Made anew in Truth.

I was waiting for them at the top of the mountain, having flown there once I was done with Galko, like I said, it wasn’t much of a fight. Once they arrived, they all seemed surprised to see me so soon, though they didn’t say anything. Lena seemed to want to cry again, but judging by her tear-streaked face, she didn’t have any left.

I wordlessly gestured for them to follow me, as I snapped my fingers and created a swirling black and green portal, stepping through it nonchalantly, as if this was just another normal night. I sit on my throne and smile as they step through the portal and gaze around in awe at their new surroundings. The portal vanishes and they can see that behind it, four new seats have appeared, all facing up towards my throne. Each was glowing and sparkling with green flames.

“My friends, my courtiers, you will each sit on a throne, and you will close your eyes. The fires will envelop you, and burn out the influence of the Light while empowering you with the Truth. You will rise made anew.”

Terraya and Ademia are quick to nod, turn, and take their seats, instantly being covered by green flames, entirely obscured from me, Lena, and Lucas. The two of them took a few moments…but eventually, they followed suit and walked over to their seats. Lucas sat first and was eclipsed by fire.

Lena looked at me and asked with a cracking voice, “This isn’t some trick right? You aren’t going to kill us?”

I smiled gently at her and shook my head, “I deal in truths, my dear. I am above deceit.”

She seems not too convinced, but having no other option she sits, a cocoon of green fire erupting around her.

In these moments I am able to close my eyes and focus on each of them, and I find an ability blooming in my core. Shaping is the ability to focus on those powerful individuals who have given themselves to The Sword Logic and to guide them towards their perfect shape, with new names and titles to go with it. Their loyalties would be angled towards me of course, so as to avoid rebellion. Their personalities would also be altered just slightly, but only to make them their best selves, of course. I extended my power to each of these fiery chrysalis and activated the ability. Each would take some time, based on how resistant or afraid of the changes they were. I had a feeling the order they came back out of the fire would be similar to how they went in.

Ademia was the first to have the fire fall from her form. She stood before me, now my height even in my monstrous form. Her skin had taken on the same dark metallic color as my own, and her long hair had turned brilliant silver as did her nails, which were now claws. She opened her eyes and I smiled when I saw them burn with the same green fire my own did. She didn’t have a pair of skeletal wings like my own but now sported a long, tail that almost looked like it was her spine extending out of her body, but was a similar silver to her hair. It ended in a wicked blade, curved and serrated. She spoke, her voice very similar but seemingly more… impassioned than it had been before. “My new name is Ardema, I am War. Sword Breaker, Queen of the Steel Throne, Conquered by None.”

Shortly after, Terraya emerged. Her height was now about where Ardema was before the change. Her skin was now a brilliant silver, her hair contrasting greatly with the darker color Ardema and I shared. Her eyes shone with a now familiar green smolder, as she flexed a pair of smaller and less skeletal wings that seemed to stretch out from her lower back. Her nails seemed to turn a similar green almost like they were painted, she did not gain claws though, leaving her entire look much more…seductive. “My new name is Terr’yis, I am Cunning. First Witch, Queen of the Silver Throne, Restricted by None.”

One thing I admit, I had not anticipated that the fire that made them their new forms would also entirely burn their clothes. So standing before me were two women who already were incredibly attractive, now turned into these powerful, loyal, engines of destruction without losing any of the curves that had made them so utterly beautiful before. I found myself wanting some…very specific things from the newly made Terr’yis and Ardema.

I cleared my throat and nodded at them both, “Welcome to the court, Terr’yis, and Ardema, War and Cunning. I understand the transformations must be tiring, and the power and new bodies can be disorienting. You may walk down the hallway behind my throne here and find your own rooms. We will talk come morning.”

Both of them nodded and walked off, starting to chat with one another about their new forms and the power they felt coursing through their veins. They both seemed excited about their new lives, I wondered how much the change had affected their personalities, I suppose we’d see.

I glanced at the last two and with a quick use of God’s Eye I could tell it would take a nice chunk of time still for them to emerge, another ten to twenty minutes at least. So I would take the time to focus on myself, see what power or ability my victory over the light gave me if it would give me one at all.

The first thing I saw when using God’s Eye on myself was Nascent god now had a level next to it. Hot damn it had jumped, apparently killing a couple of dozen guards, a level 45 cleric, and converting 4 other 40ish heroes to your cause while on Pure Land and near enough to the dungeon, absolutely skyrocketed how much XP I gained.

