was cursed initially," Sulimael said.
She was just another scout and now second to most useless. Traveling with a group of elven scouts slowed me down by a day already. I could sense the battle between the skull god and the pantheon. It would be over if we didn't move quickly, and our trip would have been wasted.
I pulled out my bow and put an arrow in each of the lizards as they ran for it. While a few scattered, I killed more than half of them.
"If you want to leave, then go. We are two days away from the village and one from leaving these lands. If you move quickly and reach the forest, the lizards shouldn't bother you. The panthers alone would make short work of them." I said.
An elf girl stepped into a hole, and the largest spider I've ever seen snapped her up and dragged her down. She didn't even have a chance to scream before she was gone.
One elf collapsed on the ground, and another fell into hysterics. I forgave them for being young and never seeing something like that before. Slowly I pulled my own shaking hand from my chest. My heart was hammering in my chest until I could hear it pounding in my ears.
"We can't slow down; we have a job to do for the tribe. Be sure to stay away from any holes." I stepped too close to a hole, and another spider grabbed me. The scouts froze, and I kicked the spider. A shriek filled the air as I stabbed into its abdomen with a steel-tipped spear. My hotkey added my long spear to my left hand in time to kill another spider before it could snatch up the captain. I felt like an old machine moving too jerky to be fluid, doing my tasks mindlessly.
One of the elves pointed her finger at me. "You could have saved Jalimael."
"Don't be stupid. I didn't know about the spiders until after she was taken. None of you knew about them either or could feel any qi from them."
"Presence concealment," an elf muttered.
"What was that the rest of us couldn't hear you?"
The captain sighed and stepped forward. "A century ago, there was an attempt to end the skull tribe once and for all. Two hundred warriors entered skull tribe lands, and only a hand full returned. None of them even made it to the capital. Many of the animals in this land naturally use presence concealment. It hides their qi making it impossible for us to sense them."
"This land is cursed, and we're cursed for coming here," Sulimael said.
"We need to get out of here, or none of us will make it." An elf said amid a stream of muttering confused voices.
"The Skull Tribe isn't undefeated because they're strong or brave. All they have to do is flee behind their walls, and eventually, the wilderness will take care of everything. But we aren't invaders when we reach skull tribe lands; they will welcome us as allies." The scout captain said.
When we began, there were 20 scouts, and now, we were 19. If those two dissenters left, we would be only 17. Worse, we were two days out by our current speed from our destination. The more we lost, the worse off we were. Predators that would have avoided us due to numbers would become bolder. Rations wouldn't last much longer either. Even with cultivation, food and water were just as necessary for elves as humans.
One of the elves upturned the last of her water, which was for her. She didn't have enough water to make it back, so she was dead unless we found another water source. Although my inventory water wasn't something, I stockpiled. If we didn't find a clean source of water soon even, I would be in trouble. My water supply was down to half, and we hadn't reached our destination yet. I could make it if I ditched the elves and ran for it.
We didn't make it far before a snake bit another girl, and she died a few agonizing hours later. At night when we made camp, we started a small fire with what little brush we could scavenge.
It was disturbing hearing the creatures move around just outside our firelight. I couldn't sense their qi relying on my new sense in the skull lands would only get me killed. The elves weren't doing much better dehydration had set in on a few. It wouldn't be long now until our numbers dropped again.
The following day 3 elves didn't wake up. Instead, we found several fat ticks on their bodies and horrible purple splotches all over their bodies. Wounds crusted over with yellow puss leaked from several welts on their bodies. They were the ones farthest away from the fire.
"We have to get out of here; forget the skull tribe. I won't be killed by bugs." Sulimael said.
"We have a job to do, and it's too late to turn back now. But if we can make it to the skull tribe, they can show us how to survive here. So everything will be ok if we make it to the skull tribe." The scout captain said.
