The two magmic angels came to a sudden stop in front of me. Up close they were enormous, easily more than twice the size of a human man. They had glimmering red bodies, a darker red than magma.Both of the ridiculously warm ent.i.ties floated over the crater they had flown out of. They seemed to suspend themselves in mid-air as their wings weren"t flapping yet they floated, undisturbed by gravity.
I studied their insectoid bodies. I hadn"t expected volcanic angels, creatures of magma and heat, to take on such a familiar form.
The creatures studied me as readily as I studied them. They had all of the strange and distinctive features of b.u.t.terflies, including their compound eyes. In both cases, their eyes were fixated on me. We stared at each other in silence, until I broke said silence.
"What are your names?" I asked, looking at both of the ent.i.ties with a curious, almost childlike joy. I was excited to have encountered angels.
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Angels were a species of extraplanar beings. In the mythic age of the old G.o.ds, they were a species of creatures who loyally served the G.o.ds.
What I knew about them was actually fairly limited. I knew that these angels were volcanic angels, creatures of magma, and ash. I also knew that these specific beings were volcanic angels with wrecked minds, which was in and of itself a mystery waiting to be solved.
These specific angels had now recovered to a functional state. And that was why I was here, engaging with them. I wanted to meet them, and to truly recruit them.
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"We lack names. Please give us names." One of the creatures replied, a few moments after I asked the pair of ent.i.ties for their names.
"Hmmm..." I replied, making a sound rather than actually speaking. It took me a moment to come up with names I actually liked.
"Your name is Lahar, and your name is Pagsabog." I told the creatures, speaking confidently after spending a few moments in contemplation. The flying creatures considered my names for a few moments. As they did so they began to approach me.
As I was doing this, my projections were busy. One of them was readying itself for another day of lessons with Dr. Cortes, and another was inside of my tower. The one inside of my tower was making itself truly useful.
It was finishing up the requirements to earn the first tier of influence over the subdomain of conjuration. It had been hard at work for nearly three hours now, inching towards the completion of that subdomain.
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The conjuration circle within a small room within my tower was a beautiful thing. It was made from Sombra"s own blood, and it gave the otherwise drab room a splash of color. I was accompanied by another demon as well. A newcomer.
Sombra was beside me, staring at her work with masterful attention to detail. She visually inspected every centimeter of her blood-circle.
Conjuration circles were finicky things. Even a single mistake would make an imperfect circle, and imperfect circles gave those who were summoned by them the freedom to step out and lash out at anyone who called them to this world.
I allowed Sombra to do as she wished, but I had already used this circle. I had already summoned and unleashed several demons using this circle. I sent them to various parts of the world, most notably the city of Aronms and the city of San Gerardo.
I had summoned eleven demons. Three of them were succubi who like the other succubus I had summoned freely acknowledged me as their king once they received the notification that they were being summoned. I then proceeded to unleash them on the city of Aronms, where they were to investigate the n.o.ble families.
Five of my demons were incubi. Incubi were handsome, powerfully built male s.e.x-demons. The other three were different, stranger types of demons.
One of them accompanied me. It was a beheman, a powerful demon of sloth with the lower body of a serpent and the upper body of a corpulent male human. It held a warhammer in its hands, and its long serpentine form took up s.p.a.ce around the chamber we found ourselves in.
The other two had already left to enact their duties. One of them was an asesinato demon, a demon of murder and bloodshed. I had gifted the bizarre being a human form, and commanded it to begin to search for murderers who could easily be converted to my worship.
The other demon was an arana demon, a gigantic spider. I gave that one a simple task: awaken spiders. I gave it a stick that I enhanced with my awakening ability and commanded the creature to build up an army of spiders dedicated to me, and bestowed the beast with the cleric cla.s.s. The creepy thing crept off to exact my wishes.
All in all I had summoned fourteen demons. I just needed to summon one more. I was quiet as I thought about what to summon, as I wanted it to be something special. I spent a minute in silence before I heard a quiet voice.
