His eyes examined every corner of the bomb I held. It was a small thing, frankly, it was tinier than I antic.i.p.ated it being. That said, while I had been interacting with Nivar and Imbrosa he had been instructing me on how to craft both the potion he set out for me to make, and then this.

"Hmm..." He muttered, studying the ball I held in both hands. It was a small thing made of iron and filled with something called gunpowder. The inside of it was hollow by necessity, and the gunpowder it was filled with could be caused to explode from a distance, using magic.

Dr. Cortes had explained the value of this invention to me while I was using my immense necromantic powers to fill the world beneath Puerto Rico with undead beings. And the reality was that bombs were incredibly useful for me but not for the same reasons as they were for him.

If an enemy had the same type of bomb that I held in my hands right now I could cause it to explode remotely. I could do this by generating a flame within the bomb from a distance, through my ability to manipulate flames. And without this lesson, I never would have learned that. I was grateful that I had been allowed to learn from Dr. Cortes, even though I was more present elsewhere than here.

I was also grateful that thanks to it I was able to acquire the first tier of influence over alchemy. Incidentally, I had also acquired a new quest and subsequently completed that quest, while I was raising my army of undead creatures and transforming Nivar into a ma.s.sive worm that walks. The quest gave me the first tier of influence over the annelid subdomain.

As I read over the dual subdomain notification I had received I was surprised and impressed at the diversity of powers I gained, powers I was grateful to gain.

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[Dual subdomain descriptions:

Alchemy is the magical science of transforming something from one state into another. Annelids are a type of lifeform that includes earthworms, leeches, and many sorts of marine worms.

Granting the lowest tier of influence over alchemy grants you powers related to creation, deconstruction, and transformation. Granting the lowest tier of influence over annelids grants you a worms physiology and command over worms, both of which are more impressive than you may realize upon hearing that.

To gain further influence over the subdomain of alchemy continue to build your alchemical knowledge and create a cult of alchemists that worship you as their muse and master. To gain further influence over the annelid subdomain use your newfound powers over annelids to turn them to your worship.

Dual subdomain pa.s.sive powers:

Alchemical creation (Low level): You can create an a.s.sortment of alchemical items from nothing. You can instantly create potions of healing and lesser poisons.

You can use this to ensure that your troops are never in need of supplies. You can import these items into other people"s inventories, and the items won"t even take up s.p.a.ce. Instead s.p.a.ce will be created specifically for them. You can also decide whether or not to inform people that they"ve acquired these items.

Alchemical detection: You can detect alchemical items on your mini or not-so-mini maps.

Alchemical manipulation (Low level): Thanks to a combination of other domains and subdomains you can influence, you can manipulate the properties of low-level alchemical creations. This means you can edit potions and poisons, thanks to your healing, alteration, and poisonous powers.

This power can even allow you to transform what looks like a potion of healing into a poison or vice-versa.

Annelid anatomy: You can transform yourself into an annelid. You become an incredible example of annelid prowess, and retain your other powers while doing so. You become a gigantic, earthworm like monstrosity while able to tunnel through the earth.

Annelid mastery: You gain immediate and undeniable mastery over all annelids. This power is strengthened by your mastery over vermin and parasites which is why it functions even on sapient or evolved annelids like subterranean death worms, or flame-breathing tunnelers.

This power is boosted by your influence over the biology domain and thanks to that you can also trigger immediate evolution or devolution in annelids. You can do that at will.

Annelid awakening: Annelids who become aware of you are automatically awoken and utterly and permanently enthralled by you. Sapient annelids experience further enhancement to their intelligence.

Dual subdomain active powers:

Curse of the annelid: You can forcibly transform another creature into an annelid. You can use this power twice per three and a half-day period and you can decide if it"s permanent or not or change your mind and edit it one way or the other.

When you use this power you decide what kind of annelid they become and if they retain their intelligence. If you transform someone into an unintelligent annelid you can also a.s.sign them a quest to do that will become their priority.

Alchemical destruction: You can destroy an alchemical creation or tool with a sharp glance. No alchemical creation aside from a wonderous item like a philosopher"s stone possesses even a chance of surviving this destruction. You can use this twice per twelve-hour period.

Dual subdomain blessing and curse details:

Blessing someone with the alchemical subdomain grants them enhanced natural healing, increases their lifespan, and grants them easier access to wealth. Cursing someone with the alchemical subdomain does the opposite.

Blessing a non-annelid with the annelid subdomain makes annelids friendly towards them and likely to serve them willingly. Cursing a non-annelid with the annelid subdomain makes annelids, leeches in particular, aggressive towards them and causes them to be attacked on sight by annelids.

Blessing an annelid with the subdomain enlarges and strengthens it. It grants it n.o.bility recognized by other annelids. Cursing an annelid with the subdomain shrinks and weakens it, and causes it to be considered an enemy by other annelids, or at least strongly disliked if surrounded by sapient annelids.]