I pointed out into the distance, where the ash pour died down. "That's our destination." Giants battled atop the active volcano. Sunlight glinted off the mirror shined finish of a god made of bone. Its skull was that of a dragon, with the curled horns of a ram and glowing golden eyes. It opened its mouth, and flames gathered within before it spewed forth a wave of its breath. Even tens of miles away, I broke into a cold sweat. The skull god was near twice the size of the forest god.
The dolphin emerged from the mountainside and blasted a black soot wave into the skull god's face. Once again, the battle was obscured, and there was nothing we could do to change that. I didn't dare risk Lotus at this stage; she was my greatest means of escape if everything went south. There was still time to kill the pantheon after the skull, and forest gods were beaten.
"We contacted the enemy and know they have already engaged the skull god. So this is our best chance to leave." Sulimael said.
The scout captain disabused her of that notion. "Our mission is to contact the skull tribe and coordinate a retreat with their remaining forces to our lands. If we leave now, we fail the mission, and the lives we lost would have been for nothing. I can't let that happen."
"If the Plain's Tribe has already made it this far, then odds are there are no skull tribe warriors left to ally with," I said.
"That isn't a chance we can take. If there is even one more ally we can get for this fight, our lives are worth it. We're only scouts." The scout captain said.
At least the scout captain wasn't lazy; I could respect her for that. But I knew the difference between an entirely mounted force and the defensive skull tribesmen. The odds were good; the horse archers would fool the shield wall out of formation with some false retreats and whittle their numbers down. Or I could be wrong. The horse archers might have had as terrible a time getting through this land as we did. But, honestly, I underestimated how shitty the skull lands could be.
We made our way towards the base of the volcanic mountains, and one of the scout's ears twitched. She turned her head to the side. "I hear hooves nearby." The elf said before an arrow lodged in her throat.
In moments we were surrounded, and one of the riders charged me. An arrow bounced off my neck as I ducked out of the way of a swipe from an ax. I returned with my hotkeyed long spear and stabbed the rider in the side before swapping to my ax to take out one of the horse's legs. The beast fell and rolled on its rider while blood poured from its stump. More arrows hit me uselessly. Their stone arrowheads were weak enough for my qi strengthened skin to shrug off. Moreover, unlike the forest and skull tribe, their weapons were sharpened stones instead of broken razor-sharp obsidian.
I threw a knife and caught one of the horses in the neck just before one charged into me. Then, more riders charged me, brandishing their heavy stone axes. While their blows could hurt me, every one of mine was deadly. Hooves smashed down on my stomach with nearly 2 tons of force, and instead of tearing my stomach into a bloody mess, I might get a bruise. Axes swung down in low decisive chops but bounced off or broke on my body. I punched and kicked, ripping through flesh and bone as I fought to get back up. While it might sound insane, my training had slowly taken me from a little above average to well into superhuman territory.
When I made it to my feet, a rider tried to get away. It felt familiar, like when I hit the ambassador with an arrow, and the wildlife finished her off. The wildlife in the skull lands was more deadly, if anything. I used my bow hotkey and pulled back an arrow. Before the rider vanished into the smog, my arrow flew.
More scouts from the Plains Tribe found us, and I started losing my elves one after the other. Finally, when the captain died, morale broke, and the elves mostly dispersed. Only Sulimael remained a flat-chested tomboyish elf with sandy brown hair and eyes so brown they appeared black.
I tossed her one of the water skins I found from the Plains Tribesmen.
She drank greedily while a question burned in my gut. "Why didn't you leave with the others?"
"I'm a scout, but that doesn't make me dumb. We were sent here so Mekael could show she was doing something while the warriors prepared. I don't mind being a sacrifice for the tribe but don't treat me like I'm too stupid to know what that means." Sulimael said.
I felt a little like a dick bringing them with me. Mekael kept insisting they come, and I didn't know the land. I've always been terrible with directions so letting them come along was a no-brainer. I didn't think the land itself would be such a barrier.
