It was all coming together. Despite any inconvenience and interuption by the filthy rebels, they were now days away from being wiped out.
Nobles killed and humiliated, hundreds of thousands of gold being thrown though the window as resources and equipment were robbed or destroyed, thousands of soldiers incapacitated by an unknown poison, false orders being mixed up through the whole country....
Had they not offended the magic association, then maybe King Arcor II would have given up on imediatly rooting out the problem, making sure his preparations were in place before anything going onto such large scale undertaking. As it stood, a force of fifty arcanists boosted his military's own. Were someone to allow knowledge of his involvement on the hiring of the mage that ended killed to become public, things would change, but there were certain advantages to being a sovereign with a strong body of assasins and spies.
"General, Magus Allender, i believe the time nears for our preparations to be complete. I called you all here simply for a confirmation of your troops being ready for deployment." Seriously mentioned the regal older man, his few gray hairs only accentuating his wisdom as his body was that of a warrior, not of a man that hadn't seen a real battlefield.
"My men are ready your magesty. The rituals for scrying and disruption are complete, we know how many and where they are, there is but the execution of the dissidents remaining." Calmly said the wisened mage. Their defences had been strong, but there was only so much that could be done with no spirit helping support the cost of such defenses.
"My king, the troops are ready for the initial attack, and the messengers report that the nearest reinforcements are half a day away while the furthest is five days from our position. We can expect thirty thousand more conscripts and ten thousand more knights and regular soldiers, which should keep the troops fresh while the elfs are tired during our assault." Reported the even bigger man with the fullest beard on the room.
"Good, this mea...." As the king tried to sound confident and disperce the meating, the air ripped with a long and painful wail.
*VWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...*
They were not the only ones to leave their tents to take a look outside, those with power feeling the wrongness in the presence making itself known, and the mages straight up pissing themselves as several kneeled to the ground, seeing the real form of the source of the noise that drowned every other sound in the kilometers around them.
Up in the sky, above the canopy of the mythical forest serving as refuge for then elven rebelion, a tree rose further than the others, growing several meters a second, creating a great clearing around it as several other ancient pillars were topled by it's roots seeking space.
Above that, there was a hole in existence, energy from the surroundings all condensing around it and descending like a divine pillar onto the growing monstrosity with dark orange leaves becoming closer and closer to crimsom in color.
A spirit had passed the pinacle and accended into a deity.
The shadow of the elven empire could be seen again, streching it's fangs and talons after some centuries of sleeping. The mighty beast would conquer again. It would fight it's enemies again. It would only truly perish after having all bleed rivers under it's command.
*****
"RISE AND SHINE BITCHES!" Reverberated a powerful voice through the forest, reaching all the sleeping driads, fairies, ents, fungal spirits and giant beasts, each and everyone angry even if it wasn't of their nature, and they made sure that was known. "You're displeased? Angry? Then fucking come at me and free yourselves from your duty! Otherwise, WE HAVE A FUCKING ARMY TO MASSACRE!" He treatened through the same link, excitement and bloodlust contaminating each and every soul, the diference in intensity obvious despite the volume being the same.
They had never been angry after all, they were only feeling the reflexion of the emotions of another. Someone that now reigned in this forest. Someone that was vividly angry that they would simply lay down and be culled and killed off, that they would hide when they fought so much to live before, that they had allowed another but himself to finish them off for their stupidity.
It wanted to eat them. Obeying was not nescessary. They could all ignore his command. That would only mean that he'd come back to kill them.
Many fought back in annoyance and displeasure, but were soon shaking and puking, several trees bleeding a red liquid even at the forefront of the forest, the screams of beasts and spirits alike joining the chorus of the wind, their essence being fused with the pillar of energy in the sky, the new seat of power growing white, bearing plump fruits and spreading both downwards and upwards.
None died from the rebound, they were only completly drained of energy. They could easily be killed by even their offsprings as they stood however.
Stepping out of a very big tree at the entrance of the forest, came a young man. His pale skin shined under the sun, the small hairs on his skin showing a metalic luster like that of an ancient beast, stopping anything from truly reaching his body. The visage of a white haired youth in the middle of a verdant forest was certainly eyecatching, but he was still far away, walking slowly towards the army in front of him, the only thing that made the powerhouses note him was his strenght.
