Ch 226- Riley
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Amelia, Ch 226- Riley
I nodded, and Clarice spoke. "I bring a blessing to your lord, but only to his person, and none other. One does not get to snub divinity." Shatterbird would be proud of my display here, I thought. She'd deny it, of course, and find some way to insult it. But she would be impressed nonetheless.
A voice called out from inside, which Clarice easily picked up on. It was excessively jovial, overdramatic and strange. But unlike my behavior as Bonesaw, this man was not faking it in any way. This is how he wants to act and believes he should act. "Spectacular! I've never met a goddess before! Come in, come in!"
I allowed Bella to descend, and she walked into the building, her wings folded to her sides. Or she pretended to walk. It had taken weeks of work to achieve it, but this was actually a flight subroutine. Bella would mimic walking or running, but her feet would never touch the ground. One of my favorite bits of showmanship. The features were also programmed into the other steeds I had built, of course, but it was designed for Bella.
Nilbog was sitting upon a throne that looked to be cobbled together from modifying a love seat. He was massive, easily four or five hundred pounds, and most of it was fat. His skin coated in a thin greaselike substance that was blotted with the ashes of fires and dirt. "You spoke of a blessing?" he asked with the eagerness of a five year old. It would take all of minutes for a man like Jack to twist this pathetic sap to his will.
"Yes, I did," I answered, still astride Bella. "I am Aceso, I come here to your kingdom on behalf of Gaea, bringing a message from all the gods. An invitation."
"What if I do not believe you are a god, child?" he asked, still smiling. This was a game I knew, feigning haughtiness in the face of a possibly superior foe. Jack might not have written that book, but he certainly added a few chapters.
"Nothing will happen," I answered.
"So you are afraid of me?" he laughed, his multiple chins shaking. Drops of oil splattered down his body. Most people would find him repulsive, I knew. I certainly didn't find him attractive, but I was familiar with worse horrors than he had to offer. I created many of them.
"Not in the least," I answered. "I will simply take my leave of you. Your punishment will be nothing at all. Gods are secure in their power, and unbelievers suffer simply for being unbelievers."
"No!" he insisted. "Gods are mighty and should demonstrate their might. Teach the unbelievers to suffer for the crime of refusing to obey and bow to them. Only weak gods would allow themselves to be ignored. You are no god."
"He's projecting," Minerva informed us. "He was a loner and a loser before getting his powers. He knows what he did to Ellisburg was wrong, but he has convinced himself that they were at fault for treating him wrong. He still feels guilt, though he will of course deny that, even to himself."
"I can prove otherwise," I answered. "Gods have great knowledge. For example, I know that this body you present here is not the real you. That is fine, you may talk to me through your intermediary. More importantly, I know that your kingdom is slowly dying."
He frowned, his mood darkening.
On the other side, I was listening and watching as Gaea and Khepri discussed and worked with Defiant. They're nearly finished. "Add a second shunt device," I instructed them as they worked.
"That's going to slow us down a little," Defiant replied.
"Trust me, I have a plan," I told them. They, thankfully, didn't argue
"Gods have great power, able to perform incredible miracles," I continued, buying the bit of time needed.
"What miracles can you perform, then?" he smirked. "I have slaughtered and claimed my own kingdom. I have populated it with subjects loyal to my will and ready to service my every desire. What miracles have you performed?"
I have created diseases that would scour life from this planet. "I have restored the dead to life," I answered slowly and dramatically, exploiting Clarice's painstakingly perfected voice. "I craft weapons powerful enough to slay other gods. I have seen those weapons turned upon the Endbringers, and then birthed armies from their dead flesh. I offered those armies to my Sister's consort as a tribute." Would he even remember the Endbringers, trapped behind this wall for as long as he has been? "I am the gatekeeper of life and death even for the immortals."
