The Creators Ch. 17

"I'll be right next to you the whole time."

I smiled at her. "Where the hell else would you be?"

She didn't smile back. "You remember what you told Bianca yesterday? Don't be a fucking martyr."

"You know I'm way too much of a pussy," I forced a laugh.

Angela shook her head. "You're not, Brandon. You're a good, brave man, and that's what terrifies me." She gave me a solemn frown, then walked away.

The next Ionan dropped to her knees before me, and bowed her head. "I am Sia Swordcaller, and I await your blessing, Oh Holy One."

DIAMOND

"I am Dejok Fen, and I await your blessing, Oh Holy One," the orc said, kneeling before me. Even on his knees, the big bastard was taller than me.

I poked at his tusks, and frowned. "When was the last time you brushed your teeth?"

He blinked at me. "I have never brushed my teeth."

"Great," I sighed, and looked out at the long line of orcs behind him. Jeez, I couldn't see the end of it! "Hey everybody!" I yelled. "If I'm gonna kiss all of you, you better brush your fricken teeth, OK?! Someone find some darn toothpaste!" I looked back at Dejok. "Can you at least... I don't know, chew some mint or something?"

Dejok fished through his pouch, and pulled out a tin of chewing tobacco. "This is mint flavor."

I rolled my eyes. "Screw it; I ate Mom's butt for breakfast anyway."

I took Dejok's massive head in my hands, and pressed my lips to his. His breath was foul, but mine was worse, for I summoned evil from my lungs. It flowed from my mouth into his, and he gasped with euphoria, becoming so languid that he nearly toppled over. I finished my exhalation, and the last whisps of blackness left my lips. Suddenly, the lassitude was gone from his muscles, and he seized me with his enormous hands. I looked into his blackening eyes, and saw right into his soul. His desires were plain to me. He grabbed me by the jaw, and I pressed my hand to his chest and sent every ounce of water in his body right to his heart. His chest cavity exploded, and he collapsed in front of me. I stepped back, and sighed. I was covered in black blood. It would only take a second for me to whisk it all off, but I got the feeling I'd be cleaning quite a bit of it off me today.

"Well, that didn't go so great," I mumbled, and smiled at the next orc. "And what's your name?"

JULIA

I walked with Jade along the crater of Droktinar, far away from the horde. I ruminated on the conundrum of Diamond. She had told me her tale of Xaya, Corruption, and an iron box she could not open. She told me about the journey she took to the astral plane, she told me about Wrath, Sorrow, Greed, Hatred and Joy, but she remembered nothing beyond that. I supposed encountering one of God's angels was something a mortal mind could not wholly comprehend; it made sense that such an event would cause amnesia. It was the only thing that made sense. The box, Xaya, and the nature of Diamond's relationship with the seraph were all so... strange.

Vitanimus. It was a name Honor had spoken. It was a name Corruption had vehemently claimed was a lie. Something about that disturbed me. I recognized the vehemence of that denial; that kind of denial was something I knew intimately. There was a war that was raging parallel to the one I was fighting. A war between angels and demons; demons so terrible that Corruption did not want me to even know of their existence. Demons even more terrible than the Sentients Corruption needed my help to destroy. The thought sent a chill down my spine. Who is Vitanimus?

"There are times when I feel so powerful," I mused to Jade. "I feel like I can scorch the surface of the sun. Then there are times when I think upon the vastness of the unknown, and I realize that my power is barely that of an ant."

"The Holy Mother teaches humility above all things," Jade said in her dead voice.

"Indeed," I muttered, looking out at the crater I'd made of a city. "What do you think about Diamond?"

"She is your daughter."

"I mean... what do you think about her place in the pantheon of angels and prophets?"

Jade stared coldly outward. "I think that she carries a power that she does not understand, but it is also a power that you do not understand."

I nodded. "Yes, it is dangerous to wonder upon things that you should be ignorant of." I frowned. "It is a lesson I should take to heart."

"False prophets are made by those who only see part of the plan, and claim to know the whole of it," Jade said, and looked down at me. "True believers follow blindly."

"That is why it is called faith," I smiled up at her. "You are an infinite source of wisdom, Jade."

She did not return my smile. "It is easy for me to know the truth when it is burned upon my flesh."