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Nearly three hours pa.s.sed between the time I entered Dr. Cortes" house and laboratory and the time I left it. I left the good doctor"s home feeling quite satisfied. Not only had I gained new skills, but I had also gained new powers as well. I had learned the barest basics of alchemy.

Moments after I closed the door leading into or out of my teacher"s home I scanned my environment. When I was satisfied that there was no one who could see me I did away with my physical form and sank into the earth beneath my feet.

I found myself in an airless s.p.a.ce and was grateful for the fact that I didn"t need to breathe. It gave me so many options when it came to travel. I immediately warped to the encampment I was determined to destroy, and set about performing reconnaissance.

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I found myself standing undetected and undetectably in the center of the encampment. All around me I could see new sights.

I stood on a flat area, surrounded by resettled ruins. The ruins took on the form of clearly ancient and weathered stone buildings and inside of those stone buildings labored a number of people. Some of the people were human beings, but most weren"t.

I saw slaves of countless types, some of which were both surface and dark elves, some of which were dwarves, others of which were rarer creatures like gnomes, and strange creatures that vaguely resembled humans but with arachnid features such as a spiderlike lower-body, or even a scorpion"s tail.

The slaves of the encampment were the majority of what I saw here. But I detected the reptilefolk. I knew they were close, deeper in the ruin-centered encampment. This area was a pair of interconnected caverns that housed thousands of reptilefolks. Where I was was the outermost cavern where guards watched over slaves who performed menial and manual labor.

I set off to lay my eyes on reptilefolk guards.

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It didn"t take me long to lay my eyes on a reptilefolk. Thanks to my enhanced vision, and my awareness of where they were hiding, I was able to quickly glimpse one before I took even a hundred incorporeal steps towards where they were.

The thing was a strange creature. It stood just under two meters tall and was bipedally trotting out of a small opening in a distant wall. It had a natural armor composed of azure-colored scales but still wore artificial armor made out of a fusion of metal and scales that further hid and protected its most sensitive body parts.

The creature clutched a primitive-looking spear in one hand and a thin shield in another. It opened its mouth and inhaled roughly as if it were suffering from some sort of bizarre condition. When it opened its mouth I noticed the row upon row of sharp teeth that lined the inside of the thing"s maw. I studied the thing for a moment longer, before I felt satisfied.

"It is time." I told myself, quietly.

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Throughout the hollowed interior of Puerto Rico undead ambled about. But it wasn"t just a horde of mindless zombies or vaguely sapient skeletons that the dark G.o.d had raised when he infused the earth itself with his necromantic powers.

All manner of undead hungrily waited for their master"s command. The only thing that kept them from turning on each other was the fact that they served a single master. His will unified them and directed their anger towards a single target: reptilefolk.

The more intelligent undead, not the ghouls or the skeletons but the wrights and the vampires, arose feeling a deep-seated hatred towards the enemy their master unconsciously urged them to despise. They arose feeling a powerful urge to annihilate not all of life, but to extinguish the lives of their creator"s foes. Althos was unaware of this, but he was destined to see it play out soon enough.

Vampires and wrights were naturally violent creatures anyway, but the dark-hearted part of the master of the teeming horde of undead fed into this natural bloodl.u.s.t and amplified it. And it wasn"t just them who felt it either.

There was something odd about the movements of even the least of the undead, the zombies. The zombies that made up this horde were unusually active and their eyes burned with something resembling a simple intelligence. Zombies weren"t supposed to be intelligent, so had any living creatures been around to look at the zombies in question they"d have felt considerable fear.

Some of the undead situated underneath Puerto Rico, awaiting the dark commands of their terrifying creator defied common cla.s.sification. These were odd abominations that were made entirely of bones. The closest thing they resembled were skeletons, but the bones that made up their bodies were mismatched and damaged. That said, they were colossal ent.i.ties the length of buildings that dripped poison thanks to the mutative powers of their creator.

The countless undead weren"t just physical creatures either. An innumerable horde of the spiritual undead, ent.i.ties like wraiths and shadows, were also created by the t.i.tanic flood of unlife energy that had surged into the subterranean portion of the island. For every skeleton and zombie, at least one shadow or wraith had been created.

This mob of bodiless monsters sought nothing more than to bring about the violence their creator had created them for. Each of them was a fully intelligent ent.i.ty, and they sprung into existence with a specific understanding of their shadowy sovereign.

Their understanding of Althos was that he was at his core a creature like them. They believed him to be a sort of incorporeal monstrosity that could temporarily give himself a physical form with which he would enact devastation and spread darkness.

They came into being possessing a hope that not only were they correct, but that if they served him well then they"d be granted bodies of their own with which they could go out and commit atrocities against the living. They didn"t know it yet, but their creator was an accomodating sort. The truth was that he"d likely grant them their desires, so long as they vowed to obey him.

