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96. The Seal of the Gryphon

  Redmane crouched over the carcass of the Gryphon, his teeth shearing through muscle, his jaws crunching bone, hot blood flowing down his chin. The meat was satisfying, nourishing. It tasted like its siblings, the Manticore and the Sphinx.

  A flavor Redmane seemed to recall, perhaps from a previous life.

  Had this happened before?

  He didn’t know.

  Even after learning so much, he felt there was still much to discover.

  Level Up!

  Level 116 —> Level 117

  Level 117 —> Level 118

  Level 118 —> Level 119

  Level 119 —> Level 120

  Quality Points awaiting allocation: 4

  Might 86 —> 90

  —

  Monster Skills Learned:

  Gryphon’s Dive

  Bloodline Skill (Monstrous)

  Rank 1 - Evolution Possible

  Active - 75 Gnosis

  The Monster dives at its prey from above, enhancing its momentum with a surge of Gnosis.

  This Skill supplements the damage of an attack made with one of the Monster’s natural weapons, and if the Monster performs the attack while descending upon its target — whether in flight or at the end of a leap or fall — the targeted creature's Evasion is halved.

  Golden Flame

  Bloodline Skill (Monstrous)

  Rank 1 - Evolution Possible

  Active - 100 Gnosis

  The Monster is a keeper of Golden Flame.

  Golden Flame burns flammable substances in the same manner as mundane fire. The Monster may breathe it, hurl it, project it from their eyes, or whichever other mechanism comes naturally. When used as a weapon, Golden Flame has the following weapon profile:

  Damage +20

  Armor Penetration 10

  Evasion Negation 8 (Spread 6)

  Corpus Damage over Time (Burning 8)

  A creature afflicted with a Condition will find itself cleansed of one stack of said Condition for every 30 seconds spent in the presence of Golden Flame. Prolonged exposure may even purify creatures corrupted or possessed by malevolent spirits. The Golden Flame has a warding effect against such entities.

  —

  The Gryphon had impressive physical qualities. Its wings were strong, well suited for long distance flying at high altitudes. Its talons were dense like iron and wickedly curved.

  And then there was its Golden Flame.

  Redmane held out his hand, palm up, and conjured a ball of it. Watched it burn. Its color reminded him of the torches in the Tomb of Vos.

  Had Vos given this weapon to the Five Heroes?

  Or had he taken it from him?

  As he gazed into the fire, he pondered those questions and considered the possibilities.

  Perhaps, in the Abyss, one could combine this weapon with others. He had an interest in what a combination of Lion’s Lunge and Gryphon’s Dive would look like as well. But those were questions for later.

  The third Seal lay before him now, broken.

  Redmane closed his fist, and the Golden Flame went up in wisps of glowing yellow. He directed his gaze up to the much larger and much more fiery mass of power before him, tendrils of glowing crimson Gnosis extending from it like veins of lightning, its pulse mirroring his own as he stood and approached it with a growing sense of…

  Anxiety.

  Strange. It had never made him feel that way before.

  Redmane reached out for it, gritting his teeth in advance to brace for the searing, transformative pain to come. It struck him the instant the tip of his finger made contact. White-hot power flooding into his body, fire pouring into his mind and soul, the contents of one vessel mixing with the other, connecting two long separated parts of a once-whole entity.

  The thing that was once called Kraal the Devourer.

  But this time, Redmane truly felt Kraal’s presence. And he did so with a growing sense of alarm.

  He was in something like a Soulspace. Kraal the Devourer loomed over him in his mind’s eye, a being whose malice was as boundless as its hunger, who had nearly consumed a civilization, a single eye over a titanic maw. Its psychic presence dwarfed him. Made him realize he was indeed a part of a once-whole entity. A tiny part.

  Now Kraal was alive. It was awake.

  And it was going to do to Redmane what Redmane had done to the others.

  Redmane didn’t know where or when he was. There was no terrain around them, no sky, but such details hardly seemed relevant in the moment. The only thing he needed to know right then was that he felt the pull of the wind. Faintly at first, but growing in power. Its origin was the back of Kraal’s all devouring gullet.

  Oblivion.

  He stared at that point of darkness and understood.