"Sorry, I didn't want any of you to come with me. This would have been easier if I had gone alone. Then none of you would have to die in this far-off land." I said.
"Are you saying we would have died in our homeland instead?"
"You're smart for a scout; how old are you fourteen fifteen?"
"I'm 13 and new to the role. Mekael chose me for my skill in stalking prey. I'm the quietest hunter in our tribe."
"In just another month, your captain would have made young warrior and been out of the scouts. Most elves your age would still be initiates; how did you make scout early."
"You could say I wanted it more. I thought I could keep the edge if I advanced faster than everyone else. Until you came along, I was going to become Mekael's apprentice. That fell through, and now we're at war."
I nodded; I flapped my wings and caused a tsunami without meaning to like a butterfly. The world has limited opportunities and resources that I take someone else won't have. At this rate, she was going to die. I wasn't going to kill her, but I couldn't take care of her and get her back safely; I could barely care for myself.
My reply couldn't be anything but hard. "Don't expect me to apologize. Thanks to Mekael, I gained a lot of power in a short time. Without her, I wouldn't have become nearly as strong as I have."
"With the amount of time she gave you, a hundred initiates could have become warriors. She trained with you some days from morning to night and hunted with you in the evenings. You could have trained someone after your duel, but you only sought to raise your strength even more. Now, look at us. We need an army of well-trained elves, and all we have is one powerful degenerate."
"Life isn't fair, and we didn't know about the invasion of the Plains Tribe until recently. Maybe we would have been better off focusing on the young instead of ourselves. We'll never know this isn't that timeline." I said.
"I don't know what that means; your words aren't making any sense to me," Sulimael said.
Explaining timelines and multiverse theory to a primitive without a written language or context would be impossible. So, I settled on what I could do to help Sulimael survive. "Keep up, and maybe you won't die. But, I can't make any promises because I have a job to do."
The ground changed from hard black soot to a porous black rock lit up by slow lava flows. The charred bones of dozens of horses dotted the lands, and the eyestalks of strange creatures poked out of the deep lava pools. Sulimael grabbed my shirt and tugged it on. I grabbed her and leaped higher into the mountain away from the trail.
A rider galloped down the mountain, only for the monster in the lava pool to leap out and catch her horse's neck in its giant pincer. The smaller claw went to work, first killing the rider then tearing away chunks of horseflesh. In moments bone was visible. When I felt like we could relax, the hoof of a giant horse crushed the crab into paste. Hundreds of smaller horses, each with riders, followed the god up the mountain. We stared up as hoof over hoof, the giant horse made its way up the mountain. If everything went well, this would be the end of the Skull God, and an objective would be complete without me having to lift a finger.
I grabbed Sulimael and ran for one of the horse god's hooves. Each hoof was roughly the size of a supermarket, and each step shook the volcano and exposed lava flows. As the horse god climbed the mountain, more lava flows poured out, giving me little choice. Without my weights on, I was relatively light. I could move much faster than a horse at full gallop. Elves, on average, with their breathing techniques, could run around 30mph with near-endless stamina. One could jump nearly 12ft high from a standing position. I could triple that with ease. When I ran and jumped while holding Sulimael sack of corn style, I traveled nearly 100ft.
We smacked hard into the horse god's leg, and I barely caught a handful of the horse's hair. My elf companion jolted off my shoulder but managed to grab my leg. I froze between reaching out to help her and holding my own grip. After a moment, I realized she wasn't falling and grabbed ahold of the horse's hair with both hands and began climbing up.
"Where are we going?" Sulimael asked.
"The easiest way to kill a god is from the inside."
I stared at the chains running through the god's body even as I said that. There was something about them that felt off even for God controlling chains. I couldn't put my finger on it, so I climbed closer to one. Fortunately, we were less conspicuous than a flea on a horse's ass.
