AO 6 Ch 17

After surviving the battle with the two gods and enduring Ditzy's teasing, I came to two realizations. First, I was well out of my depth, both in terms of knowledge and power. It seemed that Ditzy had planned to provoke Thor, who was prone to emotional outbursts.

That and he probably was compensating for something.

There were also numerous contests and dynamics between the gods that I didn't fully comprehend. It was about time I got a crash course, and this might be something even beyond Maribelle and Zuri's expertise. Regrettably, I would have to ask Missy or Ditzy for help. The only other gods I knew were two who more likely put me six feet under at the current moment.

There were Avente’s gods, but Missy said they were Freya in disguise.

As for power, that was a complex issue. I was continuously channeling what I had claimed from Missy and Freya's fight into converting the palace in the center of Soulgard into Ardenium. It radiated power.

Simultaneously, I had to question what exactly I was doing. While I might be creating this mystical, magical-looking metal, I didn't even know its purpose, other than possibly protecting me from other soul attacks. Soul attacks had been the reason for bluesteel in the first place. Ardenium was just a further evolution of that concept.

It protected me and soaked up magic better than a sponge, but otherwise I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

Regardless, I could sense immense power in the changes I was making to my soul.

Missy and Ditzy, for whatever reason, seemed reluctant to discuss their opinions of the changes with me. They gave excuses like letting me explore and chart my own path without their influence. Such responses only served to frustrate me, but if there was one thing I was good at, it was channeling frustration into productivity.

I got to work expanding Soulgard until I had exhausted all the magic I had pulled from Freya.

When that was done, Soulgard had naturally expanded. I had been trying to condense so much of this energy into Ardenium, but there was still some waste, although waste felt like the wrong term.

Instead of going directly into the palace, the bits of magic had spilled out, seeping into Soulgard. Unbeknownst to me, that flow of excess had slowly expanded the space that Soulgard encompassed. It was difficult to comprehend, but the whole place seemed to function like a plant. If I watered it, it would grow. And I had just finished absorbing the water from a massive rainstorm. 

After using up the magic and deciding I was done for the moment, I opened my eyes, reentering the real world and finding myself alone on my bed.

I groaned and sat up, only to hear my anchors outside my door. 

"Arden's up!" Emlyn shouted, sounding cheerful. 

"Good, I was worried he was going to sleep all day," Zuri commented. 

"I wasn't sleeping. I was hard at work expanding Soulgard and getting stronger. I took two attacks from a god, I will let you know." I said, nodding and looking at each of them. 

"Wait, you fought a god?" Zuri frowned at me. "I thought Missy said you were going to watch." 

"Well, 'fight' is kind of the wrong word," I quickly corrected myself. 

"Okay, so you didn't fight a god. So it wasn't that impressive," Emlyn said, cracking a smile. 

"Well, well, well. I supported Missy, even if I wasn't directly in the line of fire. And my support was invaluable," I defended myself. 

"Arden, I love you. But I'll wait to hear that from the two goddesses before I take your word for it," Emlyn retorted. 

I gasped, placing a hand against my chest. "You wouldn't." 

"I absolutely would. You have been known to brag." Emlyn deadpanned.

"Well, at least I don't eat mud pies, Princess Mud..." I started.

The piece of charcoal that had been in Emlyn's hands shot across the room faster than most magic spells.

I blinked, a small piece of ice forming in front of me almost instinctively to catch and stop the piece of charcoal. That was… unusually quick.

"Now, now, Emlyn. That was uncalled for," I wagged a finger at her while hiding my slight mystification at why I didn't have a goose egg in the middle of my forehead. I was fine with not being pummeled, but my reflexes generally were not as sharp.

The moment felt similar to when Thor’s hammer had stopped from clobbering my head, but that had been because of the god rules.

I shook my head, remembering that Ditzy had managed to pull one over on me. I’d have to get her back for that in the future.

"You mean your grand contribution to all of this," Emlyn scowled at me, "was wagging your tongue until you pissed off a god?" 

"I wouldn't say my entire contribution," I began to argue as Missy materialized. 

"I would say that's about right." Missy added, apparently still holding a little grudge.

Emlyn's brow shot up and pointed at Missy as if to prove that she had just won. 

"I mean, I did more than that. Right Missy?" I argued.

"If you did, I didn't see it," she said, sounding still a smidge bitter about having done all the work. Why she was still moody since we had all exited was beyond me. I’d already explained to her the thing with Ditzy was just an act.

"Ha," Emlyn said in triumph. "Well, now that you're done going off and playing and upsetting the gods, why don't we talk about staying alive? You know, that thing we mere mortals have to continually work to do."

