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Lux looked over the remaining crowd after his minions dragged away those he'd ordered executed: women and children, along with a few older teens. He'd quickly scanned their minds, finding that none had fallen too far into cannibalism and shouldn't be a problem later on.
Rose was a mess. This would either break her or make her stronger. Either way, he didn't care. Lux didn't want to waste his time with a naive hero type, so this worked for his interests.
Still, seeing the pretty girl crying, he let Aurora out, the golden puppy rushing over to comfort the young witch. Aurora seemed to have a soft spot for Rose. Hopefully, the little fluffball would help her get over it.
Turning back to the crowd, Lux figured he should get things sorted so he could start the reconstruction of his new home.
"Alright, now that your lord is dead, who's considered in charge here?" Lux asked the trembling group, making them back away now that the man responsible for their misery was directly addressing them.
Of course, none of them could muster up the courage to speak, but after a moment, and likely because they'd noticed his irritated look, one of the middle-aged women stepped forward, head lowered, bowing at the waist.
"M-M'lord, Lord Magnar's lady wife is in her quarters," she stammered.
"Well… someone go and bring her here," Lux rolled his eyes at having to deal with these small folk who could barely string a sentence together.
Taking the opportunity, the woman eagerly skedaddled from his presence. Lux waited in a somewhat awkward silence until a different plain-looking woman carrying an infant in one arm and holding the hand of a young child with the other walked out of the keep, her only remarkable features being the massive mammaries the baby was nestled against.
"Lady Magnar, I presume," he asked as the woman scowled at him.
"Is this the part where you finish off my family's line?" she bristled, making him smile.
Lux didn't mind the woman's attitude; he was simply pleased that someone could at least look him in the eye while speaking to him.
"My lady, that depends completely on the choices you make. I do believe we could come to an arrangement that would ensure you and your children's survival past this day."
"I won't be warming your bed if that's what you're asking," Lady Magnar scowled, Lux's eye twitching at the accusation.
Was this bitch serious? Being his bed warmer would be the highest honor the woman could possibly achieve in her insignificant life. Maybe he should bend her over right now infront of all her people.
No… Calm down, Lux. She's not worth it. She doesn't know better. Really, what could he expect? Sure, she might be a tad more educated than the rest of the savages of this land, but a savage is still a savage.
Still, he probably wouldn't let that comment slide. Like he'd said, the woman was nothing special, but maybe he could get some use out of those fat tits of hers when he gets bored.
Lux put on a fake smile. "Of course not, My Lady. I simply ask that you continue performing your duties to keep this house in running order," he stated matter-of-factly.
Lux figured he'd have an easier time dealing with the remaining locals if he used their Lady to convey his orders. And with a look into her eyes, he knew the fact that her children would blatantly be held hostage would prevent any funny business.
The Lady of the keep nodded, seeming to come to a decision. "If I have your word that I and my children will go unharmed, then I would be agreeable to such an arrangement," she politely answered, making him think that she'd started to understand her position. "May I know the name of our new esteemed Lord," she continued, back to her earlier derisive tone, making him take back those thoughts.
He paused, realizing he should probably come up with a surname. People of this world would assume he was a commoner or a bastard if he didn't have one. Okay, technically he was a bastard, but he figured it was a little different when your parents were gods.
The name he'd been given was Latin for 'light', so he might as well stick with the theme.
"My name is Lux Tenebris. For your family's sake, I'm glad you made the correct decision," he said, receiving an odd, almost contemptible look from the lady.
"That's not a name I'm familiar with. Shall I presume you to be a Southron lord?" she asked, unable to keep the venom out of her voice.
Lux chuckled. "You would be wrong, my lady, and nor am I from the east, for I am a god, descended from the heavens, with the mission to shepherd the lost onto the correct path," he proclaimed, receiving only crickets and the faint rustle of foliage in response. Rose scoffed next to him, and he was pretty sure he even heard Noir snort in amusement off in the distance.