"We're ready," Gaea informed me. She sounded more than a little upset right now, and much of it was probably caused by my speech. Sorry, Big Sister, this mission is more important than your discomfort. I could observe the unnatural calming influence from Taylia at work, making my words more palatable. Khepri agrees that, since this is working, it's the right thing to do.
"Still, it is not my miracles that should concern you here, today," I finished. "I will agree that gods are not always known for benevolence, but we shall show you such blessings today. Behold."
On the side, I gave the command. "Now."
There was a crackle as the large amount of air was displaced and the mass shunted through. A living blob of psuedo-flesh, thousands of pounds of it, appeared. It was more like a large slab of raw roast beef with a pulse than anything else, and it smelled much the same. The outer layer, at least, was Yggdrasil tuned to work with the shunt drives, although the inner matter had been transmuted into something very much animal flesh.
"What is that?" the bloated man-child asked, as dozens of his hidden minions started crawling out of the woodworks. Literally in more than a few cases. They came in many shapes and sizes, most childlike in their natures, three to four feet tall, hybrids of human and animal features. Few were functional lifeforms, clumsy and misshapen and only alive due to his power breaking many of the laws of biology. It seemed that Nilbog was more interested in creating creatures that looked like cartoons than he was in making life that could function as a viable being. They're toys, I realized quickly. No more indicative of his real capabilities than Fluffy was of mine. And created for the same reasons, an escape from loneliness.
"It is the blessing we have brought to you and your kingdom," I answered. "Nourishment and strength for your subjects, enough to restore those you've lost."
His minions rushed toward it, ready to devour it in their hunger and need. "Again," I instructed my friends. The slap of flesh vanished before the goblins reached the target. The ones nearby desperately lapped at the fluids left on the floor where it had sat.
"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, bellowing his rage as the minions turned toward me. They can kill this Clarice, I decided. Perhaps they could even destroy the newest model. Certainly this old one is doomed.
Clarice, of course, showed no fear or concern. She could have, if I wanted her to. She could be very convincing, but now a lack of fear was ideal. "I believe we spoke earlier of what the punishment for denying gods should be. You claimed wrath and murder. I claimed that the greatest punishment was nothing. This is what I meant. You reject us, and we do nothing. We keep our blessings from you, and you are the one to suffer, while the true gods remain untouched and untroubled."
The monsters kept advancing.
"Attempt to harm me, and we can revoke the blessing permanently," I threatened. "Or acknowledge our godhood and accept our blessings, knowing that we are your betters. You are a king, are you not? Your duty is to your subjects first. Surely, the price we ask is nothing to the reward that comes from it?" Fuck you, Jack, I thought angrily in my head. Everything you used on me and others, all the tricks to manipulate the vulnerable and the unhinged. They are lessons I will never forget. Fuck you.
The corpulent Nilbog avatar growled at me, causing his whole body to ripple. The goblins around him, however, stopped their approach, following cues that Clarice's sensors and my own deduction concluded was based upon smell, although I lacked enough data to understand those messages. "Very well," he finally spoke, feigning boredom. "You have proven you are indeed worthy of your claim to godhood."
Clarice nodded, and I didn't even have a chance to speak before the slab of flesh appeared where it had been before. My team had clued in on the plan. It landed on several of the goblins, who made a series of unhappy noises that quickly turned to ravenous joy as they started feasting upon the meat from their trapped positions. A couple of the minions cut a comparatively small, but still several pound, chunk out of the thing and brought it before Nilbog.
His eating habits are even messier than the Siberian's, I decided. Much of the material falling in bloody splatters across his body. Smaller, froglike creatures then crawled over him, lapping away the spilled mess. Nilbog moaned at the sensations of the cleaning.
I heard Lisa retch in disgust. Highlight of my day, I decided. Clarice and I simply waited patiently until the gorging had finished.
"Now that you have accepted our blessings, hear our vision for the future of your kingdom."
Nilbog, still moaning lightly as the creatures scuttered across his body cleaning him, smiled at me. "I'm listening."
