As I drew ever closer to the man I had just transformed into a special kind of vampire I focused on exerting my influence over him. This was quite easy for me, for a number of reasons, but primarily due to the powers of the beings I had transformed myself into earlier today.
As a sort of ultra-being who had four out of five ascensions and was also the Anael, I had potent powers when it came to manipulating emotions. I had a variety of motives as far as transforming myself went but the primary ones I had were to give myself ways to manipulate feelings and loyalties without over-relying on "Emanation". By transforming into the Anael I had the power to manipulate happiness, but I was quickly learning that I was a bit greedy and while discovering that aspect of myself I had chosen to master all seven of the deadly sins.
This powerful choice had given me powers that were limited in scale but often just as mighty as my Anael abilities were for happiness but for darker emotions such as anger, despair, and jealousy. Through them, I had a number of ways to manipulate people, and I didn't even need to be physically present in a place to use my potent powers on someone if I was channeling negative emotions.
I viewed my ability to manipulate emotions as one of my favorite newfound powers since it was difficult for me to manipulate someone's emotions in ways that were specific but not aimed towards me, such as when I was using my Living God powers. If I felt like mixing my powers together... I knew the results would be spectacular, though for now, that was something that I had no interest in doing.
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Warden James Geoffrey was currently seated in a plush leather chair facing an elegant but messy desk. He was not nearly as organized as the mayor of the city, and he was a good deal less busy. Nevertheless, he was quite busy at the moment due to the quasi-out-of-body experience he was having.
At the moment his body was shifting and changing. He had been touched by a powerful god and transformed into one of that god's more powerful and fierce servants. His mind was expanding, as his body became stronger than was strictly possible for a human being. His transformation was taking a second to fully occur due to the fact that the man's health had been quite poor prior to this unexpected mini-ascension.
Every single one of his organs was touched and transformed by the god's mighty powers, as were his senses and even his very soul. Though he didn't know this, by becoming one of the vampires of the fourfold creature who he now wholeheartedly worshiped, his soul now had an indelible mark on it that clearly marked it as the property of someone else; his lord and master, Antonio Lopez.
Even as his organs transform, he unknowingly felt his emotions being controlled by the strange creature he now worshiped. The being carefully and skillfully made use of his nature as an archdemon to alter and mold the warden's mind, even as he shared powerful abilities with the man.
Psychometric powers infused the man's eyes, allowing him to use the very same ability which was one of his master's signature superpowers and caused his mind to fill with visions of the pasts of the objects which littered his room. His enhanced mind was able to handle the visions, due to another, more subtle change his master had given to it; the ability to divide one's mind's eye into countless mental "theaters" through which sensory information could be handled without threatening to overwhelm someone.
The man's conscious mind wanted to go on a walk through the prison and determine who all was suitable to be fed upon and who all merited his master's mercy, but he couldn't move. He didn't know that his master was so close, or that the young god had plans for the warden that took precedent over the man's own desires.
Instead, the warden found himself paralyzed in his chair. While he sat, forced to remain unmoving, he allowed himself to appreciate the sights before him. His enhanced vision could pick up every single color within the electromagnetic spectrum, to a far greater extent than mundane humans could. It filled him with an appreciation for even the simplest artistry and allowed him to take in far more information than he had ever been able to in the past. Incidentally, he could also hear distant conversations and even the soft sound of approaching footsteps.
The method of paralysis that Antonio was distantly employing was to utilize a power he was quite fond of; "Puppet Master". With it he was capable of effortless paralysis of even the largest theoretical cosmic megastructures, but it was even easier for him to utilize his powers on as small a scale as a single vampire. Even a vampire as mighty as one of his was utterly helpless in the face of his potent powers.
Meanwhile, on a more subtle level, Antonio was making use of a litany of powers to cause a number of events to occur that would further his eerie goals and machinations.
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Few powers were as good at the enabling of theatrics as "Puppet Master". With it, I could do things like grant prisoners I knew to be guilty of the violent crimes they were accused of a chance to make me look like a hero.
I did this by subtly moving the guards out of where they were supposed to be, while effectively possessing the prisoners who'd soon believe they had a shot at breaking free by making one of the guards "accidentally" drop his keys. While my companions and I made our way to the office, we all began to hear the distant sounds of a kerfuffle occurring in the actual part of the prison that held prisoners, the main cell block.
I turned to my companions and smiled, and allowed them to mentally speculate as to whether or not I was somehow behind this. None of them knew about the trickery I performed in Puerto Rico, aside from Rebeza, and I suspected she could vaguely sense my usage of my powers here but if she could she kept that to herself.
With incredibly little conscious thought I manipulated the prisoners and the guards to make it so that neither side was able to do more than just knock out their enemies on the other side, even when the guards had actual weapons on them and the prisoners were often strong enough to kill with their bare hands, especially those of them that were thralls of mine. I wasn't here to preside over meaningless bloodshed. Nevertheless when my companions and I heard the distant sounds of the prisoners who were the first to escape from the fight in the main cell block beginning to move towards where we were I did begin to emit a fierce smile.
"Finally..." Rebeza whispered as she turned in the direction of the sounds.
