War god for hire conque.., p.1
War God for Hire- Conqueror: A Reincarnation, Cultivation, Litrpg Adventure, page 1
War God for Hire - Conqueror
by
David Burke
License Notes: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This e-book is licenses for your personal enjoyment. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this e-book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
War God for Hire- Adventurer
Copyright © 2021
David Burke
Cover art copyright
© David Burke
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Merging Mantles
Chapter 2 - Rumble in the Pit
Interlude 1 - Those Left Behind
Chapter 3 - Step Children
Chapter 4 - Life and Death
Interlude 2 - Allies and Enemies
Chapter 5 - Freezing Hell
Chapter 6 - Bonding Death
Chapter 7 - What a God Dreams
Interlude 3 - Flames in the Snow
Chapter 8 - War in the Hellscape
Chapter 9 - To Be a God
Chapter 10 - Making a Point
Chapter 11 – Spanking the Red Headed Stepchild
Chapter 12 - Lord of Life and Death
Interlude 4 - Terror in the Night
Chapter 13 - Reunion
Chapter 14 - Consolidating Assets
Chapter 15 - Updates and Intrusions
Interlude 5 - The Bite of Winter's Heart
Chapter 16 - The Rules
Chapter 17 – The Halls of Victory
Chapter 18 - Circle of Cultivation
Chapter 19 - Entering the Inner Circle
Chapter 20 - Faithfulness
Chapter 21 - Checking In
Interlude 6 - Tug of Many Strings
Chapter 22 - Good Impressions
Chapter 23 - Bad Impressions
Chapter 24 - Fun Impressions
Chapter 25 - Reasons Why
Chapter 26 - Rumbling Earth
Chapter 27 - Rushing Wind
Chapter 28 - Raging Sea
Epilogue
Chapter 1 - Merging Mantles
Kyle felt pain wash over him. It was overwhelming, this terrible weight of darkness that pressed down on him. His construct was being pulled through a hole with no end. He knew it, knew that he needed to fight it, but he had larger concerns.
Death pressed in on him, in the most literal sense of the word. The mantle of the goddess of death lay over him like a heavy blanket. It didn’t bring comfort. Rather, it sought to smother him. It sought to crush the life within him and bring about his end.
The three splinters of Dod that were within him rebelled as they sought to reconnect with her mantle, desiring the completeness of death.
Kyle felt all the aspects of death closing in on him. Death was loss, it was decay; it was a reward, but it was also completion. Death was the dark side of the coin that balanced life. One could not exist without the other.
Then, he realized his mistake. He was trying to open himself up to death. He was trying to absorb its concepts, but in doing so, he was trying to incorporate Dod’s principles into himself. He now held the mantle of death and there was no more Dod.
She might as well have never existed. She had been lost to the void, and once lost to the void, there was no coming back. With that, Kyle knew regret, for Krig had not hated his siblings. He owned the regret and then pushed it back.
This very universe required that he be more than he was before. A god with one spoke in their essence wheel was no true god. If he was to stand against the void, he needed to embrace more. That began now.
He whispered to the mantle, “I am become death. It is part of my godhood.”
It rebelled against him. But no longer was it a blanket that smothered him. No, now it was a writhing snake in his arms. He grasped it with all his might, but it twisted, writhed, and bucked, shaking his very being. He would not surrender, though. His iron will clamped down around it.
That was the problem, though. Death was a type of surrender. It was inevitable—as Dod had always said—but succumbing to the inevitable was not in Kyle’s nature. He did not accept failure. Giving in was simply not the way he was built.
He made his own destiny. The key, he realized, was to make death surrender to him.
So, he pushed out with the mantle of the war god. He felt a greater level of control with it than he ever had before. It surged forth from him and enveloped the mantle of death. He watched in awe as the two began to blend.
Power surged into him and his body became ridiculously more powerful. The increases were so great, that pain radiated into every last element of his being, but he refused to give in, to give up. Time ceased to have any meaning as he struggled in the span of a single heartbeat to become more—to BE more—than any being on Verden had ever been. Death and war were intimately connected, but Kyle understood the truth.
They were opposites in many ways.
All life struggled to resist the pull of the grave, but death came for all things. It was never rushed, simply inevitable. And in the end, all that live—from fruit flies to universes—surrender to death.
But war is as far from surrender as possible. War is struggle. Yes, war often leads to death, but that is not the purpose of war. Dominance is the purpose of war, and death is the ultimate surrender.
Kyle felt like he got a clearer image of the void. The powers of the void believed they were inevitable, but they were an end with no beginning. Death was but one half of the cycle of existence. For this reason, death and the void were so very different.
