The Power of Ten

Chapter 18-470: Lands Down Under, Part Two

Legion put their foot down, and the stone trembled, POOM!...

It wasn’t difficult. Their current Landbound Pact was to Africa Herself, and that meant power over Her earth and stone. Their foot came down with pressure equal to what they could lift, braced against their ability to fly, and the equivalent of ninety thousand tons of pressure radiated sideways out through the rock, instead of making the stone explode under their hoof.

It was just like something very big and very heavy, weighing nigh as much as an aircraft carrier, had taken a step forward casually.

POOM. POOM. POOM...

The stone shook around them, force guided smoothly away and not threatening any integrity, but dust was shaking loose, pebbles were skittering, and the tiny living things were skittering about in agitation, especially the many, many spiders and scorpions, who were being bounced around unmercifully.

The larger ones were feeling those vibrations and the power behind those steps, and retreating, wanting nothing to do with this visitor casually striding forward, regardless of her apparent size.

The path was completely apparent by the passing of countless generations upon the stone. Spiders and scorpions of sizes from miniscule to cattle-sized hurriedly withdrew from the sight of her passing, bracing them in little crevices and cracks, abandoning webs which were silently bursting into flames from just a glance of silvered eyes.

Daisy and Lillabelle shared most physical control and interactions with others. Daisy had built up the Courtesan and Diplomacy Ranks to their limit of 21 with Expert Levels, while Lillabelle did the same with Dance and Versatility with Song Ranks subbing for Sense Motive and Bluffing.

Daisy’s Skills were naturally the foundation for their Night Rose Ranks, Skills, and Masteries, with a terrifying ability to manipulate and command others that was only fueled by utterly devastating supernatural charm.

Really, they didn’t have anything to fear from any humanoid being on the planet. They had quietly proved that against Cultivators, Buddhists, Fiends, and even Old Gods... although it wouldn’t necessarily stop some aggressive amorous intentions, they weren’t in any form of lethal danger.

They didn’t think this situation would be much different, given the character of the city of drow behind them.

Totally familiar with the passageway from tens of thousands of trips of supplication here, they strode confidently towards the chamber where the drow of Yvradimyae came to pay court upon their demigoddess protector, or report news to her.

The chamber was large enough to hold a thousand dark elves, but had no guards save the creatures that were now cowering in their caves and crevices. Silvered eyes looked about at the many, many webs festooning the place, covering the place in strands thick enough to support spiders who might weigh tons, but none of those creatures were visible here as demonic fire simmered in their gaze, and slowly set the whole mass alight.

“We are waiting,” they Stated, voice modulated on all the levels to make blood sing and hearts race. The stones rang with their voice as they left the ground, the ringing of their steps becoming pulses of displaced air compressing beneath their hooves blasted out and stirred the remnants of webs and stones in the chamber.

Legion stopped below the stone balcony that Nkissa was prone to deliver her blessings and torments from, uncaring of the many-eyed creatures peering at them in terror from all directions. Unlike humanoids, there was no attraction to their impossible beauty and grace, only recognition of power and a threat on so, so many levels.

They heard the quiet, careful scuttling. There was fear, but there was also desire, and frantic curiosity over who had come here. Legion waited calmly, and soon enough a large many-limbed form darted forwards into the open, pausing only at the edge of the balcony, staring at the drifting vision before her.

Legion could naturally remember seeing the ‘demigoddess’ many, many times, so the scorpion/spider tauroid appearance of Nkissa held no surprises at all. Her body was long and flat in the manner of a hunting spider, with eight spider’s legs and a more armored body, a scorpion’s gleaming, razor-sharp claws, and the classic arching tail with the curving stinger to deliver lethal venom to her victims.

She had the upper body of a four-armed drow female, gleaming jet of skin and silken-hair long enough to be deemed a cloak, topping her arachnoid lower body where she crouched, trying to conceal the trembling of her desire and fear. She was also inhumanly beautiful, moving with insectile grace and precision, the cold and emotionless bearing of a spider queen, and six extra crimson eyes accented the two staring elven eyes staring at Legion in disbelief and intense desire.