  If it consumed him now, Redmane would become for Kraal what Pietr and the others were for him. Mere presences in the mind of a greater being. A higher power. Expendable passengers who existed at its leisure, who could be disposed of on a whim.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The inexorable pull of that vortex took him. Slowly at first, as if there were more mass inside Redmane’s man-sized frame than he realized. Even so, it drew him in slowly but surely, and there was nothing to take hold of, to grab onto to arrest the pull of Kraal’s terrible hunger.

  Closer and closer he came to that maw…

  And at the same time he felt the urge to give in to it. To become one with it. To allow it to consume him and digest him, to make him part of its whole, to exult in its awakening, to witness the exhilarating, terrifying spectacle of the wrath of a God of old. It felt like a hint of Pietr’s zeal mixed with his own.

  He couldn’t tell where the priest ended and he began. Nor the others. They were all joined together, their minds and his mind, parts of a collective.

  You have fed it well. As its stature has grown, so it is matched by its appetite.

  The voice was unfamiliar. Deep and sonorous. Regal.

  Even as panic grew in Redmane’s chest, as he began to flail and claw at the nothingness to arrest the drag of Kraal’s vortex, he saw a figure standing next to him. Upright and calm, completely unaffected by the pull.

  He could have been Redmane’s twin, except for the hair and the eyes. His were green, and his hair was blond like new wheat. He wore fine clothes and a red cloak trimmed in gold.

  Sencis Karalis, said Redmane, with more than a little tension in his voice.

  The King of the Stahlmen regarded him sternly.

  What do you intend to do with it now, Redmane. Can you control it? Or will it become your master, as it became mine.

  I will not be consumed.

  So you say.

  There was a note of grim amusement in the King’s voice.

  He watched Redmane struggle in vain, arms wheeling against the drag of the vortex, legs tensed as if there were any ground to brace against. He brought forth the wings of the Manticore for a burst of power, but there was no air to lift himself into.

  There was nothing but the ever shortening moments between this moment and the moment of his demise.

  Redmane’s heart pounded in his skull, faster and faster. He felt a cold sweat break out over his skin. His muscles muscles tensed, senses made keener by the proximity of death. Despite the unreality of this place, his body felt increasingly real.

  But it wasn’t.

  This was a projection. An abstraction. It was illusionary.

  It was the identity of Kraal. The mind of Kraal. But not the body.

  The body was already his.

  Redmane noticed that mere thought was enough to arrest his movement. He held still for a moment. But then his stomach lurched as the pull of the vortex intensified, drawing him frighteningly close to that cavernous maw.

  He had become strong.

  But not strong enough to challenge the will of Kraal the Devourer directly. Not yet.

  He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see a grinning Pietr standing at his side.

  A hand landed on his opposite shoulder, belonging to Dobrogost.

  Four demi-human warriors stood right behind him. And a mighty Ice Warg.

  Redmane may once have been a part of this thing called Kraal, but now others were a part of him. And they joined their wills together against the all-devourer.

  And Sencis Karalis stood with him.

  Now they were a rock standing tall against the tide. Like the shores of the Fangs of Frost, battered by the surf but resolute.

  I will not be consumed.

  Even with the aid of all of them, it still felt like any moment he would fly into the maw of Kraal like a man thrown into deep water with a stone tied to his ankle. Together they were strong, but even with their aid there was precious little time.

  Redmane drew in a breath. Closed his eyes.

  When he opened them, his fanged mouth opened and he hit Kraal with the same vortex.

  Two funnels of all-consuming power met each other in the space between them, twisted together like a tornado. If this were happening in the physical world it would have devastated everything around them. At first Redmane struggled seemingly in vain, against the great mass of Kraal’s will.

  But he remained in the fight.

  And, moment after moment, a disadvantage grew into a stalemate. And the stalemate ever so slightly tipped in his favor.

  He became aware of the growing dismay in Kraal’s mind.

  As his vortex grew to equal size, and then slightly greater, and then more than slightly greater. The massive form of the devourer was now the one moving, drawing closer to Redmane, struggling and casting about in fear.

  Redmane’s heart flared like a furnace.

  I will not be consumed.

  I will not become a part of you.

  I am Redmane.

  I am Redmane!

  Kraal the Devourer drew closer and closer, its fear and rage as palpable as a twenty foot wall of fire in front of Redmane’s face. When it reached a certain distance its form distorted, stretching toward the origin of the vortex in Redmane’s maw.