"I wonder... What is the point?" Titania asked, as she too turned to look in the direction of the noise. Imani was the only one who didn't react to the sounds, not caring at all about what she knew Rebeza, Titania, and I could easily handle.
We only had to wait for a minute or so before the most distant prisoners reached us, stepping out of an intersection in the long corridor and turning just to see us gazing at them. As they did, I filled their minds with an incredible amount of rage and lust and in doing so ensured that they'd choose to attack us rather than flee. I wasn't even controlling their bodies at this point, it was enough for me to control their hearts to ensure that they opted to attack us.
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The jumpsuited men, five of them, paused as they gazed at the strange party in front of them. The four figures were unusual, and they were all weirdly dressed too.
One of them was a handsome man, inarguably the most handsome man any of them had ever seen. He was dressed in an immaculately tailored and maintained suit and had a haughty expression on his face as he gazed at them. His eyes were sheer black, the sort of black you'd see if you gazed into the depths of an unexplored cave in the dead of night.
The other three were truly gorgeous women. One of them had long black hair and wore a white gown. She had scarlet eyes filled with a variety of emotions and to gaze at her made one feel... dirty, somehow. Another of the three women was a lady with onyx-colored skin who was not even gazing at them. She wore a blue dress that gave her a saintly aura. The final woman was a brunette who wore a golden dress and had dark eyes but not nearly as dark as the eyes of the strange man.
As the once captured criminals gazed at the figures standing before them, all five of them felt their anger steadily rising. Each of them was guilty of the crimes they had been accused of and had been charged with long sentences, and even now with their chance at escape before them they felt a sinister, sickly rage eating at them.
One of them, the one furthest from the adventurers, was the first to snap. He let out a fierce roar and charged at the gathered group. He was a white man with dark brown hair and rage-filled blue eyes. He had no weapons on him, but he had been a semi-professional boxer once and his skills hadn't dulled in the time since he became a prisoner. As he closed the distance between himself and the handsome man, the mysterious figure quietly let out a gentle chuckle and closed his eyes as if to further taunt the angry boxer.
Antonio quietly heard the man's fists closing in rage and the noises of his muscles as they hardened. And then he neatly ducked underneath the sudden jab, effortlessly dodging the man's first strike. The prisoner, not expecting such a skillful dodge was sent hurtling forward by momentum and staggered a little as he attempted to recover from the overexertion of the punch.
"That's it! But you'll never defeat me like that, Thomas." Antonio taunted, even as Rebeza stepped towards the man and gently pushed him back towards her mate, an arrogant and lovely smile on her face as she did so. Thomas gasped as he pushed by the physically overwhelming "Dark Bride" of Antonio, and the sanguinarch himself audibly chuckled as he closed his fist and prepared to launch a blow of his own.
Thomas was one of Antonio's thralls, but he was so overcome with anger, due to Antonio's potent powers, that he didn't recognize his master. That was a mistake on his part, but it was calculated by the tricky deity. He wanted to use thralls for this experiment since he'd not have to hold back quite as much against them as he would have against lesser humans.
Antonio leaped back and landed on his two feet, fully straightened and ready to launch a devastating punch of his own using both one of the minor aspects of "Absolute Condition" and his own knowledge of fighting to his advantage. "Absolute Condition" a mighty power of his that granted him absolute control over himself, also granted him minor knowledge of fighting techniques. He was also as skilled a boxer as anyone in the Americas was, due to his unique form of psychometry also granting him the skills of those he gazed upon.
Antonio's own strength was limitless, but fortunately, he was already quite skilled at not overusing his might. His first blow against the thrall was a simple jab that hit the convicted murderer square in his stomach, causing the man to experience immense pain and be lifted off of his feet. The pain the man felt transformed into essence that flowed into Antonio and made the young god quite happy.
"This is fun, but I hope you aren't finished yet. That would hardly be exciting." The divinity uttered, his eyes filling with something not far from bloodlust. The immense pain Thomas felt was incredible, and almost made the man blackout in one blow which Antonio noticed and responded to by sighing in annoyance and utilizing one of his powers to soothe the pain with but a thought. As he did he retracted his fist and glared at the boxer.
"How disappointing... I'd have thought you were made of sterner stuff," He muttered, disgust and disappointment audible in his voice. "Fortunately, I can still heal you and make use of you." He added, as his eyes filled with a sort of smug satisfaction.
"I need you for a bit longer, and then I'll let you sleep this off." Antonio revealed, before abruptly leaping into the air and shifting himself around the man. He moved so that the man's back was facing the warden's office, and proceeded to launch an overwhelming hurricane of attacks that forced the man back, step by step, moving him closer and closer to the warden's office. Each attack, even the softest, caused him to feel a bit of essence flowing into him. And Antonio subtly released the warden from his paralysis, just in time to give him a chance to get involved in the fight.
Meanwhile, behind the two warriors, the other criminals let loose their own fierce bellows and charged at the vampiric women. Curiously, not one of them wanted to attack Imani, and so two of them went after Titania and two of them went after Rebeza. Titania shook her head in disappointment, while Rebeza let loose an eerie howl of laughter as the criminals charged at the two of them with eager, bloodthirsty looks on their faces.