The powerful creature activated a number of its abilities as it came to a stop. One of the most prominent of the powers it activated was one of its newest: "Banishment of lies", a potent power that made it impossible for creatures in its presence to lie. It also activated an a.s.sortment of auric abilities to truly set the stage for the confrontation it had waited for, for nearly a week.

The shadowy, vaguely-humanoid shape was a totally dark silhouette and its appearance was enough of a distraction that when a thin blue vapor appeared out of the floor of the bed-chamber they were in none of them noticed. But when the ent.i.ty suddenly bathed the room in radiant light, the dark-elven family did notice.

They had to shield their eyes to prevent the sudden illumination from temporarily blinding them. Once their eyes adjusted to the light, they moved their hands away from their faces and laid their eyes on the G.o.d responsible for their diseased suffering and for the explosion of illumination that now kept their room mildly illuminated.

While it was bathing in the sudden burst of light, the figure responsible for the abrupt illumination had smoothly taken on a new appearance. It went from a dark-elven sized silhouette to a disguise inspired by actual dark elves. Unlike in the past when the strange G.o.d had taken on an appearance that was an enlarged version of Drow Dragonstone this new form it took on was a wholly original one.

The G.o.d took on the appearance of a male dark elf, one with purple skin. He constructed an original face for himself by mixing and matching the facial features of his worshipers from the Dragonstone family. He did this in an instant, having grown familiar with weaving together disguises and forms over the course of the days he spent practicing his powers and abstaining from acquiring new ones.

He clothed himself in pants made of silk-like darkness and allowed his muscular upper body to be free from the confines of clothing. He was an unfairly attractive dark-elf, thanks in part to his decision to attempt to use his powers to achieve his goals without violence. He radiated strength, charisma, and power, and his aura was one of peace and intrigue.

"h.e.l.lo. I"ve waited for this meeting... Well, I"ve waited for it longer than I"ve ever waited for anything in my life. Have you enjoyed the small sampling of my power that I"ve provided you?" He asked, his voice an eerie baritone. There was a sinister smile on his lips as he spoke.

His eyes were void-like orbs that radiated no heat, making them appear even darker when peered at by the dark-elves who could see shades of heat as clearly as they could see light. The G.o.d was greeted with silence, as none of the dark elves dared reply to him. He chuckled and with the same ease as he inflicted the diseases that had plagued the family for days he undid them, as a gesture of something akin to good-will.

In an instant, the sores that had covered their once beautiful and handsome forms and the pus that made them grossly slick disappeared. This left the a.s.sorted familial elders and their children feeling better than they had in days. The chamber was filled with the sounds of dark-elves sighing in relief, thankful for the mercy the eerie G.o.d had just shown them.

"We have much to discuss. And I suppose it"ll be better for everyone involved in all of you are at your best as we discuss our... shared futures." The G.o.d told them, speaking freely and boldly. His sinister smile had never once left his lips.

________________________________________________

I undid the plagues and poxes I had inflicted on the once beautiful family in an instant. Their emotions flared up and their hearts raced as they felt the weight, pain, and discomfort they had endured for days leave their bodies. They immediately regained their former beauty and handsomeness, and before me now stood a gathering of darkly and evilly sensual creatures.

"This was fun. If I do again... I"d be wise to make it worse for my victims." I thought as the emotions of my victims rushed into me. I felt their hearts react to both my presence and my powers. Their reactions were complete since they were in the s.p.a.ce of my "Religious fervor" power and my "Unfettered divinity" ability.

These two powers together bathed this room in light. Even a human"s eyes would have been comfortable in the light that bathed this room. It wasn"t harsh by any means, but it was vibrant enough for a casual viewer without heat-oriented vision to be able to see me, and the family of dark elves I was h.e.l.ls-bent on making my servants.

"I have come to secure the freedom of the slaves you have abused for untold centuries. I will put an end to this abhorrent practice. But I am not here to make an enemy of you. If you would wisely obey me I will instead make you more powerful than you have ever been." I proclaimed to the gathered dark-elves.

They looked at me skeptically and even hatefully. I chuckled at them, understanding their bitterness and the complex emotions they were feeling. I had made myself an unstoppable foe of theirs, one who hurt them from a distance and who made them feel powerless for days, and now I was offering them both peace and power.

That said, the family refused to speak unkindly to me, instead contenting themselves with their glares and skepticism. I allowed silence to fill the air for a minute, before speaking once more. As I did so, I recalled the day I met Lilith Silverstone.

"I was once told that dark-elves value "power, pleasure, and pride". I have come here to offer you and your family new means to acquire all three of those things." I told the dark elves, a cruel glimmer sparkling in my eyes as I spoke. This intrigued the dark-elves, a few of whom looked at me with renewed interest and emotions more nuanced than hatred or fear. I smirked at them.

"I have not come to deprive you of power, friends. I have come to persuade you to pursue a new means to greatness." I told the gathered creatures. Their interest did not wane, and so I opted to dive right in.