"You are hated by those outside this wall," I started.
"And I care?" he asked.
"I expect you do not," I admitted. "But would it not be better to have neighbors beyond your kingdom? To hear tales of other lands? To have a kingdom more suited to your desires? My sister can provide all those things. A kingdom where the land itself serves your desires just as your subjects do."
"You can do that?"
"With ease," I answered. "Behold."
I activated our dimensional viewing system, granting the Goblin King sight of our world. We were geosynchronous with a great dome lit in blues and greens. The walls were full of alcoves, some bright and some dark, promising an infinite variety of tunnels for the goblins to roam and explore. From my real body's perspective, I could see the inspiration that Gaea had used, the heart and circulatory system. It was incomplete, of course, but it was still massive and could be expanded upon almost infinitely.
Nilbog reached out to touch a wall, and his hand passed through the illusion. He looked at me in awe and suspicion. "What is this?" he asked.
"A vision of the future," I offered. "We can grant you that kingdom. You will be able to abandon this forsaken and dying kingdom in exchange for a territory whose beauty and bounty defies imagination. In exchange for swearing your loyalty and fealty to the God-Empresses of Avalon."
He kept trying to touch the walls of the faux ventricle that would be part of his new home.
"Yes, yes, this is truly a miracle worthy of godhood," he remarked appreciatively. The basis was Minerva's idea, using an animal body as inspiration. Passengers influence their hosts subconsciously, and in the case of someone like Nilbog with absolutely no other influences to muddy the waters, he would be as strongly motivated by the Passenger's desires as anyone could be. In this case, that influence took the form of alien worlds and biosystems. He'd be compelled to love this creation the same way an infant is compelled to love their mother's attention.
"Then your oath of fealty?" I insisted.
"You have it," he agreed eagerly, his fat rippling like a slow motion view of a water balloon right before it burst from his excited bouncing.
"Good," I replied. "Now, let us discuss your first tasks as a vassal of the gods."
=================
A/N- Clarice takes all her school's drama and literature classes.
I nodded, and Clarice spoke. "I bring a blessing to your lord, but only to his person, and none other. One does not get to snub divinity." Shatterbird would be proud of my display here, I thought. She'd deny it, of course, and find some way to insult it. But she would be impressed nonetheless.
A voice called out from inside, which Clarice easily picked up on. It was excessively jovial, overdramatic and strange. But unlike my behavior as Bonesaw, this man was not faking it in any way. This is how he wants to act and believes he should act. "Spectacular! I've never met a goddess before! Come in, come in!"
I allowed Bella to descend, and she walked into the building, her wings folded to her sides. Or she pretended to walk. It had taken weeks of work to achieve it, but this was actually a flight subroutine. Bella would mimic walking or running, but her feet would never touch the ground. One of my favorite bits of showmanship. The features were also programmed into the other steeds I had built, of course, but it was designed for Bella.
Nilbog was sitting upon a throne that looked to be cobbled together from modifying a love seat. He was massive, easily four or five hundred pounds, and most of it was fat. His skin coated in a thin greaselike substance that was blotted with the ashes of fires and dirt. "You spoke of a blessing?" he asked with the eagerness of a five year old. It would take all of minutes for a man like Jack to twist this pathetic sap to his will.
"Yes, I did," I answered, still astride Bella. "I am Aceso, I come here to your kingdom on behalf of Gaea, bringing a message from all the gods. An invitation."
"What if I do not believe you are a god, child?" he asked, still smiling. This was a game I knew, feigning haughtiness in the face of a possibly superior foe. Jack might not have written that book, but he certainly added a few chapters.
"Nothing will happen," I answered.
"So you are afraid of me?" he laughed, his multiple chins shaking. Drops of oil splattered down his body. Most people would find him repulsive, I knew. I certainly didn't find him attractive, but I was familiar with worse horrors than he had to offer. I created many of them.