"What are you thinkin" about?" The voice asked. It was a voice that came from within me, so I knew it was the voice of a domain or subdomain. I replied to it mentally.
"I"m thinking about what is the final sort of demon I ought to summon." I explained. A second later the voice had an interesting suggestion.
"Is that so? Why not summon a pesadilla demon? Pesadilla demons are nightmare demons. Making them into your followers will increase your ability to torment mortals and to make societies more vulnerable to your influence." The voice suggested. It was an interesting suggestion.
"Nightmare demons? Hmm..." I thought, in response. I mulled it over, before realizing that the voice, most likely the dream domain, had made a really good point. Having an army of nightmare demons at my disposal would give me an incredible tool with which to weaken mortal societies.
"You know what? I like the idea of an army of nightmare demons." I told the voice, speaking to it in the confines of my mind. The voice began to chuckle, sounding rather sinister.
I quietly activated the ancient spell I had used to summon the other demons and chuckled when I saw the same notification I had grown familiar with over the last few hours. It was a simple thing, asking me to describe the sort of demon I wanted to summon. I was a simple man, with simple tastes.
"Call to a demon that seeks to inflict nightmares on mortals and is willing to do so at my command. One would enjoy tormenting families, and would happily serve as an attack dog of the G.o.d of nightmares." I commanded the notification, speaking to it with the familiarity one would speak to an old friend.
A few moments later a purple smog abruptly began to come out of the ground on which the circle was etched. And within the circle, within the smoke, a hazy form began to come into being. The creature in the smog was a strange, amorphous being.
The creature in the circle didn"t have a physical form. Its body was a misty thing, indistinct and incorporeal. I could sense it, and it could sense me, but I knew that I reached out to pull it out of the circle I"d be pulling on demonic gas.
The creature looked, in so far as it could anyway, in my direction. I chuckled and walked over to the circle. My two servants, Sombra and Servente, watched me curiously. They gasped when I placed my hand on the circle, and in doing so undid the thing"s protective properties.
The creature in the smoke began to scream. The sound was one of triumph and elation, utter delight at the freedom it had just acquired. The sound the creature made was like the sound of boiling water. As it made that noise I received a new notification.
[Conjuration subdomain details:
The conjuration subdomain... This subdomain is your first real tether to the other dimensions that exist in this universe and in other universes.
Conjuration magic is potent magic that creates portals and pathways that can link together even other dimensions. They cannot, at your current level of influence anyway, tether together separate universes.
Conjuration magic allows you to call to extraplanar beings and summon them to serve you. You can conjure phantoms, which are mere shades of actual extraplanar beings, or you can conjure actual extraplanar beings. Conjuring actual extraplanar beings is an act of great power, and it brings real beings over from other dimensions. You"ve already felt its power.
This school of magic is tied to your alignment and the alignments you have influence over. This is because extraplanar beings, true extraplanar beings, are ent.i.ties whose alignments directly influence them in real, material ways.
Each alignment has a specific type of extraplanar it holds influence over. These extraplanars are fanatically devoted to G.o.ds of their alignment and serve them zealously.
To gain influence over this subdomain, use its powers and summon more extraplanar beings. Gaining their worship also helps increase your sway over this subdomain.
Conjuration subdomain pa.s.sive powers:
Multidimensional portals: You can now create portals that link together separate dimensions. These portals still can"t link you to other universes, but any dimension that is tied to this universe can now be traveled too.
Angelic creation: You can create angels. This synergistic power fuses the domains of life, faith, souls, and the subdomain of conjuration to create angels. For now, you can only create minor angels, such as angels of agriculture, and angels of the mind.
Angelic knowledge: As a G.o.d with power over the domains of life, knowledge, souls, and the subdomain of conjuration you now possess knowledge about angels.
