154 Return To Nature

[Congratulatory alert:

You have reached level 20 in the following classes: berserker, warrior, ranger, brawler, and rogue. You did this in an unusual way for the classes other than rogue, but it is commendable nonetheless. You have gained a formidable array of martial abilities and talents with weapons as well as your own fists and other body parts.

You have been awarded the 20th level of rogue due to the stunning and otherwise impossible nature of the theft you performed. By utilizing your parasitic abilities to steal entire centuries worth of memories and experience the system has deemed you deserving of this powerup. You truly are a memorable theft, and hopefully gaining more theft-related abilities will incentivize you to use more diverse powers in the future.]

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The notification was visible to me but at the moment I didn't preoccupy myself with it. Instead, I focused on the scene in front of me. It was much more interesting.

At last I had turned my attention away from the dwarves and onto the orcs. The orcs had been separated from their foes by a wall of flames I had raised in order to stop the fighting and begin to enact schemes. But now I could truly concentrate on this battle's inevitable victors, the orcs who had answered my call.

In front of me stood a horde of pig-faced, variously hued orcs. On average these creatures stood roughly the height of an unusually tall human. Orcs of both genders stood before me. They were too confused or too prideful to kneel. Not that I particularly cared. The horde extended for past the furthest point I could see, which at the moment was a straight line in the cave we were in that stretched on for a vast distance. This cave we were in was by no means shallow.

Now that I could actually focus on and make out the composition of their horde I wasn't surprised to see that it was more diverse than I initially noticed.

Orc males were at the forefront of the horde. They held bloody machetes, ones that smelled of the thick blood of the defeated dwarves. They were clad in a variety of armor types, but most commonly they wore fur. They smelled of wilder places than this cave.

Orc females were at the middle and the back of the horde and they stood far taller than their male counterparts. They carried a number of weapons. Only some of them carried machetes.

Most carried ranged tools, bows and arrows, staffs, and slings, all of which were handy weapons that allowed them to fire on their enemies from a distance. They were dressed in thick furs and they smelled of a number of things but mostly the stink of their male counterparts mixed with the scent of their own sweat.

Weirdly they hadn't really participated during the fighting. Both during the bits and pieces of the fighting that I got to see while Sombra readied her new tool and the actual memories of the fallen but now resurrected dwarves illustrated a clear lack of ranged support from the female orcs. The air also distinctly lacked any noticeable tint of magic. It was... quite odd.

Sombra was next to me, and I could hear her heart pounding in her chest. I could also hear the blood circulating within her, generously flowing to sensitive parts of her anatomy as well as to her face, giving her dark skin a strange sort of radiant glow. Sombra's hand was in mine, and I could sense the joy radiating out of her. She was smiling but there was something... Off about her expression. Something deeply unsettling.

She was elated. It was easy to tell that she was sincerely, almost manically happy. She wasn't paying that much attention to the orcs, but they were studying her. And occasionally their noses crinkled as if they were sniffing her.

The orcs were intelligent creatures even if they looked somewhat feral. A few of them noticed that her hand was in mine, and the bravest of them approached us slowly and uncertainly. I allowed this before beginning to speak.

"Orcs! I am a servant of Althos." I declared, speaking deceptively once more. I didn't feel like revealing the truth of my ruse to these orcs. They didn't immediately reply, but they did look around in confusion and wait a moment. One of them though, a male with a blood-caked machete turned to look at me with bright green eyes. He didn't move to approach me, but behind him someone began to make her way towards Sombra and I.

I could see a female orc carrying a large staff ambling towards us, through the horde. I didn't make a physical motion but I did quietly begin to move the female orc faster using telekinesis. I was subtle with my aid and only helped her in little ways like gently helping her peers out of the way. It didn't take her long to reach us. When she did she moved beside the orc with the blood-caked machete.

The two were large orcs both towering over other orcs of their gender. Interestingly, orcs were one of the first species of humanoids I had seen to date where the females were taller, on average than the males. The female orc was not only standing upright, she was also almost half a meter taller than her companion. She looked to her companion and nodded. A toothy grin emerged on his face right before he opened his mouth to speak.

"Hello! I am... Grog." He told me, speaking slowly and with considerable difficulty. His eyes glowed with intelligence, but it was clear that communicating was not his strong suit.

"I am... chieftain of Red-Hawk orc tribe." He informed me, still speaking slowly and carefully. I could see the cogs in his brain working to ensure that he communicated as effectively as possible. I smiled respectfully at him.