A giant flea leaped from beneath the horse god's fur and bit me on the side. I crushed it, and more came. Even as I killed them and climbed towards the closest opening, more attacked. They were no bigger than my hand, but they bit like a Pitbull. Finally, we walked up the thigh just under the folded bouquet of green feathers. There sealed with one of the chains was the horse god's giant black vagina, and above that round and puckered shut was its giant horse ass hole. Above it, grey and plump were several massive golden ticks fat from god blood.
I tossed my knife at one and watched the blade bounce off its target. Then, after biting my lip, I formed a new plan. I gripped the horse god's fur with my toes and stood up. My heels rested against the horse god's skin, and I pointed two fingers at the ticks and held my arm steady with my other hand.
A bright green light gathered at the end of my fingertip. I engaged my qi actively, powering up my PL from its normal 20 to 60 as the qi at my fingertip stabilized. Just holding the power at the end of my finger, it felt like the power could blast me back. I gripped the hair between my toes tightly and aimed for the ticks.
God light techniques had a lot of kick behind them, especially if they were long-range. Usually, only priests and the chief's family could use those techniques reliably. They also had a massive stamina cost and took years to perfect. Most elves couldn't use the technique more than once or twice a day. I was different. After taking multiple potions and eating the flesh of gods directly, my cultivation potential had significantly increased. When my senses developed to the point where I could sense light and practice the technique, I could already use the technique three times. After months of using it, my number had increased from 3 to 5, and soon my number would increase again.
I fired my beam and held my ground as the air roared. Greenlight cut and scorched the ticks as gallons of blood poured out of them and vaporized as my technique burned everything it touched like a death ray. When I finished, the parasites were burned up, leaving slowly healing skin in their wake.
The horse god's anus twitched as its tail fanned back and forth. Soon the wounds from the parasites were gone, and I took out my phone. I made sure to get myself in the picture and took a selfie with the horse god's giant divine ass and pussy in frame.
Thousands of SP rolled in after that. It seemed there were a lot of fellow people of culture online. If those numbers kept going up, I might be able to afford some of the excellent stuff. But, of course, I wasn't done yet; there were plenty of pictures that could be taken.
Sulimael and I took a path of the tiny hairs leading to the horse god's cunny. This was going to be something messed up.
"I'm tired. I don't know if I can do this." Sulimael said.
"You're breaking my heart. The last stop on this crazy train was at the volcano's base. If you had left, you would have had the same chance as the others to get back." I said.
"This is insane; how can you take done a god much less several gods."
"Gods are practically invincible when fought directly. They're massive mobile fortresses of flesh and bone. Attacking them from the outside is impossible. But if you attack them on the inside, we can take them down. They aren't so tough if you know where the strike." I said.
"I don't have your faith. To me, the gods are impossible to beat." Sulimael said.
We made our way towards its large vagina, where the giant bone chains ripped through its flesh. I touched the chain, and the entire situation changed. I looked closer at the creature that bound the horse god with my visor on. The glasses were connected to the system, and they read pantheon. Suddenly everything made much more sense.
I pulled free another knife and sliced into the white flesh of the god parasite. The wound opened, and tentacles burst out of it; I sliced them off with my knife then grabbed ahold of the parasite. But, unfortunately, I only had one god light technique and nothing else to do any real damage to the slimy feeling monster.
"Disgusting, it feels like a slug," Sulimael said.
That was an interesting idea. I reached into my inventory and pulled out a five-pound bag of salt. Then I sliced open the parasite's flesh and poured salt into the wound. The white flesh of the creature bubbled and dissolved before my eyes before dripping down the black flesh of the horse god. A tentacle lashed out of the dying god fragment and hit Sulimael. I caught her hand and grabbed ahold of the massive labia in front of me. The massive organ clenched, and I threw Sulimael into the labia.
"Why did you bring salt but not water?"
"I always keep some salt in my hunting kit." Which wasn't entirely wrong. Before, I had misjudged the distance and hadn't bothered to bring extra water. If I had traveled alone, I would have been fine.