"Greetings little ones. The time for you to fulfill your first dark purpose has come. In moments you will witness a portal opening up before you. When you do, step through it and join your comrades. You have one mission and one mission alone: annihilate the reptilefolk that you find beyond the portals you step through." A dark voice whispered, speaking to each of the creatures it had created.

The faces of the endless hordes of the undead that Althos had created changed when they received the message their creator had sent them. Almost at once macabre and often broken smiles spread out across the faces of the crawling and unstoppable horde of undead Althos" t.i.tanic unlife energy wave had created.

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The first undead creature I summoned to the encampment was a lone warrior. The nameless gug I had reanimated days ago, now not the only undead gug in my service, stepped through a portal I conjured in my tower that I connected to the encampment.

The gigantic ghoul appeared in the eyes of the reptilefolk anyway, seemingly from nowhere because I opted to make the portal a one-way device. It found itself staring at the much smaller reptilefolk warrior, with a broken, vertical smile spread across its face.

The reptilefolk warrior was stunned for a moment by my warrior"s size and abrupt appearance. And before it could turn around to alert its allies in the cave I allowed myself to be detected by retaking on my corporeal, human form and abruptly used my mastery over stones to close off the cave in which the creature"s allies were located.

I looked at my servant and spoke. "Devour him." I commanded the thing, my eyes locked on my servant.

My creation didn"t turn to look at me, but it did open its horrifying vertical mouth. A bit of drool leaked out and began the long trek to the floor at the gug"s feet. And then the gug took another step forward. This caused the reptilefolk warrior to react.

The monster let out a fierce roar and chucked its spear at my servant. For a moment I considered intercepting the spear, but I ultimately wanted to see the fight play out without interference. The spear flew through the air between the two warriors, and the nameless giant lazily reached out a single gigantic hand to block the spear.

The spear crashed into the monster"s hand, but bounced off of the thick fur and muscles my servant possessed. It spun around in the air before landing sideways between the two warriors. I audibly chuckled at this. And after the spear was back on the ground my servant finally decided to truly engage in the battle.

The gug had always looked slow until now. It had always been ponderous, and somewhat awkward-looking. That ended when the thing took decisive action.

The creature sped towards the reptilefolk with a speed I hadn"t believed the thing could possess. It made full use of its incredibly long legs and each stride it took significantly closed the distance between the two foes.

The warrior my monster was intent on devouring didn"t even have enough time to plan his next action before the gug was upon him. Two ma.s.sive fists, both stemming from the same arm, speedily lashed out from the creature"s body and slammed with bone-crushing force into the reptilefolk warrior.

The warrior would have been sent sailing if not for the gug"s incredibly speedy reflexes. The creature"s other arm snaked out and caught the reptilefolk warrior in a two-handed bone-crushing grip. The battle was over, but the gug wasn"t done.

The hand that held the warrior lazily lifted him to the gug"s maw. The vertical mouth opened and then the warrior"s arm was placed gingerly into it. The gug bit down with incredible speed, snapping its maw shut and slashing the arm off uncleanly while also cutting through the armor that the warrior was wearing with the same ease as the warrior"s arm.

Blood matted the gug"s face and began to grip down from the bloodied stump the reptilefolk warrior now possessed in lieu of an arm. The reptilefolk cried out in agony, and I studied the sight before me.

My servant was idly chewing on the warrior"s arm, savoring the taste of it. I saw something new in its eyes: joy. It was an odd emotion to see in the absentminded gaze of a ghoul, but I also sensed the pleasure coursing through my ghoulish creation. And I chuckled as I imagined a horde of the undead feeling the same sense of b.l.o.o.d.y pleasure.

I took a second to do two things at once. I targeted and teleported all of the hundreds of slaves out of the cave, and near my tower. That was done in an instant. At the same time I created hundreds of one-way portals into the encampment, a wide cavern with a considerably high natural ceiling which made it perfect for housing my hordes of the undead.

The sound of thunderous footfalls filled the cavern that housed the encampment, as billions of corporeal and incorporeal undead charged into the encampment in a mad rush to obey me. I had to work to resist the cruel sense of pleasure I felt knowing that the gigantic horde that was rushing into this cavern was mine alone to command.

I was able to keep a calm expression on my face as I summoned my original undead creations to my side, and as I felt a portion of the incredible delight my undead horde was feeling.

The cavern behind me was filling up quickly. Since I was in front of my army, I was at the head of an army on their way to a decisive battle. And I couldn"t deny that that felt... right. I quietly unsealed the same tunnel that I had previously blocked to allow my warriors and my enemies to see each other.

At first, the only sounds we could hear were the silent footfalls of the undead hordes. But when they stepped through their portals and drew closer to me, I began to hear some of them shout excitedly and unintelligibly. They recognized me and were excited to see me.

It was at this point that the bravest of the reptilefolk stepped out of their unsealed tunnel and began to investigate the commotion. The time had come for battle to begin in full.