He didn’t know exactly what to make of that observation yet, but he knew it was significant in some way. That final distinction was all that was needed to push the two mantles he controlled together. Knowing that conflict and surrender were two parts of a whole sealed the deal. Together, all of him must stand against the void and so, he would be united.
A tremendous wave of power rocketed out from Kyle in all directions as a hundred million raw essence blasted outwards. That was just the excess that was wasted in the merger of his mantles. With his eyes still closed, he could feel his existence.
He was in what had been Dod’s realm. But it was his now. He simply needed to claim it. Before he began though, it was time for him to look at his status sheet.
Name: Kyle Hudson
Race: God of War and Death, Demi-god of Justice and Sea
Stats: (Current/Max)
Strength: 49/?
Agility: 35/?
Constitution: 50/?
Will: 45/?
Mind: 34/?
Charisma: 26/?
Essence: Current/Max
Justice: 25/25 Conversion rate: 1/3 seconds
Death: 50/? Conversion rate: 1/3 seconds.
Sky: 18/25 Conversion Rate: 1/5 seconds
Sea:10/12 (+5) Conversion rate: 1/5 seconds
Deceit:5/13 Conversion rate: 1/8 seconds
Lust:5/13 Conversion rate: 1/8 seconds
Earth:24/39 Conversion rate: 1/2 seconds
War:50/? Conversion rate: 30/second
Fire: 5/? Conversion rate 1/15
Space: 5/? Conversion rate: 1/15 seconds
Mercy: 5/? Conversion rate 1/15 seconds
Life: 5/? Conversion rate 1/15 seconds
Wisdom: 5/? Conversion rate 1/15 seconds
Raw Essence: 3,416,862,591
Skills:
Flowing Earth Armor 2: 4 Earth
Earth’s Sucking Snare 2: 1 Earth/target
????
????
Divine Ability:
Rage Burst 7
Reality Shift 5
Expanded Awareness 5
Soul Shepherd 3
As Kyle studied his sheet, it was obvious much had changed. In fact, the question was where to begin. He saw things on the sheet he didn’t understand, but the first line alone brought the grim curve of a smile to his lips. He was finally recognized as himself and not some variant of Krig.
God of War and Death had a nice ring. He wasn’t sure how it felt to add on the extra titles of demi-god. A part of him said it was time to seek out Lige. Either the god of justice would join in the battle against the void, a battle which was all of theirs, or perhaps it was time to balance the scales of justice between war and death.
Kyle’s stats had also taken a huge leap forward. His body felt like it was crackling with power. While he still wasn’t as fast as he could be, his Constitution was already maxed and his Strength nearly was.
Except, maybe they weren’t.
Before, a maximum of fifty had been listed. Kyle had always understood fifty to be the end of the Divine Tier and the peak level of power any being in this universe could hope to obtain. Now, instead of listing a maximum, his sheet revealed only a question mark.
What that meant was not something Kyle could figure out at the moment, but he had to think it was a good thing. Each Tier represented a significant increase in power over the Tier below it. So, if th
Right now, he was in an alien place and needed to get control of the situation.
Chapter 2 - Rumble in the Pit
Opening his eyes confirmed what his extended senses had already told him: the landscape surrounding him was a truly hellish place. Jagged black rocks dotted an otherwise barren terrain. Vents of sulfur spewed periodically out of the ground. Nothing was growing that he could see and the eerie reddish light from the sky made everything appear to be bathed in shadows.
There was no sun overhead, just a perpetual overcast of clouds with that strange red tint. Reaching out, Kyle sensed that the clouds weren’t blocking the sun. The clouds were actually this realm’s source of light, as they burned from within.
It was truly a hellscape.
That was made all the more apparent by the wreckage surrounding him. When the millions of points of raw essence had escaped his two fusing mantles, it had scoured clean an area for a hundred feet or more around him. The black sandy grit in every direction had fused into a sheet of black glass.
Out at the edges of the circle, he could see the charred remains of creatures. Apparently, a horde had been sneaking up on him as he adapted to his new powers. It served them right.
Those beasts who had been closest to him only remained as lingering motes of essence in the air—not even dust was left to mark their passing. The ones who had been fifty feet out were little more than piles of charred bone fragments. Further out, he detected the partial remains of monstrosities which had been burnt down to glowing cinders in seconds.
Kyle reached out with his expanded senses and a smile crossed his lips. As he let his senses expand out even further, it was obvious there were swarms of monsters in this realm. Each was a twisted version of some animal found upon Verden. Some were undead, some were lesser fiends, and some were creatures native to this plane, such as hell hounds—which mimicked living beings but possessed terrible powers.