"Not in the least," I answered. "I will simply take my leave of you. Your punishment will be nothing at all. Gods are secure in their power, and unbelievers suffer simply for being unbelievers."
"No!" he insisted. "Gods are mighty and should demonstrate their might. Teach the unbelievers to suffer for the crime of refusing to obey and bow to them. Only weak gods would allow themselves to be ignored. You are no god."
"He's projecting," Minerva informed us. "He was a loner and a loser before getting his powers. He knows what he did to Ellisburg was wrong, but he has convinced himself that they were at fault for treating him wrong. He still feels guilt, though he will of course deny that, even to himself."
"I can prove otherwise," I answered. "Gods have great knowledge. For example, I know that this body you present here is not the real you. That is fine, you may talk to me through your intermediary. More importantly, I know that your kingdom is slowly dying."
He frowned, his mood darkening.
On the other side, I was listening and watching as Gaea and Khepri discussed and worked with Defiant. They're nearly finished. "Add a second shunt device," I instructed them as they worked.
"That's going to slow us down a little," Defiant replied.
"Trust me, I have a plan," I told them. They, thankfully, didn't argue
"Gods have great power, able to perform incredible miracles," I continued, buying the bit of time needed.
"What miracles can you perform, then?" he smirked. "I have slaughtered and claimed my own kingdom. I have populated it with subjects loyal to my will and ready to service my every desire. What miracles have you performed?"
I have created diseases that would scour life from this planet. "I have restored the dead to life," I answered slowly and dramatically, exploiting Clarice's painstakingly perfected voice. "I craft weapons powerful enough to slay other gods. I have seen those weapons turned upon the Endbringers, and then birthed armies from their dead flesh. I offered those armies to my Sister's consort as a tribute." Would he even remember the Endbringers, trapped behind this wall for as long as he has been? "I am the gatekeeper of life and death even for the immortals."
"We're ready," Gaea informed me. She sounded more than a little upset right now, and much of it was probably caused by my speech. Sorry, Big Sister, this mission is more important than your discomfort. I could observe the unnatural calming influence from Taylia at work, making my words more palatable. Khepri agrees that, since this is working, it's the right thing to do.
"Still, it is not my miracles that should concern you here, today," I finished. "I will agree that gods are not always known for benevolence, but we shall show you such blessings today. Behold."
On the side, I gave the command. "Now."
There was a crackle as the large amount of air was displaced and the mass shunted through. A living blob of psuedo-flesh, thousands of pounds of it, appeared. It was more like a large slab of raw roast beef with a pulse than anything else, and it smelled much the same. The outer layer, at least, was Yggdrasil tuned to work with the shunt drives, although the inner matter had been transmuted into something very much animal flesh.
"What is that?" the bloated man-child asked, as dozens of his hidden minions started crawling out of the woodworks. Literally in more than a few cases. They came in many shapes and sizes, most childlike in their natures, three to four feet tall, hybrids of human and animal features. Few were functional lifeforms, clumsy and misshapen and only alive due to his power breaking many of the laws of biology. It seemed that Nilbog was more interested in creating creatures that looked like cartoons than he was in making life that could function as a viable being. They're toys, I realized quickly. No more indicative of his real capabilities than Fluffy was of mine. And created for the same reasons, an escape from loneliness.
"It is the blessing we have brought to you and your kingdom," I answered. "Nourishment and strength for your subjects, enough to restore those you've lost."
His minions rushed toward it, ready to devour it in their hunger and need. "Again," I instructed my friends. The slap of flesh vanished before the goblins reached the target. The ones nearby desperately lapped at the fluids left on the floor where it had sat.
"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, bellowing his rage as the minions turned toward me. They can kill this Clarice, I decided. Perhaps they could even destroy the newest model. Certainly this old one is doomed.