"I am Raphael." I told the orc, lying and taking on the name of one of my angelic servants. The orc's eyes lit up with fascination as he heard my name.

"I am one of Althos' angelic servants. I am an angel of life and healing." I explained, continuing to lie. The orc's eyes increased in brightness, and a smile crept across my face.

"Raphael... Why are you... here?" The chieftain asked, curiosity audibly creeping into his voice. I considered how to best answer his words for a second.

"I am here to bring about peace." I explained, before quietly activating a number of peace-domain abilities.

I started off by activating my "Bloodlust dismissal" while targeting all of the orcs in front of me. I quietly banished as much of their bloodlust as I could, and that was a considerable amount of the anger they felt but it wasn't everything. The power was easy to use, and effective, but as it said in its description it wasn't capable of removing all of any target's bloodlust by itself.

The orcs all sighed as they felt much of their bloodlust fade away, banished, and expelled from them. I also activated another one of my auric abilities: my aura of peace. This powerful ability of mine allowed me to make it incredibly difficult for creatures to clash so long as they were in my presence. My aura of peace manifested by illuminating the air around me in a bright silvery glow.

The final ability I activated was another one I had never used before. It was a potent curse-based ability which made those struck by it worse at violence, and more susceptible to efforts to engage peacefully with the world around them. It had a simple name: "Non-violence". I used it and I targeted all of the orcs in the area, including the deceased orcs. This ability was invisible and imperceptible to those I targeted, but I watched as the living orcs in my presence abruptly slowed down, as if weighed down by something invisible to them.

It was only at this point that I closed my eyes and activated my false resurrection ability. I felt the corrupted, necromantically tinted sparks of life come into being within me. I didn't bother to keep them within me though, and I immediately expelled them outward to the dozens of fallen orcs. It was at this point, perhaps a quarter of a minute after I last spoke, that I began to speak again.

"As an angel of life and healing I possess the power to overturn death. I did that for the dwarves. I am doing it for you too." I explained, speaking not just to Grog but also to the other orcs he commanded. I did this by utilizing my powers over sound to project my voice and to make it clearly audible for each orc in front of me. Before he even knew what he was doing Grog's muscles tightened and I could sense that he was about to object to my decision to heal the dwarves. So I continued to speak, cutting him off before he could.

"I am here on Althos' orders. If you have an objection to my actions you are objecting to Althos' will." I explained, speaking softer this time. My statement was only heard by Grog. I wasn't about to needlessly humiliate Grog in front of his subordinates, but I also wasn't about to let him talk back to me. The orc stiffened.

"Althos recognizes your loyalty and zeal. All of you. That's why he has a reward for you." I explained, once more speaking to everyone. As I spoke the sparks I had created within myself infused the corpses and this time, faster than before they began to vibrate, indicating that they were already undoing the damage done to the orcs that had ended their lives. I received a notification asking me to decide what sort of cult these orcs would create and knew the answer to it right away.

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Orcs were powerful combatants. They were also fierce creatures, far more attuned to nature than many other humanoids. In a way, they represented a sort of missing link between many of the brighter animals and the more civilization oriented humanoids. Which made them perfect for the sort of cult I'd need if I wanted to defeat Morehammer.

Morehammer, according to what both he and the system told me, was a dangerous foe who embodied concepts like civilization, creation, and law. He was a totalitarian, albeit benevolent dictator in how he governed dwarves and embodied creation in the form of blacksmithing. So to become someone who stood in stark opposition to him, I'd need to embody nature, destruction, and chaos. And orcs were perfect for that.

The cult I wanted the orcs to create was a public one of destruction, nature, and chaos. A sort of anti-modernization movement. In fact part of my effort to turn the races of the world against the dwarves was to watch out for groups like the Red-Hawk tribe that could easily be turned into destructive, nature-oriented cults. I silently informed the system of my desires.

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"Your loyalty and fury have touched Althos' heart. He sent me here not to prevent you from shedding blood, but to put you on a better, more natural path." I explained, a smile on my face as I spoke to all of the orcs in the cave.

As I spoke I took a step forward, gently pulling Sombra along with me, and used my dominion over fire to bring an end to the wall of fire behind me. It died down a second after I willed it to stop burning. That said, I wasn't fully done. I made use of my powers over the earth to seal the dwarven community by causing the floor I had just stepped off of to rise up behind me. No orcs would enter the community, and no dwarves would leave it either.