“Leashirka?” the goddess of Yvirdamyae gasped in disbelief, staring at the draconic demoness with her high priestess’ face and glowing silver eyes in front of her, that frill and crest glowing with so much suppressed energy, and the air trembling with her breathing...

“Only my face, Nkissa,” her Priestess replied through Legion’s lips, smiling. “I was Consumed by her a short time ago.”josei

The tauroid fey’ri flinched in shock, but she did not flee, utterly captivated by the sight before her. The great draconic wings with their patterns of silver, Hell’s red flames, Storms’ cerulean and electricity, and the crystalline lines of an Earthen Pact, slowly spread wide to fascinate and mesmerize her, massive and radiating an impossible strength and power, as if one beat of them was enough to bring down this cavern. Nine draconic tails, their tips glowing with a crimson light that matched burning Tats around her nail-biting hips, were up and poised with a threat far greater than her one mere poisoned stinger.

“My, my guards, my adherents...” the arachnoid fey’ri gasped, staring at the display before her. Her eight legs tensed as if about to run, but could not move, even as Legion took a step forward.

“We are also here, goddess,” they said through Legion’s lips, all at once, and the fey’ri shuddered from head to toe. “We are all here, our goddess!” 14,637 voices said all together as four more arms unfolded below Legion’s two, and the fey’ri tried to lean back... and instead found herself leaning forwards, her arms reaching out to intertwine with the four extra arms obviously brought out just for her.

The last pair reached out to caress her face with gossamer and steel, so much threat, so gentle, that the fey’ri shuddered to the ends of her many limbs. Reaching tails with scales that could slice stone like cheese drifted down along her sides and the sensory hairs on her legs and lower torso, great killing sensations stretching out with terrible, perfect intimacy in ways she could not resist.

“Who, who are you?” Nkissa protested, not even able to struggle, all eight of her eyes fixed on perfect lips. The long-fingered hands were wrapped about her head gently, so gently, and irresistibly bringing her in closer to them, clearly unafraid of her venomous kiss.

“A rhetorical question, my goddess,” Legion replied throatily, and guided their lips together.

They swallowed the demoness slowly, letting Nkiss savor the experience of being drawn in and Consumed, and flowing into their body. As Nkissapaelyaerthaipae was Consumed, the Curses in Legion’s Pactspace went off, and she couldn’t resist as her personality was largely wiped away, and then a pulse of Amazon Pact magic came and Restored her mind with a copy of her host’s... and a considerable increase in those mental Stats.

Not hurrying with this final task, Legion took in the fey’ri’s full bulk without difficulty. Draconic pride flared hotly in their blood, denying the demoness’ Bloodline any chance whatsoever to make her spiderish in form.

There was just the slightest flicker as the tips of her tails bulged slightly, and the dark tips of them, glowing crimson with a lilitu’s threat, suddenly sharpened and grew another foot of hooking stingers that looked much more like the heads of scimitars or claws themselves, rather than mere stickers to deliver poison.

Eight lovely eyes, two silver-in-black, two Hell-red, one each cerulean, golden crystal, dark yellow-green, and aquamarine, blinked lazily as they looked around the cavern, glowing with their own inner lights.

When their primary eyes faded into the facelessness of a lilitu, one of the burning red eyes was replaced by one of silver, the colors matching the Mask that swam into being across their face with its own animated ‘eyes’ of sorts, the six spread across her forehead gleaming like inset glowing gems.

They shrugged their three sets of arms back into one pair, saying calmly, “Bring out your treasures and stack them in the middle of the cavern.”

These servants of theirs had fiendish blood and intelligence, but they could not disobey their mistress. Trembling in fear and awe, they scuttled away to find the precious things in their chambers, things of magic and precious stone and metal, or carved bone or stone they recognized as having value by the greed that lingered about them after their owners had been devoured.