"Well, we're doing fine. We have food, shelter, and Aurelia's doing a wonderful job of making sure that little poisonous critters don't sneak into our bedrolls." I said.

The monster hunter and survivalist amidst us had helped me amend the structure slightly, as well as using some of her fire to sweep the area around clear of bugs and anything that might attract them. 

"Yeah, but we still have to get out of this whole situation and maybe do something about this crazy king that wants to kill us all." Emlyn sighed.

"Technically, he really only wants to kill Ard," Zuri interjected, only to get a double whammy of a glare from both me and Emlyn. 

"Which, we would all stand together and all die if he tried, so perhaps not that different," Zuri conceded. 

Missy, on the other hand, seemed light on her feet as she started making food. I squinted suspiciously. She never cooked. 

"I think," Missy started, glancing up to make sure she had all of our attention, "what Zuri is trying to say is that King Martin is in a position to accelerate his strength dangerously, especially if he and any others he might have that are like Carmilla join the war front, which is currently on the other side of a kingdom from us." 

She bit into a pickle, talking around it. "And because of that distance, if he does join the fight, we're in no tactical position to do anything about it. Heck, he could throw his entire soldiers at Avente right now and perhaps we could sweep behind enemy lines and do some damage. But the game has changed. He is now the ultimate piece on the board and at risk of snowballing his power to the point that no one is going to stop him." Missy punctuated her statement with another crisp bite of the pickle. 

"More or less," Zuri sighed, facing the group again. "I don't know about becoming unstoppable, but he can certainly get enough momentum that could put our plan in trouble. I am not sure how long we can hide successfully." 

I scowled down at my hands and the fact that I had no food. "So we need to deal with King Martin, who is reportedly holed up in the capital of the enemy kingdom. And he has likely already enhanced himself to be even more powerful than previously believed."

"That's working on the assumption that Carmilla was a prototype," the goddess who suddenly had the munchies spoke around another bite of food. "He's changed himself. I can confirm that from when we used the fragment of his soul to go after Freya, his soul was warped beyond human means. Freya has directly stuck her hand in and changed him."

My eyes opened wide. "Way to bury the lead. That was important news we could have used before."

Missy gestured at herself and at the conversation we were having. "I thought this was the meeting where we updated everyone on what we've learned. This is what we've learned, Ard. He has certainly changed. However, using those three fragments and attacking Freya through him will weaken him. No only are those fragments of his soul, but Freya ripped them up."

Zuri rubbed her chin. "If we know he's injured or weakened, we can better predict how he's going to act. When people need to lick their wounds, they all tend to act in the same way."

I raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue.

"If they're injured in the middle of an act, they'll usually get desperate and push forward. But if they're injured and they're in the rear already, or at the end of something, they will most certainly go to ground and recover, especially if King Martin thinks he's as such a kingpin as he is. So, I would assume he is going to fortify himself and recover, funneling whatever resources he feels he needs to grow himself for the next step in his plan."

I frowned at that. "Resources to grow himself sounds awfully like going to find people to eat. But he essentially has a dozen bodies to go gather it all."

Missy shook her head. "I doubt he’s going to transform all those bodies so they can drain souls. Everything thus far has shown he’s shifting from puppets to loyalists for his support."

“They are still his biggest pieces on the board.” Zuri reasoned, staring at the map I’d made on the table.

I followed her logic and took it one step further. "That means if we can hunt down all of the pieces of his soul, we can slow his recovery and perhaps frustrate him into making a mistake?" I glanced at Zuri who’s expression was unreadable.

“Not a bad idea. The other option is to rush to him and try and finish this now.” She said.

"I'm not too eager to jump straight into the capital of Garish. That feels like a wonderful way to get completely mobbed and overwhelmed." I admitted.

"He's not wrong," Aurelia said quickly. "Though Emlyn may hate it, I think Ard's right. Weakening him first might be the best option."

"I don't hate that he's right," Emlyn corrected her. "I'm just doubtful every time it happens. But I have to agree, running straight into the capital sounds like a bad idea. Especially when we don't know how many of these things like Carmilla exist.”

“Vampyrs." Missy offered. "At least, borrowing a word from another world. Creatures that suck the life out of others."

I gestured towards Missy. "Well, now we have a name for our big bad guy. Vampyrs. Now that we know the monster, perhaps we could talk about how we find them and lure them out to remove King Martin’s support before we go for a finishing blow. But I have to agree that sitting back and waiting for them to make the next move is going to be bad considering how trapped we are here in the Badlands."

Everyone sat around the table looking at one another, seeing if they had the miraculous plan that would get us out of the current predicament. However, I think we all knew it wouldn't be that easy.

My eyes shifted over to Missy, who was licking juice off of her fingers.

