"Ygaynth... What do I do with you?" I asked. I smiled at the ma.s.sive creature shortly after speaking. I wondered if the beast could sense its sanity slipping. My hand was still on its neck, and every second that pa.s.sed was a second in which I stole more of its sanity. The neck my hand was on was a thick thing. Sharp, serendibite-like scales covered and protected what I a.s.sumed was tough skin but the scales didn"t bother me.
The dragon spent a moment trying to shake my hand off, but it didn"t work. And since I wasn"t grabbing its neck this wasn"t cla.s.sified as an attack. This meant I could steal the thing"s sanity, all while it couldn"t attack me in return.
"Althos... What are you doing?" The dragon asked, fear and anger mixing into its voice. I looked up at the dragon and chuckled.
I could sense the creature"s emotions thanks to a new synergistic power I possessed. It was one from the mind domain, and I was grateful to it. It allowed me to sense the emotions of creatures affected by my powers.
"Well Ygaynth... I am preparing." I informed the dragon. I could sense even more fear begin to radiate off of the beast.
"What are you preparing for?" It asked me, moving from afraid and angry to just afraid. I was silent for a moment before I replied. I liked the silence. It built dramatic tension.
"I am preparing you." I told the dragon. It didn"t reply to this. Instead, I felt a tremor of terror from within the beast, which made its neck shake.
I legitimately wasn"t sure what I"d do with the dragon. That said, stealing away its draconic sanity and while doing so making the dragon a willing servant was a good idea no matter what path I chose.
________________________________________________
I didn"t let the dragon see the turmoil in my mind but my mind was a chaotic mess at the moment. I could distinctly hear a number of voices, none of which were mine, arguing.
"He should kill the dragon. After all, the dragon did commit unforgivable offenses. And the dragon can only die once." A domain, the death domain, muttered. It possessed a voice that was audibly ancient.
"I agree! Imagine the power he"d gain from reanimating an ancient black dragon? Even if he made it a zombie, or a skeleton, the beast would be among his strongest undead. If he took the thing"s soul and created a lich from it..." The necromancy subdomain added, giggling as she finished the thought.
"The dragon can be redeemed! It may not atone for its sins but he could use it as one of his champions in the fight against slavery. A living champion." Roared another voice. This was one I was unfamiliar with, but intuitively recognized as one of my newer domains: the domain of goodness.
"Death... You said that the dragon can only die once. That"s not true." Another domain, the domain of life replied. This caused the death domain to grunt in response, but the sound was a poor attempt to hide interest. Moments later the death domain did something else to reveal its interest: it spoke.
"The boy can already perform resurrections? Were you one of his initial domains?" Death asked, a moment later. The domain tried to hide its interest behind an annoyed tone, but wasn"t a good actor.
"No. Healing on the other hand..." The life domain revealed, and I could have sworn I heard the smile on the domain"s lips if domains even possessed lips.
"He was a natural-born healer? Now that is interesting. Has performed a resurrection yet?" The death domain asked, followed up by asking another question. This time it"s questions were answered by a subdomain.
"No. Not yet anyway. But to be fair, he still doesn"t know he can now perform multiple resurrections. He doesn"t know what the second tier of influence over me awards him." The subdomain of healing informed the "gathering" of domains and subdomains. It wasn"t done talking either.
"Resurrecting someone is... As you know, it"s hard. Initially, he could only do one every six months. The poor lad has only been alive for about twelve days. Not even half a month." The subdomain said, defending my hesitation. I grinned, appreciative of the words of the subdomain.
"He could interact with the dragon using me. I am great for making friends!" Another voice, a new one, told the "crowd" of domains and subdomains. This voice belonged to another new subdomain, the subdomain of fungi. It was one of the subdomains I had gained access too through my worldwide miracle, even though to do so the subdomain had had to change its quest.
The subdomain of fungi was another odd subdomain. It granted me considerable power, and its powers were all unsettling ones. Among other new abilities I had gained the power to generate infective and parasitic spores within myself and infect others with them. It was a powerful ability but also one that I recognized would s.n.a.t.c.h away a creature"s free will.
There was a part of me that wanted to test this power out on Ygaynth and have the creature spend the rest of its life clashing against those who continued to practice slavery. But I also recognized how odd it was to use such a power in the name of ending slavery. And I wasn"t unaware of the optics of my other powers either.
I recognized the strangeness of having an undead horde clash against those who practiced human sacrifice and slavery. That said, there was something humorous, to me at least, about using an army of the undead to liberate the living. And I liked the fact that slavers joined this army and thus spent their undeath working to atone for the sins they performed in life.
I was also aware of the brutality of my pa.s.sive decision to s.n.a.t.c.h away the sanity of Ygaynth. But I didn"t feel any guilt about this choice.
Ygaynth had ended countless lives as a "sane" member of his species and had shown no remorse. So far I hadn"t made the choice to kill the dragon and I wasn"t really s.n.a.t.c.hing away his freewill but even if I did, it could be argued that that would be a just punishment for the life-ending dragon.
I intended to leave the dragon changed. I still hadn"t decided just how changed I wanted to leave the dragon, but I did know I wanted to leave it unrecognizable.
________________________________________________
The beast in front of me was feeling an array of emotions. I sensed fear as the preeminent emotion in its heart, but there were a number of other things the monster was feeling as well.
The creature felt a small but growing calmness deep in its heart. I could recognize that it felt that this emotion was unnatural in some way. And it was. The calmness in its heart was due to my theft of its sanity. As its sanity decreased, its calmness increased because a growing part of it began to revere me. The part of it that revered me wasn"t at all afraid of me.