"I am a G.o.d of undeath and necromancy. Among many other things. I would like to propose a deal with you. One that I believe fairly compensates you for what you will lose in peacefully liberating the people you have long considered your property." I explained, a smile on my face as I did so.

"For every slave you free, and you will free them all, I will give you control over two tireless undead. The undead are far more efficient laborers than the living and far more cost-effective. I will give them enough intelligence to obey any of your commands, and I will take pains to ensure that they can serve you as laborers as well as additional guards." I explained, pausing for a moment to feign catching a breath. I did this mostly to give the family a chance to absorb the offer I was making.

"In addition to that, you all will become my worshipers. And in doing so I shall grant you society-wide power. You will enter into an alliance with the Dragonstone family, gaining the prestige that comes with being allied with the best-armed n.o.ble family in the city." I added and in doing so revealed that the Dragonstones were among my servants.

I stopped talking and smiled patiently at the family. They took to this news, especially the bit about the Dragonstone family, somberly. They lost a bit of their bravado and bl.u.s.ter, and the hate that once filled with their gazes was replaced with a cautious, almost respectful, fear.

The Dragonstones, not just Drow but his entire family, were well-known as a largely apolitical family interested exclusively in warfare and battle, not the machinations of the local n.o.bility. The fact that I could truthfully call them my servants signaled at the depths of my power and added weight to my overall bargaining position.

The dark-elves turned to look at each other and I could see the shifting emotions in their cautious and steely stares. Milene, still beside me, looked at me and whispered something as quietly as she possibly could.

"Althos... They are communicating mentally. Our family is one of the last remaining bloodlines in the city that possesses that power. Even now they are frantically whispering to each other about what to do." The traitorous dark-elf, who happened to be betraying her family to me, muttered. I smiled at her, genuinely surprised by the revelation that her family possessed telepathic abilities.

I established a mental-link that tied her and I together and then spoke to her through it.

"Thank you for sharing that secret. You have done well." I informed her, causing the dark-elf to smile eagerly at me. She visibly relaxed and transmitted a message to me.

"The men are in favor of your deal. The women are not. It"s an even split along gendered lines." She told me, revealing the contents of their discussion with great eagerness. I appreciated her sharing that with me. That did make me curious about something though.

"If you all can speak mentally, why did you communicate out loud just now? When you were introducing me?" I asked my one faithful servant. She was mentally silent for a moment before answering.

"I do not know the depths of your powers. I did not wish to a.s.sume you could hear me if I spoke mentally to my family." She revealed a gentle grin on her dazzling features. I chuckled, appreciating both her decision and her candor.

"And my family has long kept our ability to speak to each other mentally a secret. We have a family... tradition of replying audibly if one of us speaks out loud. In the distant past, we did it as a defense mechanism, but now our defense mechanism is reverting to our inaudible language, and speaking aloud is the default. Times have changed." Milene mused, seeming to find some sort of comfort in speaking with me mentally. I grinned. And then I readied myself to speak aloud some more.

"I know that you are chatting amongst yourselves." I said to the dark elves, revealing my newly gained knowledge of their defense tactic to keep their thoughts and impressions a secret. This caused them to turn as one at me and stare at me in primal terror. I was delighted to realize that they must not have heard Milene explain their familial gift to me.

"My offer is a generous one, my friends. I offer you power at no cost to yourselves, a chance to increase your prestige in the city, and increased access to pleasures accessible only to the wealthy. I am also willing to give you more if you would but surrender yourselves to me and free those you mistakenly consider your property." I told the dark-elves, speaking soothingly to them.

"Why should we, a people of darkness and cruelty worship a G.o.d of goodness and freedom?" Asked one of the dark elves. She was a sibling of Milene, and she stared furiously at me. I chuckled and looked her in the eyes.

"Do you truly believe me to be a G.o.d of goodness and freedom? I am, by my own admission a G.o.d of undeath and necromancy. Are those good things to you?" I asked the outspoken elf. She kept her gaze locked on mine and spoke with a steely tone.

"In my eyes, you are at most a G.o.d of disease, light, and liberation. Your opposition to us is based on our practice of slavery, and you possess... powers over light and disease. I admit you are a G.o.d, I find... stating otherwise impossible. That said, I see no evidence that you are a G.o.d of necromancy." She said, practically spitting the words at me. I chuckled, as she made a simple but good point.

I stretched a hand out to my right and closed my eyes. As darkness enfolded me, a familiar view came to dominate my mind"s eye: the not-so-mini-map. I studied it for a moment and then targeted all of the corpses situated throughout the family"s holdings.

There were only a few corpses in the area worth targeting. Whatever the family did with the corpses it inevitably acquired was unknown to me at the moment though I could wager a few gruesome guesses. That said, I effortlessly created a number of motes of unlife energy that at my command would infuse corpses and bestow them with an unholy, unlife.

