Hand of The Eldritch God

Ren lay on the stone, his body was destroyed and left in ruin. Beside him, the giant body of an adder abomination floated in the waters and spoke into his mind.

“Now, I will put back the broken little pieces…”

The telekinetic grasp of the entity before him began grasping at the shattered bones within him. It realigned the broken pieces and pulled them together. His mismatching shape was drawn apart and brought back to a semi-regular form.

Ren wanted to scream, yet he had no mouth or throat from the sound. The pain would have driven him to unconsciousness except for the purple energy that entered his being. The massive body of a long-dead being was sunken under the vast ocean around him, it functioned as a battery for his own lifeforce.

As he was reshaped into a humanoid form, the energy permeated the broken and shattered parts. Slowly he was made whole again.

“Now, little one, your turn to aid me.”

“Wait a damn second. Why are you down here, did you use mental magic on me to control me into this little trap?” Anger touched Ren’s voice as his ability to speak came back to him.

“I used no such thing. You are iron to a magnet, drawn by a force beyond either of us to control. You did what was in your nature. I felt this reaction, and so I took the opportunity.”

“What do you want from me? What is this place?”

“This is the final tomb of a dead God, nothing more, nothing less. And what I want from you is simple. Use your corruption to break a ritual, then form another.”

“You’re a hell of a lot stronger than I am, why do you need my help?”

“I cannot do such a thing myself. Look upon me and see the binding.”

Ren looked at the central orange eye of the figure. Using his eldritch eyes and analysis, a ritual circle was made visible to him. Trying to study it proved nearly impossible. The runic marks were beyond Ren’s understanding.

With a small touch of mana he pulsed out, eldritch touch encountered the ritual carved into the eye of the Watcher. Slowly, be attempted to degrade the ritual. The energy within the ritual was outlined by the very man of the Watcher itself. Though, a fine network of fixed energy was being charged by the corpse of the dead God.

Removing the fixed elements made of the purple energy was as easy as using his own mana. The ritual collapsed.

Burning symbols scorched into the Watcher’s eye, mana from its own body that had been empowering the ritual went haywire. Four reactions came about as four symbols came aglow.

The first symbol came alive with a nearly translucent blue glow. The energy there turned into a blast of force and blasted apart some of the eye.

The second symbol turned into a vile green and rotted away another quarter of the eye.

Ren saw as each of its eyes were glowing separate colors as a third symbol went off. A red glow appeared as part of the eye disintegrated into dust. The fourth and final symbol petrified part of the eye turning it into stone.

“What the f-” Ren was cut off.

“My own powers turned against me. Vile demon, I will still have my revenge.” The mental message came across as though the being was speaking to itself, or possibly another party not present at this time.

“So, I did break the ritual, are we even?” Ren touched his body now in complete and proper form. He felt his heart racing at the thought of the purple energy.

“One more thing, give yourself to me, allow me to control your body and I will complete the final task for you.”

“Take my body? Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

An impact of willpower struck Ren’s mind as he felt the central eye come alive. Though it was barely visible through all the destruction, the central eye glowed an orange-yellow light. Ren felt himself powerless against the willpower of the being before him.

His consciousness faded for long minutes.

“Now, bind us with your blood.” The voice spoke as Ren could see and hear again.

“What? What did you do to me?” Ren looked around as a ritual circle was drawn on the earth around him. His knife was in his hand, ready to draw his blood.

“With your blood, you will be sealing the new ritual. I am now unbound by my old master, I have guided you to create a ritual as to bind us together. With this, you can summon a portion of me to aid you. The more powerful you become, the more of myself you can summon.”

“Why? Who was your old master? Why do you want me to be your master?” Irritation coated his voice.

The sound of its terrible laughter sounded. “You shall not be my master, none shall ever be again. I propose to you that we aid each other. I am trapped down here, unable to venture far from the source of this power. If you become strong enough, in time you can share that fourth energy with me. Then, together, we can take this world to be our own.”