"What?” She asked, frowning.

“I thought you didn't eat." I pointed a finger at her.

"I don't have to eat," she clarified. "Food still tastes good though, Ard. Now that you have a surplus I don’t have to hold back.”

“Mhm. So is there anything else you may have gleaned when you passed through the Mad King's Soul? You are eating all my food and I expect payment.” I pointed out.

“You owe me. All that power you just got was courtesy of my efforts.” She gave me a look that dared me to argue that point.

I held my hands up in mock surrender. "Oh no, let me be clear. Thank you very much. But while you're here and eating our food, you should contribute to the mission, especially if you can.”

She thought for a moment. “I am still limited in what I can do. I can't exactly give you the answers even if I had them.”

There were those rules again. “Perhaps an assessment of these rules is in order?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Never mess with the rules, Ard. I wouldn't go as far as to call them a living thing, but they act on intent. You can't just read the letter of them and weave around their meanings. It's a great way to get them to act up and make life harder than you can imagine. But, even with the rules, I think I can help at least some." Missy’s eyes left mine as she turned to stare into the distance.

I waited patiently, my eyes darting to the food she was preparing as my stomach growled impatiently.

She spoke a moment later. "Between Ditzy and I, we can probably put our heads together and come up with some helpful bits we can share, but it's going to be a little bit difficult, you may not have seen it, Ard. However, Ditzy expended quite a bit of her energy to give me that spear. She's currently resting."

I frowned. The last place Ditzy had been was in my soul, which meant, like Missy, that my soul likely now had a new goddess using it like their personal spa. 

"Fine," I accepted that I might have to wait, but I was certainly going to keep pestering them for information. "Let her rest. She did good work and turned the tide when you started waffling. I'm sure the rest of us can come up with a few plans. Perhaps if we can't figure out where King Martin's special new forces are at the moment, then we can just bring them to us," I glanced around the table, proud of my sudden bout of insight. Though, as for a concrete plan, I didn't have one yet. That's why I surrounded myself with women smarter than me. Zuri would figure that one out.

Ditzy popped into the room, as if us talking about her had roused her. I noted some slight shadows under her eyes. She really did look like it had cost her something to help Missy. Though she still had a smile on her face as she glanced at the dark-haired goddess. 

"What are you doing eating like that? Are you pregnant? Ard, are you having a little demigod with Hecate?" Ditzy gasped and covered her mouth. 

"A what?" I said, completely stunned by her joke. 

"That's it!" Missy cried out in a halo of energy shot out from her, twisting into complicated lines before trapping Ditzy in a cage. "She's clearly far more tired than she lets on. I'll go make sure she gets some rest." Missy clamped a hand over Ditzy's mouth and dragged the blonde-haired goddess away, who was a mixture of laughter and struggle. 

I shook my head and glanced back at my anchors. "Did any of you understand that?" 

"I think you're the only one who didn't." Emlyn shook her head. 

"All right, well maybe we should get down to planning." Zuri said, trying to refocus the group, only for Aurelia's hand to shoot up into the air.

"If you guys don't mind, I'd like to borrow Ard for a few adjustments to the structure.” Aurelia stated.

I tilted my head. We'd done that yesterday, but perhaps she'd come up with a few more since that conversation.

"Sure, I'll let the masterminds figure everything out and they can call me when they need my magic," I smirked at the group and got up to help Aurelia.

"You aren't the only one with magic.” Emlyn grumbled. “I can do some things as well."

Though her words sounded bitter, she still had a smile on her face. I decided to use that as an excuse to take my leave. "Aurelia, let's go, my lovely manticore."

The Virel had her flame-red hair returned to her one of these evenings since we'd entered the Badlands. She simply felt more comfortable being herself rather than in disguise. And disguises did not do us much good at the moment. We seemed to be the only human life out in the Badlands and an army had their sights set on us.

"So, what was it that you needed changed?" I asked as we walked outside and she held up a finger for me to wait a moment longer. I shrugged and began to walk a slow circle around the building, a jet of fire streaming out of a finger as I used flames as the most effective pesticide.

I could imagine a healer-focused serpent mages scolding me, telling me that it was bad for the ecosystem to burn away all the smaller animals. But when it came to highly venomous spiders and scorpions, I prioritized my own survival over any larger concept of conservation. I really didn't want to wake up spasming from poison one day. The desire I had to avoid that scenario far outweighed any argument you could throw at me. 

"So, what did you want to talk about?" I asked, reopening the dialogue after Aurelia had been quiet for a moment.

She bit her lip and looked at me. My fierce manticore was gone, and I was about to deal with the cuddly mantikitten.

I smiled, excited to have my cuddles.

