NOVEL NEXT 55
Taal and Rhya stand at the border of another divine domain. Snow has started to fall as winter is on the horizon. But none of it passes an invisible line dividing Drakwald into two. The leaves of the trees within the domain are gold and faintly glowing. Still vibrant amidst the coming winter. Both Rhya and Taal felt a little bit like home but couldn't help but shake the eerie feeling. In front of them is still nature, yes, but unnatural at the same time. Invasive, resilient, and gnawing at the world itself. Even now the invisible line expands, swallowing Drakwald into its domain bit by bit to the point of the expansion cannot be seen by the naked eye. Then they sense the God of its domain approaching. Winds carrying faintly fragrant scents flow from the golden domain and the leaves of Drakwald rustles as if recoiling in fear.
The sound of giant hooves resound. Then Rhya and Taal met her. A daemon they have met before and even work together. But very different. One thing for sure, she is now a Greater Daemon with 4 meters tall height and a new pair of horns. Both Rhya and Taal also shed their mortal disguise, growing in size and showing their true form. Elk horn grows from Taal’s head and his already long beard grows even longer. As for Rhya, her hair grows longer, becoming white on the base of her blond hair as winter has come. The two Gods now stand at comparable size with Valariel at 3 meters tall.
“We met again.” Valariel starts
“Groveling much to ascend?” Taal starts, clearly hostile
“Just ascended today and no. I do not serve them.”
“That’s you doing three days ago?” Taal continues, clearly not trusting her
Three days ago? I start to think about what he could be referring to.
“My herd’s battle with Malagor and Taurox?” I tilt my head and ask
“What? Why?” Rhya ask confused
“I don’t know. I just noticed a town burning and my scouts tell me that Taurox and his entire minotaur tribe are moving directly to my herd. Malagor herded them to attack me and challenged me to a magic duel.”
“Where’s both of them now?” Taal asks
“Dead.”
Rhya and Taal look at each other. Both of them know of Malagor and Taurox. The former is the scourge of the God’s temples and priests. Finding new believers and sanctifying their temples again are hard and spend quite a bit of power. While the latter continue to ravage Talabecland, the province where there are mostly believers of both Rhya and Taal. Even Taal’s Fury, the knights on demigryph, have a hard time dealing with them. Now both of them died by an upstart daemon that claimed to not serve the Chaos Gods. Both also remember that Valariel offers an alliance. But still both are hesitant to trust as this suspiciously felt like another of Tzeentch’s schemes. Not to mention there is still the problem with the Changeling.
|
Slaanesh and Tzeentch trial: All participant leaves the stage Theatre of the Masque suspended |
|
2nd place reward get: 100 souls Facsimile level up 10 attribute points |
100 souls. Just what I need to upgrade the Herdstone. Then I look back at the two Gods.
“Anything else? My offer for alliance still stands. For now.”
“For now eh?” Taal rebukes again. He wanted to say more but stopped by Rhya who looked at me for an explanation.
“I am still a daemon. They still have power over me. The question is if I can break away first or not.” I offered the best I can
“And you can break away if we accept?” Rhya asks
“I don’t know.” Taal looks done with the discussion. “But I certainly will have more time and chance if so.”
“And a knife on our backs until you break away. If it is even possible.” Taal finishes.
“Or that.” I also said, I have no excuses if the Four really made a very enticing offer for betrayal or even forced me to do so as I still have no power to outright defy them unscathed. I can’t even give any reassurance that I won’t betray them.
“Perhaps we might give our answer after we take care of the Changeling.” Rhya answers diplomatically.
“The Changeling is gone.” I said after debating on whether I should or not. But I think it is better to tell them so that they are not stuck in a wild goose chase when the goose already flies away.
“And how do you know this?”
“I was notified of it just now.” Then both looks at each other again
“It’s alright if you didn’t give your answer now.” I conclude the discussion for now. “As long as you didn’t attack my herd and I haven’t tried to fight you yet, the offer still stands. I bid you farewell for now.” Then I stand still and eye both of them. Both get my attention and leave peacefully for now. The next meeting will either be a turning point or the last or even just another time wasted. Talks for alliance are always tedious and time consuming.
With both left, I then depart for my second destination. Cloaking myself with an invisibility spell and boost to fly quickly to the Moot.
—
Meanwhile at the Moot
Furlong is buried in the land of his family. Dying by overeating is quite common for the halflings. The procession is accompanied by a quarter of the Mootland populace that can attend. Including the ogres, and terrified Averlander who managed to keep their faces neutral as they stand besides the golden beastmen that is clearly larger than they usually were. The beastmen are not acquainted with this sort of ritual. Some even questioned in whispers on why Furlong’s corpse was not eaten by the others. A small sign of respect as Furlong has out eaten a minotaur and an ogre. Fortunately there's a language barrier so the humans who heard the whisper didn’t understand.
Furlong’s burial marks the end of the festival. Already the golden herd started packing again and to resume their journey. The halfling of course emptied one of their warehouses and gave it out to the herd, this way they already have an empty warehouse for the next harvest and no need to build another one. Some of the halflings even gave out some clothes to the still nude lesser daemons.
“What the fuck? How is this possible?” Valariel, still invisible and flying above, is genuinely confused. She reveals herself in all its glory and lands in front of Valeria who now wears human traveling clothes. The entire golden herd knelt in reverence.
“Mother! Congratulations on your ascension.” Valeria said as she look up
“I am surprised that you and the herd are welcomed by the halflings.”
“We stayed for a few days and joined their festival. Why didn't you tell us that the halfling worshiped you, mother?” she asks.
“No they are not. They worshiped Rhya.” I scanned around and saw the Robadel, halfling cook trying to hide behind an ogre. The only one that knows Rhya in my herd is that halfling. Is he smarter than I thought or all this is due to his stupidity? Regardless, this is a good development.
“But Rhya is a friend. So it's fine.” I quickly said as some of the beastmen started to become furious as they were lied to. What I said is technically not a lie. We are not enemies. Yet. This resulted in quite a clamor among the halflings.
“And this is for you.” I give Valeria the Horn of the Golden Mother. “This artifact will strengthen your entire herd. In case of emergency, you can blow the horn. I will send some help.”
“I am grateful for this gift, mother.”
“You can continue your journey to Cathay. There should be a trade road going there.”
—
He shambles back home. He can’t smell really well right now, but he remembers the way home. His throat is numb and itchy. In fact, so does his entire body and his body felt heavier. But that is irrelevant. Did his brother win the battle? He can’t remember much about the battle. Such are his thoughts as he shambles through. The clearing is near. Home is near.
The golden herd is on its way to recovery. Though now many if not all newborns have random mutations. Then a furious bellow tore through the calm at the edge of the camp. The golden herd moves as one to defend. There at the edge of a clearing is a shambling mound of rotting flesh. Heads upon heads upon heads. limbs rotting and melting into one then turned into maws of jagged teeth placed haphazardly on the rotting body.
Wolfe is here
Wolfe is home