Clarice, of course, showed no fear or concern. She could have, if I wanted her to. She could be very convincing, but now a lack of fear was ideal. "I believe we spoke earlier of what the punishment for denying gods should be. You claimed wrath and murder. I claimed that the greatest punishment was nothing. This is what I meant. You reject us, and we do nothing. We keep our blessings from you, and you are the one to suffer, while the true gods remain untouched and untroubled."
The monsters kept advancing.
"Attempt to harm me, and we can revoke the blessing permanently," I threatened. "Or acknowledge our godhood and accept our blessings, knowing that we are your betters. You are a king, are you not? Your duty is to your subjects first. Surely, the price we ask is nothing to the reward that comes from it?" Fuck you, Jack, I thought angrily in my head. Everything you used on me and others, all the tricks to manipulate the vulnerable and the unhinged. They are lessons I will never forget. Fuck you.
The corpulent Nilbog avatar growled at me, causing his whole body to ripple. The goblins around him, however, stopped their approach, following cues that Clarice's sensors and my own deduction concluded was based upon smell, although I lacked enough data to understand those messages. "Very well," he finally spoke, feigning boredom. "You have proven you are indeed worthy of your claim to godhood."
Clarice nodded, and I didn't even have a chance to speak before the slab of flesh appeared where it had been before. My team had clued in on the plan. It landed on several of the goblins, who made a series of unhappy noises that quickly turned to ravenous joy as they started feasting upon the meat from their trapped positions. A couple of the minions cut a comparatively small, but still several pound, chunk out of the thing and brought it before Nilbog.
His eating habits are even messier than the Siberian's, I decided. Much of the material falling in bloody splatters across his body. Smaller, froglike creatures then crawled over him, lapping away the spilled mess. Nilbog moaned at the sensations of the cleaning.
I heard Lisa retch in disgust. Highlight of my day, I decided. Clarice and I simply waited patiently until the gorging had finished.
"Now that you have accepted our blessings, hear our vision for the future of your kingdom."
Nilbog, still moaning lightly as the creatures scuttered across his body cleaning him, smiled at me. "I'm listening."
"You are hated by those outside this wall," I started.
"And I care?" he asked.
"I expect you do not," I admitted. "But would it not be better to have neighbors beyond your kingdom? To hear tales of other lands? To have a kingdom more suited to your desires? My sister can provide all those things. A kingdom where the land itself serves your desires just as your subjects do."
"You can do that?"
"With ease," I answered. "Behold."
I activated our dimensional viewing system, granting the Goblin King sight of our world. We were geosynchronous with a great dome lit in blues and greens. The walls were full of alcoves, some bright and some dark, promising an infinite variety of tunnels for the goblins to roam and explore. From my real body's perspective, I could see the inspiration that Gaea had used, the heart and circulatory system. It was incomplete, of course, but it was still massive and could be expanded upon almost infinitely.
Nilbog reached out to touch a wall, and his hand passed through the illusion. He looked at me in awe and suspicion. "What is this?" he asked.
"A vision of the future," I offered. "We can grant you that kingdom. You will be able to abandon this forsaken and dying kingdom in exchange for a territory whose beauty and bounty defies imagination. In exchange for swearing your loyalty and fealty to the God-Empresses of Avalon."
He kept trying to touch the walls of the faux ventricle that would be part of his new home.
"Yes, yes, this is truly a miracle worthy of godhood," he remarked appreciatively. The basis was Minerva's idea, using an animal body as inspiration. Passengers influence their hosts subconsciously, and in the case of someone like Nilbog with absolutely no other influences to muddy the waters, he would be as strongly motivated by the Passenger's desires as anyone could be. In this case, that influence took the form of alien worlds and biosystems. He'd be compelled to love this creation the same way an infant is compelled to love their mother's attention.
"Then your oath of fealty?" I insisted.
"You have it," he agreed eagerly, his fat rippling like a slow motion view of a water balloon right before it burst from his excited bouncing.
"Good," I replied. "Now, let us discuss your first tasks as a vassal of the gods."
=================
A/N- Clarice takes all her school's drama and literature classes.
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