My smile faded, and I drew my eyes down the black robe she wore. Though it covered her from neck to ankle, the burns on the backs of her hands were visible, the flesh raised and scarred, knotted so horrifically that it looked more like leather than skin. It aroused me to see what I had done to her, but the imminent swelling in my loins was killed when I remembered what she had done to herself.

"Do you regret it?" I asked her softly. "Putting that rod inside of you?"

"No. It was the only way I could serve."

"I wish I had the strength to do that. Standing next to you makes me feel like a fraud."

"There is only one calling in my life, Sister Julia, and I will serve it to whatever end." Jade looked out at the vast crater. "I knew what I had to do to serve that calling. I cannot presume to know what you have to."

I studied her for a while. "Jade, do you believe in the Holy Mother?"

Jade offered me a thin and joyless smile. "I am a devout servant of the Holy Mother."

I ruminated on her answer, then returned my gaze to the ruins of Droktinar. Hundreds of orcs had traveled from the horde to sift through the wreckage. They pulled out shards of obsidian and loaded them onto scores of carts.

"What are they doing?" I asked. "Looking for a quick penny? There will be no place for money in the rapture."

"They are making weapons out of them," Jade said. "Once you tempered the rock with your flame, it became keener and stronger than any metal that can be forged by man."

"And so God provides us with an armory for her horde," I shook my head, and laughed. "Jade, how can anyone deny that we are on the righteous path when miracles literally pop out of the ground?"

"Indeed, Sister," Jade replied.

I glanced at the sword on her hip. "Breyta made that?"

Jade nodded.

"Give it to me."

Jade looked down at me, and expressed emotion for the first time since her sacrament. "No," she said firmly.

I blinked, taken aback. "Jade, give me that sword. That's an order."

Jade stared down at me for a long time, then unsheathed the Blade of Breyta, and extended it to me. I took it, and melted the blade right off the handle. I selected a shard of obsidian from the ground, melted it, then molded it into the exact shape of the original blade. After sucking the heat from the metal, I secured it to the handle, and handed it back to her.

"My High Guard will not wield a weapon named after a heathen," I said. "The old world must be burned to the ground. That means all of it."

Jade bowed her head ever so slightly. "I understand," she whispered, and tried to hide the tear that rolled down her cheek. I chose to believe she was weeping in gratitude, and smiled in self-satisfaction.

"Wonderful. Well, I suppose while we're here, we might as well arm the rest of our priestesses."

TERA

A knock on my door disturbed my blissful morning slumber. My brow still throbbed with the pain of the disfiguring scar, but fortunately, it was small enough not to mar my beauty. I peeled myself off of the orc I'd fed from last night, and sighed. He was in his late teens, though now he looked like a mummified corpse. I suppose he was, as every drop of fluid within his body was gone. Still, he'd be a load to drag out. I opened my wagon door, rolled the orc corpse into the dust, and scowled at the ten Breytan white robes standing outside.

"Does Julia have you sluts working in shifts now?" I growled at the Breytans.

"It is the Water Dancer who bid us to intercept you," Aiko said. "She requests your presence."

"Do you work for Julia or Diamond?"

"Sister Julia is not here right now."

I narrowed my eyes at the valkyrie, then turned to my left. Shuffling alongside my caravan, were rows upon rows of red-robed Breytans. Well, they didn't really wear their red robes anymore. They wore nothing but the shackles that bound their wrists and ankles to heavy iron balls they dragged behind them. I ran my eyes down the line of broken sluts until I found who I was looking for.

"Alita!" I called, "Get your fat saggy ass over here!"

One of the Breytans flapped her wings furiously, and managed to get airborne despite her burden. The beautiful middle-aged mother of Aiko dropped before me, and prostrated so that her cheeks opened before her daughter's gaze.

"Yes, Master?" she inquired with a hopeful wiggle of her ass.

"You're the entertainment for the day. Get up on the roof and give the people a show."

"Thank you, Master!" Alita practically sobbed, and flew atop my wagon's roof, where my ten bull-orcs were waiting. Her glugs, moans and shrieks sounded a few seconds later, and the cracking of whips and the rhythmic slapping of flesh accompanied it. I turned back to Aiko with a sneer on my lips, and enjoyed the quivering hatred in her eyes.

"Whenever you are ready, Sister Tera," she growled, "the Water Dancer would seek your audience."

I hopped off the wagon, walked into the flock of Breytans, and patted Aiko on the shoulder. "Keep an eye on your mum while I'm gone, will ya?"