All such things were soon piled in the middle of the cavern. Some of the great vermin were the size of small houses as they brought out their treasures and stacked them up there in homage, then retreated into a silent, quivering cluster together on the far side of their loot.

Legion waited until they were done, then gathered their energy, inhaled, and exhaled as they popped an Alchemist’s fiery bomb, singing a crystalline Note that shattered the stone to shards as they also invoked Might of Thunder, and a Meteor Swarm merged with the Wrath of Heaven, itself conjoined to the Breath of an elder dragon.

The combined energy of the assault overpowered the ringing Thunder of her exhalation, while the format of the Theurgic attack prevented any overly explosive detonations. The massive spiders and scorpions with their demonic bloodlines took it all in the face, and went away.

A flick of a hand, and the rising cloud of dust and debris fell abruptly to the ground, revealing a long conelike crater extending away from them, all remains of the enhanced vermin gone, and the very stone annihilated by the combined power of the assault.

Voolkrosh, the Consumed Archmage of Yvradimyae, nodded in approval. Legion’s Active Matrix was purely Sorcery, granted by their draconic Bloodline, and could sustain no other Active magic, including the Prepared Spells of a Wizard, rendering much of what he might have been able to contribute to Legion totally moot.

However, Spell Mastered Spells were basically exact equivalents of Spells Known, and effectively expanded the very limited set of Spells they had, most of which were Bloodline Spells.

The discovery meant that they could potentially pick Spell Mastered Cleric, Druid, and Wizard spells, up to 15+Intellect bonus in each.

It wasn’t true versatility, working out to four of each type in the lower Valences, and three in the higher ones, and they were all Cast out of the same Sorcery Slots... but being able to overcharge a Breath Weapon with a Meteor Swarm on top of it was a very useful tool.

+6d6 boost to a Fire spell with the Alchemical Bomb as the material component. +9d6 from spending a Heartsong use with Might of Thunder, keyed off the Meteor Swarm. 30d6 with the Meteor Swarm. 20d10 with the dragon’s breath, and 18d6 with their Wrath, most of that Purified for 90+3d6, and all that was not including the Kicker effects from Idiot.

No, none of the vermin had survived at all. 66d6+20d10+90 and Boosts and Kickers was quite enough to utterly obliterate the lot of them.

-Sister, are you done yet?- a wary voice /called from the distance, and was joined by a chorus of dozens of others, most of them calling for their mothers.

All of them young, all of them wary.

-Almost. I just have to gather up some things, and I will be back shortly,- an equal number of /voices responded soothingly to each of the children individually, instantly setting them at ease as they had never actually been with their sisters and mothers before, mostly because they’d never felt actual care and kindness from them before, but it was so apparent from Legion now.

Legion looked down at their bare and perfect midriff, and the eight spinnerets formed on their abdominals. Their extra arms came back out, and their tails arced in to form the loom as they began to weave with many limbs and telekinetic support from their Ring, pulling out the precise variety of spider silk they’d need with easy care and experience, weaving up a tapestry of silk to place all that loot on, and then enspelling it to be Itemized and stowed away.

Their skin was still gleaming, flawless jet and their hair cloud-white, and they had no intention of changing it. After all, the drow outnumbered all the rest, and if they were an Amazonian version of a drow, that only made it all the better for them.

The Cohort certainly didn’t mind, and the billowing hair that was almost touching their ankles didn’t hurt things, either.

That they’d just inherited responsibility for 117 haror children who still had clean genetics and had not fallen into the depravity of the drow was just one more item on the list. The fact that Legion actually was their mothers, fathers, and the rest of their kin only made it more appropriate, especially after the barely-existing sense of responsibility among the drow was turned on its head and became an iron bond of duty, care, and obligation.

The children could feel it all, too, because Legion had Blessed/Branded each and every one of them, and so could and would talk to them at any time, all of the time, as needed.

They were never more than a thought away, now, and if they were only one parent to all of them, they all definitely knew that Legion loved them all.