After she moved deeper into the horse god's sex, I moved the labia a little aside and took a picture of myself in the massive labia. If I thought I had a lot of SP before, my numbers instantly increased by 10k. The second we took a step deeper into the massive horse god uterus, the organ squeezed down on us.
"It's pulling us deeper." The elf girl cried.
"Don't panic; it's probably an involuntary reaction." So while on the outside, I tried to put on a calm face on the inside, I wasn't feeling quite so chill. I struggled to get up or move, but the slimy walls kept shifting and knocking me back down. Using a weapon to tear my way through would just leave a bloody mess, and as it turns out, I don't have to kill this god, just the parasite invading it.
"Greeting mortals, are you the ones who freed my backside from the parasite's control." A voice said from all around us.
"How can we hear you?" I asked.
The squelching sounds and the screaming elf girl drowned out all other noise. From my perspective, I shouldn't be able to make out anything.
"You are inside me, and through what you call qi, a resonance can be created between living beings. While normally my body moves while my mind is trapped, you have freed a small part of me. If you could free the rest of me, I would be forever grateful." The voice of the horse god said as we came upon a tiny orifice covered in a layer of mucus. "Crawl through and slay the parasites inside so it can no longer feed on my children; it will enable my immune system to activate its macro defenses." The deity said.
"How can something so weak control you?" I asked.
"The same way parasites can control you. Some can shut off parts of our immune system, stopping our ability to defend ourselves from larger invasive species. They are a malediction we can't defend against. Controlled by a woman who doesn't understand the powers she's playing with. I was once the god of her people, and like other gods, I slew those who invaded my territory. She infected me with a parasite's egg and used me to infect other gods. We were bent against our nature and made to work together and become a part of Pantheon." The horse god said.
"I get it you're not in control of your actions, and you would help me if you were. So fine, I'll help you. Just don't tell anyone I'm crawling around in her private parts." I said.
"Most mortals are incapable of hearing our voices. Our qi is too different from theirs, far too sophisticated. You are on the threshold of communication. Your mortal companion can not understand me." I turned my attention to Sulimael. She was screaming and clutching her head.
I squeezed around her, and the flesh around us undulated. "Careful, or after you free me, I might keep you in my private place as you called it." The horse god said.
I pressed my head through the cervix and into the womb. After stumbling in a new larger, less cramped area, I shined a light through by channeling god light to my fingertips. A green glow revealed the monster before me.
What looked like a massive bone chain with eyes wrapped around two giant floating tubes stared at me with a milky gaze. Without missing a beat, I shot across the womb and slashed open the parasite. One of its chains smashed against me like a striking snake, and I flew careening against a wall. The fleshy exterior stopped me just as the horse god's body shook.
"Be quick. I'm battling a god of bone and can not wield my full strength while being a part of the pantheon." The horse god said.
My hotkey put a bow and knocked arrow in my hand, and I fired repeatedly. Even after I filled the monster full of arrows, it didn't affect me much. Only salt seemed to do it any lasting damage. Tentacles sprang out of the monster's wounds and formed into smaller worms. I knew then what it was trying to do. A tidal wave of tiny worms fell upon me, and I equipped more sold and threw handfuls of salt at the worms.
One crawled up my leg, and I struck like a snake when I felt it near my ass. Greenlight exploded around me, vaporizing the closest worms, including the one in my hand. I sucked in a breath and let it out. I watched the worms fall limply on the ground; heat did the trick. I just needed a lot more heat, and after that AOE god light technique, I pulled out of my ass; when my ass was on the line, I felt ready to drop. My stomach rumbled, and the parasite in my hand smelled pretty good.
I could tell the qi within it was quite special. I sniffed the worm to ensure it was ok; it smelled like bacon. My glasses were ready nonpoisonous, so I took a bite. After the bite, my qi changed as I chewed and swallowed divine flesh. It wasn't pills or potions, just raw ingredients not enough to transform my body but enough to add another layer of complexity to myself.