She slid up next to me and pressed her body against mine. There were only two layers of cloth between us. Perhaps it was because she had so much fire magic inside her, but I could feel the warmth radiating from her. 

"I can handle it. How much danger were you actually in?" She asked me.

"Well, I thought I was about to die, but I also think that Ditzy was pulling a prank on me," I scowled at the reminder of my life flashing before my eyes. "So, in the end, I don't think I was in much danger. Missy seemed to have the fight all meticulously planned out, including using Ditzy to counter what Freya threw at her. Honestly, I think Missy is a little more powerful than we've given her credit for thus far." 

"That's a given, Ard. She's a goddess, even if you don't treat her like one." Aurelia laughed.

Before I could say anything else, Aurelia wrapped me in a fierce hug, tucking her head underneath my chin. 

"Hold me," she grumbled. 

I chuckled and held her tight. "If you want cuddles, you just need to ask." 

"Sometimes I want…" she nuzzled her face against my chest before mumbling under her breath. 

"What was that? I couldn't hear you." I pushed.

She looked up through her red locks, a pout on her face. "Sometimes I want you to just cuddle me without me having to ask. I always want cuddles." 

I kissed the top of her head, resisting the urge to tease her.

My fierce, Virel, monster hunter extraordinaire had gone through grueling survival training and had some of the most intense combat expertise, not just amongst my anchors, but any anchors. Yet she often just wanted cuddles. 

"When you go off and do something dangerous without me and you come back, I absolutely want cuddles every time. More so, was Maribelle or Emlyn able to go with you?" She asked.

I shook my head. "If they were able to, they didn't. It was just me and the two goddesses." 

At this point, Aurelia had practically enveloped herself in me, enough that it was getting hard to stand. With a thought, a stone chair propped up behind me and I sat in it, cradling her into my lap, even though she was nearly as tall as me. My mantikitten wiggled in further. 

"I want to bond like them," she said after a moment.

I brushed the hair out of her face so I could look her in the eyes. "Are you sure?" I didn’t want her to make a rash decision.

She nodded again. "Yes. While you were gone, the only thing I could think about was wanting to be there with you through whatever you were fighting through. I know it sounds silly, Ard, and maybe it's not the same as Emlyn's love or Maribelle's devotion, but you going through some sort of battle that I couldn't be a part of brought me clarity. These battles seem to be escalating further and further out of the realm of me being able to swing my sword and split a skull, and that frustrates me. If the next battlefield that you find yourself on is amidst these souls and these goddesses, and I wasn't in a position to be there and fight by your side, I would be endlessly frustrated. So, I want you to bond me." 

"Right here, right now?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. After hearing the forcefulness in her voice, she shook her head, nuzzling into me. 

"No. To bond, we need to be as close emotionally as possible, right?" She asked.

"Emotionally and physically, even if it's the binding of souls," I said. "I'm fairly certain I could do it as long as you didn't resist me, given everything I've accomplished at this point."

"No," my mantikitten said forcefully. "You said that Avente people use azurbloom paste to create a connection between one another."

I nodded. "And that they have to hold each other the whole time to form the connection." I realized where she was going and jumped ahead. "If you would like, Aurelia, I think perhaps we can make an even stronger bond if you are willing to cuddle and snuggle me the entire time. It might take a little extra effort and therefore some time, so if you're not opposed to cuddling for at least an entire night, then I think we'd probably just have to use another method."

"No," she said urgently. "We can do that. I can do that for the entire night. I think perhaps we..." She hesitated. Aurelia was cute like this. She could cut the head off of a mighty beast and spray blood throughout a battlefield without blinking an eye, but she was a little shy about talking about sex.

"Would you like some post-sex cuddles for the bonding?" I eased her over the hill.

She nodded vigorously. "I think just so that we are emotionally and physically close, that would probably be the best solution."

I curled my lips inwards to stop from smiling. "Yes, that would be the best solution," I said with as much seriousness as I could muster. "After all, we need to be physically and emotionally close to make a good bonding."

She nodded again, leaning into me.

"You're right, you're right. Well then, if you're willing, I'm certainly not one to wait or delay. After all, I'm eager to make my lovely manticore mine forever. Then does tonight sound good?" I asked.

She bobbed her head again. "Perfect." She uncurled herself from my lap. "So we should make sure that everything around the house is clear. We wouldn't want any uninvited crawlers tonight."

"Absolutely not," I shook my head. "I have to remain completely still and cuddled with you for the entire night or this won't work."

I couldn't stop the smile from spreading across my face this time, and she glanced up to catch it. Her eyes lit up and quick as a rabbit, she darted in and kissed me softly, wrapping her arms around the back of my neck and pressing our lips together as her entire body softened and laid on me.