I expected things to be different with Diamond back, but the last thing I expected was for them to become more orderly. A long line had formed to the front of the caravan, and at its head, Diamond Gendian was making-out with a fat old man.

"I remember my old man fetish," I said as I approached her. "Of course, I was well into my two-hundreds by the time that happened, but I understand some teenagers have a thing for grandaddies."

Diamond glowered at me above her kiss, then released the old orc. A puff of black smoke billowed from his nostrils, and he collapsed in a fit of euphoria before hobbling to his feet, grabbing his cane, and cackling evilly as he made his way back into the caravan.

"Bla!" Diamond wiped her lips. "Maybe you age like wine, Tera, but these old farts age like milk."

"What are you doing?"

She raised her arms to the endless line before her. "Blessing the masses."

"Why?"

"Because Corruption is making me want to do it, so I don't really have a choice in the matter."

"There are millions of orcs."

"Corruption doesn't care about the logistics. She just gives me urges, and I follow them." Diamond beckoned the next person to kneel.

I glanced at the dozens of orc corpses surrounding the Water Dancer. "Some of them apparently didn't take to it too well."

"About one in ten want to kill me. Nine in ten want to screw me, but only two in ten of them are willing to try to rape me." Diamond kissed the young orc male, and delivered her poison to his lungs. He went languid in her arms for a moment, then carefully put his hands on her shoulders. Diamond opened her black eyes, and stared into his. Then she closed them, and rotated her mouth about the axis of their kiss, her hands traversing his muscular back. She lingered on him for much longer than was needed, then parted his lips with a smile on hers. "Oh, you're a keeper. What's your name?"

"My name is—"

"Your name is 'Seventeen.'" Diamond giggled, putting a finger to his mouth. "Congratulations on becoming the seventeenth member of the Water Dancer's holy harem. The others are in that tent over there. We have refreshments and badges. Go introduce yourself."

Diamond shooed Seventeen away with a smack on his muscular ass, and bit her lip as she watched him go.

"Why did you summon me?" I asked her.

"I've got some questions for you," she said, and watched for my reaction.

I didn't give one.

She studied me for an excruciating moment, then inclined her head toward her harem's tent. "How about we have a little chat in private?"

"I'm an assassin, Diamond. I know what chats in private mean."

Diamond summoned the water from the air, and shot an arrow through the line of orcs. Twenty of them fell in an instant, their brains decorating the sand. Those behind them dove out of the way and covered their head with their hands, but Diamond paid them no heed. She hadn't once turned her gaze from me.

"Did I kill any sexy ones?" she asked me.

I looked over the line of corpses. "None worth keeping."

"Good," she grinned. "Maybe your motto was 'no witnesses, only widows,' but I always leave an audience. That tent is the safest place you'll ever be with me, but the spot you're standing on is becoming deadlier by the second."

I gestured toward the tent. "After you."

The corrupted dissidents of Diamond's harem were doing what harems do best. The young orcs had formed a ring of debauchery, and their moans and cries filled the air. Diamond maneuvered her way through the ruckus, then patted two males on the back.

"Ten and Fifteen; become chairs," she said, and without further beckoning, the two corrupted orcs sat cross legged on the floor. Diamond opened her legs and eased herself slowly down the shaft of Ten until the young bull was buried all the way inside her small slit. She cozied herself comfortably on his lap, moaning slightly as she was stretched from within. "No thrusting," she commanded softly, and relaxed on his chest. She made an armchair out of his arms, then beckoned with a hand for me to sit in my chair.

I spread my cheeks to open my anus, and squatted down, taking Fifteen's nine inches easily into me. I enslaved the bull, and he called me 'Master' when my ass pillowed into his crotch.

"You think I'd have someone else kill you?" Diamond laughed, a pleasured blush glowing from her sparkled cheeks.

"Killing me does seem to be the topic of conversation."

"It's certainly not a boring conversation."

"Certainly not," I said, and beckoned another orc to intertwine his legs with Fifteen so that I could turn my chair into a loveseat. He pushed into my slit and rubbed felicitously against his brethren, filling me all the way. "I must say, I appreciate your taste in furniture."