  Then, all at once, it shot into him.

  Redmane reeled. The force of their joining blew him back through space. He felt as if something had shoved him backward underwater, except nothing halted his momentum.

  The voice of Sencis Karalis returned.

  Wield it with wisdom.

  And the darkness gave way to light.

  Redmane fell to a crouch, his chest heaving, eyes wide.

  He focused on the sensation of the cold stone floor against the palms of his hands. It helped bring him down into physical reality. Into his body.

  Which was… Much more powerful.

  —

  Might +30

  Grace +30

  Fortitude +30

  Armor +20

  Evasion +20

  Skill Evolved:

  Devourer

  Bloodline Skill (Monstrous)

  Rank 3 - Evolution Possible

  Passive

  Rank 0:

  The Monster derives sustenance from anything, and its digestion produces no waste. Its teeth and jaws can chew through most substances with sustained effort.

  The Monster's consumption of flesh restores its Corpus, and consumption of magic restores its Gnosis. All caps for Corpus and Gnosis, regardless of source, are removed.

  The consumption of refined metals will permanently increase the Monster's Armor and the damage of its physical natural weapons, such as claws, bite, horns, talons or spines. Damage and Armor gains are proportionate to the quantity and purity of metals consumed.

  When the Monster consumes the flesh of a creature possessing a Skill, it will adopt that Skill as its own at Rank 1. If the creature possesses multiple Skills, the Monster will acquire that creature's highest Ranked Skill. If the creature possesses more than one Skill tied for highest Rank, the Monster acquires them all.

  Skills obtained in this way increase in Rank by whatever process the Monster gains in power, if any.

  When the Monster consumes weapons and armor with special qualities, it may allocate those qualities to its physical natural weapons, such as claws, bite, horns, talons or spines, if it possesses any. Armor qualities may be allocated as long as the Monster possesses a natural Armor bonus. If the Damage and Armor Penetration values of a consumed weapon are higher than that of the Monster’s natural weapons, the natural weapons will gain the difference between the two as a permanent bonus.

  The Monster may also consume Talismans and Vestments, thereby inheriting whatever bonuses or special qualities they conferred while worn.

  Rank 1:

  The Monster consumes the souls of sapient beings it has eaten.

  The souls of consumed beings take residence in the Monster’s Soulspace, and may speak to and hear one another and the Monster as if all were physically present. If the Monster no longer wishes to speak or listen to souls occupying its Soulspace, it can block communication from them at any time.

  If the Monster possesses a Skill capable of creating a minion, it may imbue the minion with the soul of a being previously consumed by Devourer. The soul retains the ability to use all its Skills, provided the form it occupies possesses sufficient Gnosis to use them. If the minion in question is slain or dismissed by the Monster, the soul returns immediately to the Monster’s Soulspace.

  At any time, the Monster may destroy the soul of a being it has consumed, granting it a sum of Gnosis proportionate to the strength of the soul in question.

  Rank 2:

  The Monster's mouth becomes a vortex of indiscriminate consumption.

  This ability functions as the opposite of a breath weapon. A conical area centered on the Monster’s mouth functions as a vortex, drawing in any objects within its range. Upon ingestion, these objects will bestow upon the Monster any benefits they would confer if they were eaten normally. The Monster’s Soulspace serves as a repository for consumed souls per the norm, although the vortex has no effect on incorporeal creatures.

  The vortex has an effective Might score equal to the Monster's, for the purpose of determining its ability to pull heavy objects in. The size of the cone will increase as Rank increases.

  Rank 3:

  The Monster consumes the incorporeal as well as the physical.

  If the Monster can perceive incorporeal creatures, such as ghosts or spirits, it can eat them. This capability extends to the Monster’s vortex, which is not limited to a conical area for the purpose of this aspect of the Skill.

  Instead, the Monster can draw in all incorporeal creatures in a spherical area around it. This vortex use differs from the main version; they cannot be used simultaneously.

  The Monster may send consumed ghosts or spirits to its Soulspace, or digest them for their Gnosis and Skills.

  —

  In time, Redmane’s breathing slowed. The thunder of his heartbeat subsided.

  His mind felt light. Airy. Released from the grip of the ordeal. He felt like his skin was the only thing preventing him from scattering all over the room.

  Splendid.

  He survived.

  And to think, there were two more of those to come…

  PATREON

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