Another emotion it felt was anger. This anger had started off powerful and plentiful, but now it was beginning to fade away.
"I can feel the change in your heart. Can you feel it too?" I asked the dragon, smiling at it. The beast silently ignored my question, trying to cling to the anger and pride that lingered stubbornly in its heart. That was amusing so I decided to play with Ygaynth a bit.
I moved my head forward and gently kissed its neck. My lips met the cold and hard scales that protected the creature"s bare skin, but they offered no resistance to my powers. The dragon shivered and sighed breathily, surprising even me.
"Oh? I didn"t think you"d be able to actually feel that." I said a grin on my face. I kissed the scales again, and the dragon shivered once more, slightly more this time. I also felt more of its sanity melt off of the beast, as a consequence of my kiss. I delivered another kiss to its scale and laughed as the dragon shook in a mixture of delight and frustration. Shortly after I finished laughing I spoke to the shadow-scaled beast.
"You should know that I"m a thief. My kisses can steal away your sanity." I informed the dragon. The dragon growled, a vibration visibly shaking its neck. The vibration was visible, but there was almost no hostility in the cat-like gesture.
"I bet that you don"t mind though, do you?" I asked. There was a coy smile on my lips. I watched as the throat of the beast moved, but no sound came out of its mouth. I immediately sensed its discomfort and annoyance. I was able to piece together what had just happened without much difficulty.
"Did you try to lie to me just now? I am a G.o.d of truth. Unless I allow it mortals cannot lie in my presence." I informed Ygaynth.
"It"s okay though. I am the king of succubi and incubi." I revealed, smiling as I considered ways to toy with this feared, semi-mythical being.
"I can feel your l.u.s.t." I said to the dragon, lying through my teeth as I did so. Even as I lied, I activated an entertaining power named "Believe me" that caused the dragon"s heart to twist in fear and confusion as it wondered if it felt l.u.s.t towards me. As it struggled with my lie, and the overwhelming compulsion it felt to believe what I had said, I kissed its scale-covered neck again.
The dragon let out a sloven sigh, and I laughed mirthfully. I was enjoying myself.
"To think that you are feared this region by almost everyone. And yet here I am... Toying with you." I said, feeling the power that defined G.o.ds so keenly at this moment.
"Is this the real difference in power between a G.o.d and a mortal?" I wondered, thinking aloud as I felt the dragon slide closer and closer to the edge of madness.
________________________________________________
My life so far had led me to have a particular perception of mortals. I had presented as one of them to entire communities for pretty much my whole life until this point. I had walked among them and worked to protect them. A not so small part of me even viewed them as equals. But now...
I had rendered a greater member of one of the greatest species of mortals helpless and was toying with it. I had no inclination to hurt Ygaynth or anything, but seeing how easily I had dealt with an ancient black dragon was definitely forcing me to contend with the realities of G.o.dhood.
I was not a mortal. And I never would be. That was a reality that I had blinded myself too, until the moment I had decided to embrace my G.o.dhood to bring an end to slavery. And now I was once again being reminded of the differences between myself and even the most powerful mortal.
I could do anything to this dragon and it would have no choice but to accept it. As a G.o.d I doubted that anything similar to that could ever happen to me, especially since the mythic age was over and I was in all likelihood the only G.o.d and the last higher being to come into existence.
I felt a few distinct emotions radiating within me at this moment. I felt anger aimed at Ygaynth for the cruelty he had shown to his fellow mortals. I felt a keen sense of happiness towards myself and my own, undeniable power.
I also felt anger at the mortals that I knew intended to disobey me. There was a part of me, a portion of myself that was driven by my pride, that wanted to torment slaveowners and n.o.bles who intended to continue to wage war despite my commands.
I also felt a growing coldness towards Ygaynth. I had envisioned us having a philosophical showdown, and instead I had easily overwhelmed the beast and it immediately began to fear for its life. I was still resistant to the idea of killing the beast, but that resistance was fading.
Ygaynth"s negative feelings were fading away. I had successfully stolen enough of the beast"s sanity to render it harmless while I was introspectively mulling over my own emotions.
________________________________________________
"I suppose I ought to make a decision concerning your fate." I muttered, staring at the beast. There was just a tiny bit of sanity left in the beast, but I pulled my hand off of the thing"s scales which slowed the rate at which I took away its sanity. This would give it another minute or so before it sunk into irreversible insanity.
I took a step away from it and the beast"s head turned to face me. There was a look of sadness on its face as if it somehow missed the sensation of my hand on its neck. I gazed at it, anger, disappointment, and curiosity mixing together in my eyes.
"Ygaynth... Why did you do what you did?" I asked the creature, wanting to understand it before I did anything. So far everything I had done was reversible. And with my current level of power even killing Ygaynth would be reversible. That said, I wanted to understand the beast now that I had ensured that the thing wouldn"t try to hurt me or anyone else, unless I commanded it.
"Why did I do... What exactly?" The dragon asked, unsure of what I was asking.
"Why did you destroy so much? Why did you kill other sapient creatures, destroy their homes, and order other creatures to capture sacrifices for you?" I asked, wanting to gain a glimpse into the thing"s mind.
The creature fell silent for a moment. In its gaze, there were an array of new emotions, intense ones. One of them was an unsettling reverence for me, or at least its insane understanding of me. I had stolen just about every bit of sanity the thing possessed, and I was unsurprised to see that it adored me, in its own way.