The parasite attacked faster than before, unleashing long whipping tentacles. I put my hands up and kept my body small. A whip flashed, and I ducked almost too late. One slammed into my arm, and the force stunned me.
Several tentacles moved in unison and hit me from every direction. All I could do was keep my head protected and move forward. The only way I could win was to get close. A hotkey put a long spear in my hand, and I dipped the tip in salt on the ground and charged. I stabbed my spear into the deity's center of mass, and its long tentacles wobbled in the tubes it circled. I flung a bag of salt on it, and the creature knocked me back.
Pieces of the monster melted away as the womb walls squeezed down on us. As the salt melted away at the pantheon parasite, its strength dropped. With the womb shrinking, the salt slurry on the ground mixes with the monster, and it writhed in pain.
From my phone, I ordered a barrel of salt. The SP spent was nothing compared to winning this fight. I tore the barrel's lid off with an ax from my inventory and lifted the barrel high. The creature attempted to hoist itself out of the slurry, and I chased it using the squeezing womb walls to climb. When I ran in close, I threw some of the salt out of the barrel. It hit the monster to a cacophony of sizzling, melting flesh.
I reached out and gripped the mass of tentacles while holding the barrel over my shoulder and braced my legs. Then, the parasite slipped out of the hole. Salt spilled over my body and melted the tentacles when they attacked me. I dragged the monster out of the fallopian tubes and threw it into the salt and flesh slurry below. It sunk under then burst out, scrambling up the squeezing womb with melting tentacles. I dumped the rest of my barrel on it and watched the creature melt.
From the tubes above, man-sized round crystalline creatures poured into the womb.
"My former macro defenses won't do. You've given me all the sodium I need to make defenses capable of dealing with the pantheon." The horse god said.
I watched the round creatures slip through the horse god's flesh as more filled the womb. At least from what I saw, she would be ok. But, in a few hours, her new defense would destroy the pantheon in her body.
"You have done for me a great service, and I would like to repay you in kind. I would give you some of my blood and flesh. But the pantheon will never be defeated until Dao Khan falls. So take a bite of my flesh and climb out of me and up my back. Riding on my head, you will find the great khan." I nodded; winning here will make it much more difficult to kill the forest god. Though I could still ask the horse god to help me kill the forest god.
I walked over to the slowly clenching womb and searched for a wrinkle with a vein. By taking in this god's flesh as well, even if it wasn't enhanced by a potion, I could increase my power a little bit more. I took a bite from the horse god's womb, chewed and swallowed the flesh, and drank her blood until the bleeding stopped. Moments after I bit her, the flesh had already healed over.
After thinking about what I wanted to say, I gave the horse god a suggestion about her battle against the forest god.
My god light technique continued to bathe the womb in green light and helped me find the cervix. Once there, I poked my head through and slowly made my way through the mucus plug separating me from the uterus. I crawled over the passed-out Sulimael and made my way back to the entrance. I gripped the labia, slowly climbed up to the anus, and leaped to her feathered tail.
I stepped through the feathered forest to see a long back and what appeared to be a crown between the horse god's ears. The horse god reared up, and I quickly grabbed ahold of the fur below with my toes. A mighty hoof smashed into the skull god, nearly caving in its skull. The horse god grabbed the side of the skull god's head with its teeth and began shaking and ripping. Yet still, the crown remained between the horse god's ears. The skull god was sent hurtling down the mountain with a jerk while other gods chased it, blasting the skull god with lighting or massive fire blasts. Finally, the earth dolphin blasted the falling skull god with a blast of soot. When the horse god's hooves returned to the ground, I charged across its back.
The horse god jerked after running just past its withers, and I nearly flew off. The horse god's feathers spread wide and made a rattling sound. A golden glow covered the horse god, and I ran for the head. The once white fur turned golden and began to heat up. If I didn't' get to the crown soon, I would burn up.