Then came a five meters tall trent, it's calm steps reaching out of another tree. A giant bear with runic marks stepped out of the woodwork. Colorful pixies, brownies and elemental fairies fluterred out of the canopies. From the distance, the cries of eagles and griffins from the great mountains came. The ground trembled as cracks opened, roots holding the way for marching steps of several trolls, ogres, orcs and even gobs rising from the underground. As the wails of the world itself started to receed, the screams of scouts and forward parties could be heard over the marching army of creatures, the buzzing of insects now cluttering on the background.
As Aki stood close to the front of terrified and shaking soldiers that had been organized into rapazard formations, he proclaimed, taking out a long, silvery sword encrusted with ancient script and blazons from seemingly thin air and pointing it skywards.
"Pitiful elves, your stupid profecy will now be made true on the hands of an outsider taking advantage of the sweat and tears of those that worked for this very day, be they enemy or ally. Pray so that it's end is not your end! Pray so that you do not forget! Pray so that you do not become the same disgusting things as your ancestor who put your people in such a situation where you needed my help! Pray so your hateful guardian becomes useless and is never again called forth! Pray so that i don't have to dirty my lawn with the blood of idiots that don't even know what they are fighting for!" He swung his sword down, the acumulating silver light jumping from his diagonal slash and cutting down a hundred man as it flew forward. Then his voice became much calmer and more sinister, not at all like that of a person. "And pray that you are never on the wrong side of my attacks."
*****
Vanes looked at the horizon, her gaze distant as tears formed in her eyes. Turning away, she dressed herself. The experience had become a distant memory, the exertion normally weakening their body. Now...
"Your holi....!" Matrak entered the room the moment the door was unlocked through her permission, yet laying eyes on the high elf, he was completely stunned, his heart beating faster despite himself. The formely ethereal beauty had gained more colour to their skin, the weak platinum hair now shined and reached their lower back, fluttering with a magical glint while encasing the figure standing close to two meters tall, sporting a defined and muscled body that would put many female warrior to shame, for they were clearly a lady, the mounds adorning her chest and the wide hips swaing as she strode forward making such obvious.
"Do not call me that anymore. It'd be unbefitting." She smiled at her old friend. "We have a guardian now."
"But he, you, the rites..." Going through any emotion he could think off, the elf practically short circuited. This wasn't how any of this should be. He could reconise each and every event that would lead to such a situation, he wasn't stupid, but they simply didn't make sense when put together.
"There is nothing to be done about it. Prepare the troops old friend, we can't simply allow for the forest to fight alone. Specially not after so long asleep." Her words were serious, but also contained barely guarded excitement. It'd been over a century since their body was not burdened from the loneliness, the only recipient to the strenght of their people.
And to be fair, the new form was also amasing. She wanted to MOVE!
*****
'Kill the humans' 'Please, kill them all' '...Fradkistor aminat hev...' 'With my blood, for my blood, take their blood' 'KILL'
Being a guardian ment being a deity, meaning prayers were heard at all times, and Aki was surprisingly close to the minimum requirements. Only nine minor ranks on his spirit attribute. That was it. He'd borrowed a special ring, which raised his mystical knowledge skill by one up to grandmaster, which ended up with it effectively at master level, reducing all spirit autentifications by 2 ranks, then he received a blessing, drunk a potion, went through a small training chamber that would attack his mind and refine his will, then had sex until he was nauseus of giving so much head.
Only then did he start the ritual through the contract scroll he'd bought beforehand, forcing the system to make the things work by having it be it's problem. The autentification ended up still being two ranks above his temporarily boosted stats, but he'd managed, out of sheer will, to survive the mental backlash while feeding most of the energy into the tree he stood at, which actually made it into an artifact that helped him control the area his 'divinity' was already supposed to cover besides giving him bonuses while inside the area of influence, +2 to all his stats and +1 to a ton of skills, though not the ones at transcendent level.
Nes had also went through their own transformation at around the same time as it seemed there was a special bonus to dedicating both your spirit and your body to a divine being, sans becoming a gorgeus amazon towering her new lover, though they were still adorable when trying to kiss, accident in question which led to both realizing their junk had also grown together with the rest of their body despite her choosing to become a woman.
It was supposed to be something similar to some species of fish and bugs acording to them and some records, basically instantenious too, though it was not supposed to be reversible or anything of the like, meaning the long rod of meat should be gone for good instead of growing, so it was likely that the magical process had taken both their intentions in consideration when transforming the body instead of just the elf's, what with her pledging to be his representative/priest.
Well, thinking of his partner did make his grin widen a bit too much while on the battlefield, and he still had a king to kill, nevermind whoever stood between the two of them. He wanted that storage ring. Badly.