In the distant past angels were the legendary servants of the G.o.ds. They were the feared or loved messengers and warriors of the G.o.ds who enacted their wills in the mortal worlds. Angels cannot hide from your detection abilities, and you can immediately learn what kind of angels dwell int he worlds you can detect.
Angelic summoning: You can summon angels. With this power, you can construct angelic summoning circles.
Banishment: Upon striking an extraplanar being you can banish them to their home dimension. This power can be resisted by greater extraplanars, and cannot be resisted by lesser extraplanars. If you opt to do this your strike is rendered harmless, even if the banishment is resisted.
Demon knowledge: Synergistic fusions of powerful domains like knowledge, chaos, and evil, allow you to more effectively study demons and gain knowledge of their strange home. Demons cannot hide from you, no matter their power. The Heart of Darkness, the home of demons and other... stranger beings, is now also something you can study.
Devil summoning: You can summon devils. This power teaches you to construct infernal summoning circles.
Leye knowledge and summoning: Leyes are a cla.s.s of lawful extraplanar beings. They can be of any alignment on the good-evil axis.
Leyes are servants of G.o.ds of law. They are fanatically devoted to such beings and are incredibly intelligent, orderly ent.i.ties. You can now summon them.
Pain-bringer knowledge and summoning: Pain-bringers are a cla.s.s of evil extraplanar beings. They run the gamut in terms of their other alignment-position. They can be summoned by you.
Pain-bringers are servants of G.o.ds of evil and pain. They worship and serve such G.o.ds eagerly. Morningstar pain-bringers are the lowest cla.s.s of such creatures, and they will eagerly serve you once you summon them.
Salvaje summoning: Salvajes are the chaotic cla.s.s of extraplanar. Like pain-bringers and leyes they worship and serve G.o.ds of chaos. This power is their equivalent of the powers for pain-bringers and leyes.
Cla.s.s granting: You can grant your followers the "conjurer" cla.s.s.
Conjuration subdomain active power:
Phantom army: Once per week you can conjure an army of phantoms of up to a hundred phantoms to serve you. This army lasts up to an hour and a half and follows your orders for as long as it exists.
Phantoms are semi-corporeal copies of extraplanar beings. They serve you eagerly, and loyally.
Conjuration subdomain blessing and curse details:
If you bless someone who has the conjurer cla.s.s they can summon stronger creatures and more easily bargain with those they summon to acquire their services. If you curse them then they lose some of their summoning abilities and creatures they summon are harder to bargain with.
If you bless an extraplanar being with this subdomain their ties to this dimension are strengthened, granting them increased power, hitpoints, and increasing the experience they gain while here. If you curse an extraplanar being with this subdomain they are weakened. Their power decreases, they begin to suffer daily hitpoint damage, and lose the ability to recover naturally from wounds.]
I chuckled as I read through the notification. This didn"t quite increase my own power, but it was an extremely handy subdomain that greatly diversified the sorts of potential servants I had at my disposal. And even in reading through the notification, I had just received I gained a good deal of knowledge about both my powers and the sorts of extraplanars that existed in the multiverse.
The nightmare demon "looked" in my direction, in so far as it could, curiously. As did Sombra, and Servente. I looked back at the trio of demons and chuckled.
"I just gained new powers. And it"s all because of you all." I told them, obviously happy. They shivered, unsure of what new powers I had just gained.
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As I received the conjuration subdomain"s notification the pair of angels floated just a few meters away from me. We had silently observed each other for a few minutes. The angels turned to face each other and then spoke.
"We accept our names. Do you have any orders for us, Althos?" They asked, speaking in a strange and otherworldly unison. I smiled at the angels, and considered their question. It was an important one, and one that I knew I needed to answer carefully.
The system once remarked that these creatures were in all likelihood the strongest creatures I had met to date. They were immensely powerful and eerie ent.i.ties, and I needed to be careful with them so as to not misuse their power or accidentally cause meaningless destruction.