I ran flat out on my toes, barely touching the ground long enough for gravity to take hold before I was off again. Thoughts of equipping shoes crossed my mind, but I would have to fiddle with my inventory, and I burn in the meantime. As the intensity rose, a massive halo of light appeared around the horse god, and I didn't know if I could make it in time.
"Dive beneath my mane; it will protect you from the blast." The horse god said. I had just reached the mane and dove under the golden strands when the blast hit. While it didn't burn me to a crisp instantly, the course scorching hair of the mane burned me the whole time. Then, for a couple of seconds, the blast exploded outward, hitting the skull god.
At this point, the objective the kill the skull god was complete. I stumbled out of cover and made my way up the mane over the neck where the great khan sat. The being who sat atop the horse god's PL read 300; that was the highest I had ever read from a mortal or avatar. I check my own PL, and it only read 23 after eating the meat of two other gods.
I tried to lower my PL as I approached but then turned its head to the side and met my eyes. Her eyes were blue, and her hair was a deep auburn. Her skin was pale to the point I could see her veins, but there was unmistakable hardiness to her. Even at a rested state, she could destroy me, and no amount of powering up would change that fact. Her chest was flat as a board but not barreled like the skull tribe. She wore a golden crown on her head and long flowing robes. Most surprising was the whip in her hand and the eyes of the parasite. Thorns covered the handle, and she wasn't shy about letting them pierce her skin. Spidery black veins covered the areas where the thorns poked through.
"If you want to kill me, you'll have no better chance than now." Dao Khan said.
"Dao, can I call you Dao? You're wrong; killing you right here would leave me at a disadvantage. But, I will admit it's an interesting decision to kill the skull god instead of taking control of it." I said.
"Interesting, so your qi sense extends quite far, rare among mortals. You are strong, almost like a young avatar instead of a mortal." Dao Khan held out his hand. "Join me and become one of my generals, and I'll give you a harem second to mine and control over a god."
"You are generous, but you are already in the palm of my hand. Have you received any reports from the ambassador you sent to the forest tribe?" I asked.
"No, but you are a stranger, and anything you say must be measured and weighed. Tell me what you know, and I will listen."
A smile spread across my face. "I killed your ambassador and their guards and blamed it on the forest tribe ministers."
Her eyes narrowed into slits. Then, faster than a blink, the whip struck, and I caught it between my fingers. "You have quite a lot of qi, but your body is frail. However, I'm sure you're fast compared to mortals and avatars."
"Are you concealing your qi?"
I placed a finger from my off-hand to my lips. "Now that would be telling. Qi can enhance your vessel, and there are techniques to enhance yourself further. I'm a warrior of the forest tribe, and our god is mightier than the skull god. Come at us with everything you've got; our trees are the size of mountains, lizards the size of avatars stalk our woods, and we have had plenty of time to prepare for you." I said.
A powerful aura surrounded Dao Khan, and she charged her whip with a crimson buff. Incredibly sharp crimson needles surrounded her weapon before she lashed out. One of the needles grazed my skin, and a wound opened and gushed out blood. More blood than I've ever bled before poured out on the spot as I stepped back to get some distance. It took a few precious seconds for my regeneration to stop the bleeding. She cracked her whip again, and I threw myself to the side but felt a wound open on my chest and bleed profusely.
Even with my regeneration and strong body, her qi was still a big fucking number when brought to bear. The crimson aura that covered her whip surrounded her body. I knew the buff would either increase her speed or make her strength something monstrous, probably both. So I pointed my fingers and unleashed a beam of God's light.
The smiling face of my opponent distracted me from the whip coming from my right. It seemed acting like a badass in front of the insane 300PL enemy was a bad idea. PL didn't equal physical strength; it was only the raw amount of qi she had at her disposal. If she had the right techniques to bring it to bear, I would be in trouble.