"The god we all worship wishes for you to reconnect with nature." I proclaimed, speaking energetically now. There was zeal in my eyes and my voice, and my words intrigued the orcs.

"Althos wishes for you to abandon manmade things, and he wishes for you to embrace the power and virality of your own bodies once more. Throw away your tools, and seek to master the power within!" I said, speaking passionately. Many of the orcs, male and female alike looked at the implements in their hands and then suddenly dropped them, disappointment and shame in their eyes.

"Civilization is for those who are afraid of the might of nature. Tell me... Do you fear the night? Do you fear the mighty predators that lie outside of view, waiting for moments of weakness?" I asked the orcs, appealing to their innate pride.

I was unsurprised when I heard them began to chant "No!" as a response to my words. I grinned at them, savagely.

"My master believes in your power and ferocity. He believes in the strength that civilization has sapped from you. He seeks to restore you to greatness." I told the orcs, and I chuckled silently when they replied to me with a single great and excited roar. At this point I released the hand of Sombra and took a step towards the orcs in front of me.

I reached out and touched one of them, placing my hand gently against the orc's muscular chest. He was a fair bit taller than I was, with yellow skin and a face covered in dried, dwarven blood. I closed my eyes and activated a potent power of mine, the ability to make humanoids were-creatures.

I had the power to do with this any sort of humanoid and make them any sort of were-creature. But for the Red-Tusk tribe I'd keep it simple. I planned to make them were-boars. To connect them to their roots as evolved pigs and boars.

The second I activated the power, the orc audibly gasped and suddenly fell to his knees. When he was on his knees he was about my height. Salvia and spittle began to dribble down his mouth, which was open while he was on his knees. His eyes were wide open as he began to feel the newfound power surging through him.

"Those of you who embrace nature and who become strong will be made stronger by our god's gifts and love. He will allow you to retain your cognitive powers and your sense of self, while giving you free access to the strongest aspects of your pig and boar ancestors. If you embrace our god, make his will your will, and in turn return to nature... Your power shall become greater than you could ever imagine." I told them, cryptically.

I place my other hand on the orc on his knees. I do this gently, touching his forehead, and I begin to alter his appearance.

The orc had a handsome, muscular face. His eyes were a soft shade of yellow, like his skin. His mouth was made up mostly of humanlike teeth, but he had two prominent tusks that jutted out a little bit from the lower half of his jaw.

It is on those that I focused. I swiftly altered them, making them far larger and more prominent, to mark this orc as different from the others. A second later I took my hands off of the orc's face and chest, freeing him from my touch. As I released the orc from my touch, I locked eyes with him, and activated my powers over addiction.

For the millisecond our eyes are interlocked I cause this orc to become addicted to the sensation of the power flowing through him, the boar-power he now wielded. I did this to ensure that he would forever seek to fulfill my will, so long as he continued to be able to revel in his abilities.

At the same time I returned my attention to the rest of the orcs. I looked out at them, and as I did so I continued to remember how I first came into being. I was born a powerful druid with powers over the very earth at my feet, and over agriculture and vermin. It felt good to remember the being I was at birth.

I would spend the next few hours with Sombra and the orcs. As I prepared to do that I began to mentally command the earth that made up the cave we were in to carve out a new home for my servants. A home that would house the first true nature cult I was creating, a cult I hoped would one day be made up of nearly feral orcs and eventually their powerful animal companions.

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"I am a god of nature." I reminded myself. I knew that I had a special connection to nature, as it was one of my original domains. And it wasn't one given to all gods at birth either.

"I am a god of chaos." I told myself, recalling the first moments of my life. I was over a month old, and in that time I had begun to forget what I was born with control over.

If I wanted to defeat Morehammer I suspected I would need to become more powerful than I was at the moment. A key component of that would almost certainly be me mastering my current set of powers. Especially things I was born capable of influencing. Things like nature, chaos, and knowledge.

"I must continue to gain power." I inwardly muttered, a determined expression on my face even while I busied myself interacting with the orcs I had converted into my newest cult.

Nearly two hours after I transformed the orc tribe into the newest major group of Althonians I received an unexpected but most welcome notification.

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[Alert:

The creation of your newest cults and your role in the creation of several communities have been deemed influential enough for you to acquire the quest to gain the second tiers of influence over the faith and the civilization domains. This quest is a straight forward one. Your followers must build a holy city and appoint a high-priest or high-priestess to govern it.]