"Then you'll love my bathroom," Diamond snickered, and snapped her fingers. A beautiful young she-orc emerged from the pile of green flesh, knelt before her god, and began to sensually suck her cock. Diamond knitted her fingers in the teenager's dreadlocks, and groaned as she was consumed. "Tera, this is Seven, my toilet. She'll clean up anything that comes out of me; won't you, Seven?"

Seven smiled adoringly up at her god, and nodded as she sucked.

"You're doing this whole god-thing a lot better than your mom," I noted.

Diamond rolled her eyes. "Please don't talk about Mom right now. We were having such an interesting conversation."

"Ah yes, about killing me."

"We'll get to that," Diamond shifted on her chair, and let out a girlish sigh. "You're very good at hiding things. I suppose you've made a career out of it. You even managed to hide things from Willowbud when she had Corruption's perception to aid her."

"Willowbud always knew I was hiding things from her. She just chose to play along because she thought it was fun."

Diamond cocked her head, and smiled. "I suppose mysteries are fun, but if Willowbud knew the depth of your treachery, she would've ended the party early. I am not Willowbud. Even as I look into your eyes right now, I can see the lie you keep from me."

"Then speak it," I said, subtly looping my thumb through the pin of the terracotta bomb on my belt.

"Do you think that firecracker will save you?" Diamond giggled.

I smiled back. "It's not meant to save me."

Diamond narrowed her gaze, but her smile still played dangerously upon her lips. "Maybe it is more fun to play this little game. Fine then. Your secret is worth your life, or at least, it's a secret you think will save you. From who? From Mom, of course, but I'm afraid your stock as a disciple of the Holy Mother is going down. Every pathetic orc I infect devalues you. How much time do you have before she decides you're nothing but a fraud?"

"I smell a proposition."

"Your keen nose hasn't failed you," Diamond patted Ten on the thigh, and he began to thrust into her. "I have a... oh yes, just like that... I have an opportunity for you, Tera."

I patted my slaves, and they began to drive their organs into mine. "I'm all ears."

"I really like this new apocalyptic turn Mom's taken, but I'll be darned if I'm going to be in the passenger's seat for it. I'm taking charge of this ride, and I'll need your help to make the transition."

"That sounds like a very dangerous position to be in."

"This is going to happen, so you might as well just agree."

I frowned between my lusty breaths. "What do I have to do?"

"Nothing at all. Just meet me at the Trinity Uplift tomorrow morning. Alone."

"You must think I'm stupid."

"I'll protect you."

"You must think I'm really stupid."

"I think you don't have a choice," Diamond giggled, and oscillated her hips about the orcs pleasuring her, her slender belly flexing below her modest breasts. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and low guttural tones emanated from her lips as Seven worshipfully slurped from her cock. Realizing the conversation was over, I busied myself with draining my two bulls, but even as they thrusted into me with increasing ferocity, I kept my eyes fixed on Diamond.

Interlude One: Her

CORRUPTION

I watched Xaya as she devoured a bunny. Her serpentine hair moved from her head like a medusa, and the little snakes took pieces off the squirming rodent bit by bit. She was sadistically fascinated by the animal's agony, much like how a housecat would torment a mouse. She observed it from every angle as her hair ripped it apart limb from limb, never taking enough to kill it quickly, always just enough to draw out its horror. Of course, the bunny wasn't real. It was an idea of a bunny, a piece of Diamond's old innocent mind. I drew my fingers along the scars on my lip, and ruminated upon some of Diamond's older memories.

There was an effigy of Passion. It was coiled with my thorned vines and blackened with my jagged bark, but still, it remained. As long as Diamond stayed untethered, that memory would be there. There was another bush—this one shaped like Lucilla. Her eyes were alight and mischievous as her fingers played between her legs. Diamond's sexual awakening was a very potent memory, and though my dark leaves covered it, it was still very plain. I turned my gaze to another shrubbery. This one was of Julia. She was standing in the threshold of a doorway. The doorway had been disintegrated. The whole house had been disintegrated. There was a boy standing in the corner... he seemed familiar to me. Lucilla was clutching her wrist as though it had been injured, but it appeared to be perfectly fine. The leaves formed a translucent face right in front of Diamond, and I deduced that this was Angela. Her profile dominated the image with its closeness, making it difficult to see what was behind it. There was something every character in the image was staring at. I couldn't quite make out what it was. I leaned closer, and peered through the leafy ethereal face of Angela, trying to discern the subject of this memory. It was a lone figure standing at the end of a street. A nymph.