I made a mistake. Allowing any enemy to stack buffs was a bad idea. She seemed to teleport in front of me as I struggled to adjust my vision to her new speed. An ax appeared in my left hand to parry the lash from her whip, only for a blade of crimson energy to extend from her off-hand. I swung up a knife from my inventory, but the blade cut through the metal. I backed away; I felt her slash bite into me from elbow to shoulder.
Pain lanced up my arm as another lash from her whip bit into my Kevlar vest but failed to puncture too deep. I tried to stimulate my qi to its highest limit and felt my PL rise to 80. A green aura surrounded my body before expanding outward. The horse god's hair around my feet scorched, and the skin seared. She seemed to phase out of my view and appear a few feet out of my blast zone. My qi sunk lower than what it had been before.
Dao Khan held her off-hand up, and the qi blade she used to slice my arm turned into a lance. I felt something ram through my chest and looked down to see her spear had extended several feet. Strength left my body as the spear vanished and blood gushed from my wound. I slipped backward and started to roll.
…
The second I was off, the horse god Lotus swooped down and caught me in her talons. She flapped her wings and took me to the corpse of the skull god. Steam and smog filled the air heavy like a curtain falling on a play. Dao Khan could probably sense my qi even from the horse god. If she pursued that, was it for me. Then again, why couldn't she sense us before? I killed a couple pantheons, but she didn't say anything about that.
And I thought I was being ballsy. So, Dao Khan knew we were near and destroying some of her pantheon parasites, but she didn't care. Her power was near enough that of a god in mortal form. Dao Khan was arrogant. If she let me get a bite out of the skull god, who was I to turn down a free lunch.
"What if she can't sense qi?" Lotus asked.
"If that's the case, she was arrogant not to have any allies to assist her, or maybe that was why she offered to make me one of her generals," I said.
The second the skull god came into view, countless pantheon worms slid through its crispy burnt-out body. Lotus's upper mouth opened, and several beams of negative energy blasted out, striking the worms present. I felt her suck in a breath, and the power of her mana engine revved up higher. Several Plains Tribe soldiers aimed their bows up as she unleashed a powerful ice breath. A blue glacial beam blasted the ground, and a frigid mist expanded out from the beam. The mounted archers froze to death in a moment.
Lotus dropped me down on top of the body, and she found her place on the softer side of the skull god. We had to each what we could from the skull god's corpse and add some of its power to our own. The more types of god flesh we consume, the stronger we become. I cut into the wound one of the worms made and tore a piece of still sizzling flesh away.
After eating my fill, I added some flesh to my inventory. Zosimael could make a potion with the rest and increase its effectiveness.
The same could be done with the piece of the pantheon parasite.
I stared down at my chest to see the pink scar from my earlier injury. Eating divine flesh should help my regeneration; I would have died if not for all the divine flesh I've eaten.
That probably meant Dao Khan was also hard to kill. I didn't have any bleed or cursed weapons. Well, besides the undead, I planned to summon. That would have to wait until the right time.
"Have you eaten your fill?" I asked.
"I can eat God's flesh all day, and I love how it was cooked. Ya know, not that I'm complaining, but you made me an ice dragon." She said.
The massive empty sac of divine testicles clued me in on what parts she liked the most. The massive, blackened labia and vulva didn't do so hot either. Large dragon-sized bites covered those parts of the skull god, leaving only oozing bloody holes.
"I'll remember to learn some fire spells in the future to cook God flesh just the way you like it. We better get back, or the Plains Tribe will get there before we're ready." I said.
Spellcraft was something I hadn't invested any time into yet. It involved a complicated magical language that had to be encoded with magic. So it was complicated, especially compared to something simple like qi techniques. But, on the other hand, techniques only required a certain amount of divine flesh from the god from whom the techniques originated.
The second I hopped on her back, she took off and flew for the forest covering dozens of miles in moments. Whenever large birds of prey flew close, Lotus's second mouth opened, and beams of negative energy blasted the interlopers. She was amazing; her auto-detect negative energy curse worked like a dream. I'm glad I managed to fit that rune code into her AI.
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