It appeared they wanted to challenge him. These were the creatures which lived in Dod’s home. Unlike the mantle of war, which had been a personal memorial rather than a home, Dod had dwelt in this hellscape. Here she hosted the souls of wicked mortals or those who had been her faithful servants in life. Many of these were twisted by the nature of the hellscape into the various monsters of this place. Others, eventually reincarnated upon Verden, and the most wicked of them became fiends or powerful undead.
Kyle shuddered as he thought of what would happen if these hordes were ever unleashed upon Verden. They would sweep through the nations there and only celestial armies would stand a chance against them. Fortunately, Dod had kept a tight leash on her domain. Except now it was his domain, and he would need to keep it under control.
Kyle could feel his power still fluctuating inside him. The various essences he controlled had to come into balance. The explosion of force which had erupted from him cleared the area and bought him some time. But at the edges of his sight, yet well within his senses, he could feel creatures massing once again. Perhaps the Lords of this place sensed a weakness in him and wanted to test him. Or maybe it was simply because they realized he had destroyed Dod and sought vengeance against him.
Kyle’s mind felt so expanded, it would have been simple enough to leave this place and return to Verden. He now knew not only that he could cross the void, but also how to do so. The knowledge had filled his mind as he expanded. Absorbing Dod’s mantle taught him many things, but it had also forced him to master his own mantle of war.
Well, ‘master’ might be a tad bit generous, but he certainly had greater control of it than he’d ever had before. Now, he wanted nothing more than to return to his women. He longed to reassure them he was okay, to kiss their beautiful faces, and to lose himself in their embrace. But to do so now would be irresponsible.
When he claimed Dod’s power, he assumed her responsibilities. Now, it was his duty to tame this place, lest the monsters from here grow unchecked and spill over into Verden. The mortals there faced enough terrors already.
He only hoped it could be done quickly. Time flowed oddly between the planes and he still struggled to wrap his expanded self around it. His mind understood it, but he needed to understand his own mind. Growing this rapidly meant he hadn’t adapted to any of it.
That would have to wait, though, as a first contender appeared. Great wings carried this fiend through the air, its ape-like body covered in reddish fur. The wings bore spiked tips and leathery folds, while a forked tail twisted behind it. Its clawed hands grasped a long trident.
“What have you done with the goddess of death?” it bellowed at him.
Kyle almost decided to talk to this creature, but usually actions speak louder than words. His soul bound weapon formed in his hands faster than ever before. He pushed off against the ground and felt the essence which permeated this place call out for his control. It all worked for him now—it was just a matter of learning how to manipulate it properly. But only minimal effort would be necessary to deal with this uppity fiend.
Kyle surged across the sky so quickly, the monstrosity didn’t have time to block. Kyle’s weapon had taken the form of a massive great sword in response to his need. But with his strength, it was easy enough to wield it with one hand. A diagonal strike slipped past the enemy’s trident, not that it really mattered. With the force he’d put behind this attack, the trident would simply have been cut in half as well.
The fiend’s shriek of agony was cut short, as its very essence was sliced apart by the slashing sword. Raw essence, deceit, lust, war, death, and every dark impulse of man leaked out as the creature ceased to be.
Mercy was a part of Kyle now. He realized how it had played a necessary role in his actions up to this point. But the hellscape was unforgiving and had no place for mercy. He sucked up the escaping essence and consumed it.
Soul Shepherd triggered, but Kyle used it in a new way. He devoured the soul of this being. It would no longer be reborn. Its immortal life had just been snuffed out. This was perhaps unfairly harsh, but Kyle knew he could not afford to show weakness at this time. He roared out his victory while pounding his chest with his free hand. “There is a new god of death! Challenge me at your own peril.”
Kye sensed hordes of undead and swarms of fiends of all varieties gathered around. They were invisible behind walls of flame or clouds of smoke, but nothing here was hidden to him. This plane was merely an extension of his awareness.
Deciding to thin out the pack, Kyle called out, “Those who would seek my favor may leave. Go, and I will forget that you were here. Gather in your usual places and I will seek you out so that you may swear your undying loyalty to me.”
A part of Kyle felt like he was coming off a bit heavy with the evil overlord thing, but this was no time to be soft. Who knew how his team was faring with the rest of the undead horde?
Just because he had cut the head off the snake didn’t mean there were no other threats. And that wasn’t even considering the void wraiths. They presented a threat to mortals and immortals alike. That only meant he needed to bring this realm under his control even faster.
Kyle paused a moment to allow any who might want to leave to go. Many of them, he knew, had come to watch. They expected to see some of the ancient fiends or undead generals challenge this upstart. They were the ones who were blinded by greed, that or the fools who couldn’t sense what he was becoming.