I paused for a moment to consider what to do with the corpses. I knew that I was targeting dark elves, and more than that I was targeting dark elven relatives of the family whom I was courting. That meant that I ought to show them the elegant n.o.bility undeath offered by bestowing their relatives with the cla.s.siest forms of undeath possible. That really only left me with a single option.

________________________________________________

Houses throughout the city of Aronms tended to contain two levels. One of the levels was customarily built within the unyielding earth and stone of the cavern that housed the city rather than atop it. This subterranean part of a familial home was typically where the dead were stored. And this tradition was common among both the n.o.bility and the common dark-elf. It was also upheld by the n.o.bility of the Ardor family.

Three corpses, ancient dark-elven corpses to be exact, were laid to rest within ornate sarcophagi within the crypt that was itself located in the lower level of the estate owned by the Ardor family. Invisible motes of potent unlife energy descended into the luxurious crypt that housed these once-mighty dark-elves.

These motes were undeterred by physical obstacles. They had sunken through the floor beneath their creator with eerie, supernatural ease and ethereally inched closer and closer to their destination: the dark-elven corpses. When they reached the corpses they were created to animate, they did so in a flash of motion and activity.

The corpses they infested and reinvigorated slowly began to reanimate. The dark-elven corpses were still and stiff as the energy the motes were made of began to circulate through them.

Normally this process took a number of days. And normally it was a significantly painful one for those who were returning from the dead. This time though the creature who was orchestrating the process was a G.o.d. This afforded the privileged dark-elves who were defeating death, years, and even centuries after their deaths, a painless and speedy reprieve.

In a matter of moments, the three corpses moved as one. The first thing that they, the ancient and almost forgotten leaders of a family with a history spanning hundreds of centuries, did was open their eyes.

Their eyes were no longer the colorless...o...b.. of living dark-elves. Instead, their eyes were vivid, colorful orbs, orbs the color of the fluid they thirsted for: blood. And then they slowly and carefully moved their arms. They were delicately testing their muscles. The almost pitiable creatures were confused and needed a few moments to orient themselves but even in such a state they were wise and were quickly adjusting to the bizarre reality of their new unlives.

All three of them remained entombed within ancient and richly decorated sarcophagi. When they possessed their wits, something even the youngest of them hadn"t possessed in centuries, they began to act beyond the strange reflexes they had been imbued with.

Their first order of business was to escape from their lavish coffins. And to do so, all they needed to do was move their powerful arms and push away the lids of their coffins. Which they did a minute after they were reanimated. The three ancient dark-elves then proceeded to push themselves out of their laying positions and take stock of their surroundings.

It was at that moment that the dark crypt that stored their corpses lit up. A scarlet portal had been created by the same ent.i.ty that reanimated the corpses and was waiting for the trio of n.o.ble undead to step through it.

An otherworldly voice whispered into the minds of the newly reanimated dark-elves and informed them of the purpose of the portal. This news, caused the trio of ancient leaders to smile. And then, as if controlled by a singular puppet master, the trio stepped out of their coffins and walked into the portal.

The ancient Ardors stepped through the portal and in doing so were smoothly teleported from their crypt to a place that reeked of the unclean stenches of the living. Their abrupt appearance in the crowded bedroom that temporarily housed Althos and the living heads of the Ardor family elicited gasps of shock, terror, and delight from the occupants of the room.

Althos, their reanimator, looked at them and smiled. They smiled back. The G.o.d had reanimated them from a distance, and while doing so made them into unusually sinister and intelligent undead.

Althos looked back at the same dark-elf who had spoken out of turn before. He spoke haughtily at that moment.

"Does my ability to reanimate your long-dead ancestors from a distance and create a magical portal that brings them to us sufficiently prove my powers? Or need I do other... crueler things to prove I am all I say I am and more?" The G.o.d asked, a playful smile on his lips.

His creations turned to their descendants and smiled. Their grins revealed their elongated canine teeth, a feature that was one stereotypically thought to be possessed by all vampires, and one that all three of Althos" newest minions now possessed.

The living members of the Ardor family turned from staring at their newly reanimated ancestors, to stare at Althos. He was looking at them with a look that clearly communicated that he was aware that this was his victory. But he didn"t rub it anymore. Instead, he spoke with focus and ambition.

"Imagine... The power to overcome death. To live forever." He told them, his eyes sparkling with pride and ambition.

"Come. Serve me. Surrender yourselves to me and never spend another moment afraid of mortality." He whispered, his voice taking on a singularly seductive tone, but not a sensually seductive tone. A corruptively seductive one.

While he spoke he felt the emotions of living dark-elves surge into him as his powers brought more hearts to his worship. This brought a new, and dark grin to his face.

As a way to demonstrate his powers and his goodwill, the living G.o.d targeted all of the living dark-elves in his presence and bestowed upon them the necromancer cla.s.s. As one they closed their eyes and shuddered in delight as they felt dark new powers seep into their souls, sinful magic staining their already stained innermost essences.