“Tell me, who is this dead God, why am I connected to it? Is this Alkyri? If Alkyri is dead, how can he have brought me to this world? When I came here there was something terrible, it was in a void beyond all life, a lightless existence where nothing could survive.”

“Ignorance, I forget little one. Alkyri is dead. But what Alkyri was is not Alkyri any longer, it is now the thing you speak of. It has a new name, one not to be spoken. This is the body long dead, the corpse of what once was. Things such as that need no gates, they merely need bodies. In the nothingness of the void, they can come to any world. They can devour the magic of the world, to turn it mundane. This is how what was once Alkyri came to such power. It devoured the magic of a world with no God to feel his presence. Now it had taken a mortal, and with great effort put that mortal into its old world. It will try to become you, possess you, and in time devour this world too. If we prevent that, you may take its mantle, its power. Together, I can teach you, and guide you in your path to slay what was once Alkyri. We can take the power and this world for our own.”

“I don’t want to become what that thing is. Never, not in a million fucking years. I just want to be happy, not some goddamned evil God, or servant to one. I want to be me. I don’t even know who I am! Every memory of who I was is gone. I don’t know anything about myself. Every time I try to remember something it’s like my brain gets scrambled. It’s all that thing's fault! I’m not joining with you to become some evil Gods together. I’ll fucking kill whatever the hell that Alkyri guy became. I don’t need you. I finally just made a friend and now she’s alone while I’m being coerced into a new contract to sell my soul to a new demon. I’m sick of it! If you think I’ll be your ticket to becoming some demon God of your own, you’re dead wrong!”

“ This ritual stipulates that we not harm one another, if that were to occur, our own powers would devour us. I will not try to dominate your mind or control you. I want to kill that being more than you can comprehend with your young mind. I have waited eons for this opportunity. We can slay it together. Finish this with your blood, we shall be bound. I will return you to your friend.”

“Fine, I’ll sign your devil’s contract if you swear to do your damn best in killing it.”

“ I swear, bound by my own power to slay me in my breakage.”

Ren slit his wrist as his blood poured onto the ground below him. The purple energy flickered towards him and sealed the wound.

A chill came to him. This energy, it’s trying to become me, invade me and bind me together with it so I will be consumed by it.

Symbols lit up around Ren as he felt his being become tied to that of the Abyssal Watcher. As the ritual bound them, a notification popped up on his nearly forgotten menu.

Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 14

+15 Dexterity +6 Willpower +6 Vitality +6 Intelligence +21 Free points

Three levels? Shit.

Skill Gained: Summon

Summon the aspect of the Abyssal Watcher bound to yourself by contract. The ability to summon the Abyssal Watcher is tied to willpower and ascension.

The Watcher looked down at Ren and used its telekinesis to lift him. It arose out of the black sea and carried him into the sky. Together they flew into the black sky for countless miles until the stone roof above was visible. It found the crack where Ren had fallen down.

The ceiling was visibly covered in purple veins and black masses of flesh embedded into the walls. The insects had been tearing away at it like miners at veins of gold.

The Watcher brought Ren to where he had fallen from and watched as he crawled into the opening.

“With haste and caution, find yourself free. You will need to flee far from humanity to find the power you need. We will speak, begone.”

Ren rolled his eyes at the dramatic abomination. Its massive black tentacled form floated down back into the sea below.

It took nearly a half hour for him to climb his way back from the crevice. When he reached the top he found Cella wrapped in fungal growths, hiding herself in the room. Even in the blackness, and through his ethereal sight, he could tell she’d been crying. He didn’t know what to say, he just gave her a hand and pulled her up.

Together, they left. As they walked, Ren told her of his story. He spoke of what he couldn’t remember, what he found in this world, and how he came to be down here with her. He told her of the Watcher below, and his fate to be devoured by something terrible and vast. The only hope he had was to devour the void God himself, a laughable idea. Though, they laughed together as they walked.