I was a level 50 Nascent God, according to this with 50 more levels I would achieve a Minor God Evolution. With these levels it also seemed to finally list a few of the things I could do, though devoid of the percentages and numbers;

Shaping: Guide your most powerful servants to true oneness within The All Edged Truth. Forming a cocoon of Soul-Fire, you allow them to be made anew in your image, the power of your Truth giving them new purpose and strength, replacing the abilities of Light or Dark with equivalent ones without the same limitations and rules.

Soul-Fire: A special kind of magical fire that can heal followers of The Truth, or scorch your enemies to dust. Ignoring resistance and immunity to normal elemental magic, Soul-Fire is a powerful magic weapon that even an Arch-Imago would struggle against.

Taken Edge: You can summon the great sword, Taken Edge. A power that was originally meant to be a surprise gift by the minor dark god Hivast to convince you to aid his personal champion, The Hornet Empress. Your power took this gift and has made it your own, this sword is a divine artifact of great power.

The Tithe: Any XP that your followers get, also gives you a percentage of XP. You get a smaller percentage from followers of your followers. The flow goes from Thrall, Acolyte or Ogre, Knight, Wizard, Ascended, Courtier Gods, and You.

Well that was all great to know, how the hell do I get any of the other ranks of followers? All I have are Thrall and not many. Not only do I need to essentially create the entire faction and belief from the ground up, but I also need to create the species…or do I?

I take a moment and focus on the power of Shaping, I try to essentially…water it down. I want a version that will do the same thing it did for my Courtiers, but to make normal people into Thralls without stripping away everything that made them what they were before. I may have based this whole thing off Destiny and the Hive but we were way off that path at this point, this was new and this was me, and this was life and ****.

After a few moments, two new abilities appear underneath The Tithe.

Embrace Truth: Allow even the weakest of conquered peoples a chance to join in and serve the Truth. While preserving their basic form and personality, turn them into a rank that matches their current class and level from Thrall to Knight.

Twist Form: Some will never serve the truth willingly, but they can still be made to bend the knee. If **** into the Soul-Fire of changing, they will be entirely stripped of their original form and personality, being changed either into a thrall like your emanations, an acolyte that can arise from those, or a twisted organic war machine called an Ogre.

Before I could focus on those two abilities too much, I saw the two other cocoons of fire go out at the same time, and I was definitely…surprised by what I saw.

Lena looked at her brother, not seeming surprised by his new appearance, which was terrifying I’ll describe it in a second. She just smiled at him and said, “You will be an amazing shield and protector for the Truth, brother. Thank you.”

He had NOT gone in the same direction as the others, which I will admit saddened me a bit, I am pretty Bi and he was definitely hot. But he wasn’t anymore. He stood now at nearly the same height as myself and Ardema. His body has now been entirely covered in a dark, nearly black, scale-like armor of metal and chitin. Jagged and brutal, just the look of him would be enough to scatter lesser combatants. His helmet entirely covered his face, with no visible eyes though it was obvious he was aware of his surroundings. It was built in a similar way to a dragon’s skull, his toothy maw quite visible. He held a long, wide sword of glowing green fire at his side. He hugged his sister and then turned to me and bowed, speaking slowly. “I am Lukar, my sister’s Knight, Sword of Truth, Shield of the Osmium Court.”

I quickly checked God’s Eye, he wasn’t weaker than the others, he had just…chosen to not have the same titles. To be equal in power but also…less than his sister. Interesting.

His sister was also interesting, she had also become taller, now being about the same height as Terr’yis. Her skin had become a similar color to mine and Ardema’s, but her hair and eyes remained human. She had a pair of wings on her back, near where mine sprouted from my own, but her’s appeared to sport metallic feathers that were pitch black but seemed to still shimmer with light... She was like a dark angel. “I am Lena, Truth. All-Edged Priestess, Queen of the Golden Throne, Silenced by None.”

After a few moments of looking over these two rather unique beings, I gave them the same direction to go to their rooms and sleep, to recover their strength and to meet back here in the morning.

I glanced and saw that the thrones had also changed. They were now around a long table as if this was a true royal court. One of them was made of forged steel, the other of bright gleaming silver, another of brilliant gold, and one more simply appeared to be made of the black stone of the cathedral we were in. I looked at mine and noticed it had now fully taken on the blue-grey hue of Osmium.

I sighed with a nod, “Alright…tomorrow we really begin.”