Fucking ye of little faith, Lux complained to himself. Fine, he'd just have to show these peons a miracle.
He'd spent some time improving his healing magic while not having his fun time with Bella. He figured this next move would soon have these locals groveling at his feet, worshiping him in no time.
Summoning his golden seal over one hand, Lux tossed it toward the injured small folk, the circle expanding above the group before golden light bathed the slightly panicked people.
Wounds closed, limbs regrew, and malnutrition was cured in front of their disbelieving eyes.
Lux decided to leave his new people to stew in their awe, giving his undead a few orders before getting to work rebuilding the wooden keep.
~A New God's Conquest~
Rose still didn't quite know how she felt about all of this. On one hand, Lux was responsible for countless deaths; on the other, they were the deaths of savage cannibals.
After Lux handed her an enchanted necklace that translated to and from the local language, she started to believe that, while brutal, what he did was necessary.
It hadn't been long since the hostile takeover, but the people were already praising him as the benevolent god he claimed to be.
An obvious lie told to gain power in this world that seemed to lack the magic of her own. But when a man walks in healing mortal wounds and handing out more food than they could even imagine, Rose couldn't blame the uneducated commoners for coming to that conclusion.
The reverence they had for their new lord even extended to the people around him, and while she'd been used to the fame of being the 'Girl Who Lived,' this was on a completely different level.
They wouldn't stop calling her Lady Rose, and the amount of clothes, handcrafted trinkets, and stitched embroidery she'd been gifted was starting to pile up.
She had thought it odd that the remaining women and children so readily accepted him as their liege after he'd murdered their husbands and fathers, but this was a society that, for years, had been forced to cannibalize the young and elderly. The genocide their new lord committed was likely put to the back of their mind now that they could go to sleep with full stomachs.
This was a part of the reason she'd been stuck accepting so many gifts. Food was freely handed out, and what she now figured out were his undead soldiers handled the majority of labor. There really wasn't much for the women and children to do.
From what Rose had learned about this land she ended up on, Skagos was a large island with two other lords controlling similar amounts of land.
Over the days, she'd noticed more and more of Lux's obsidian-skinned undead leaving what now could be considered a castle and not coming back. It was obvious to her, based on his actions and the way he held himself, that the mysterious teen, who only looked to be her age, wouldn't settle for this small plot of land he'd claimed.
Rose could only hope that as few innocents as possible would be caught up in the violence and, hopefully, in the years to come, the prosperity created would make up for all the deaths.
~A New God's Conquest~
His long-laid plans were falling apart, and he knew exactly who was responsible.
The song had already been sung, and everything was moving along as it should until a discordant note appeared in a land that otherwise wouldn't have played a significant role in the events meant to be.
Now, the future was foggy, and he was sure the three with powers he couldn't see through were the sole reason.
If it were simply the two witches, he was confident he could at least work around them, but it was the boy that put him on edge.
Every time he tried to glimpse the cause of all his problems, whether through his Greensight or using his animals, the child's piercing gaze seemed to reach him, even far off in his distant hideaway behind countless magical wards placed by the Children he controlled.
Hope wasn't completely lost, though. Westeros, then the world, would all be his; he just needed to lure the odd boy into his domain.
~A New God's Conquest~
Lux walked through the small town slowly popping up around his new castle. Refugees from the towns his undead left in ruins were still trickling in every day.
Soon, the majority of the island's inhabitants would be centered in a single place, making it easier to control his subjects.
Before the massacre, the large island was sparsely inhabited by no more than fifty thousand men and women.
Normally, the chaos of such a large population moving to a single area would cause countless deaths from famine and disease, but that wouldn't be an issue with his magic.
Sure, he had to spend valuable time from his day handling all the small things, but he was already working on plans to decrease his workload.
He had far more undead than he needed to keep the island on lockdown and moved them to farming. More importantly, the untapped resources hiding in the many mountains would be his for the taking. His undead made excellent miners, not needing light to see or air to breathe.
Yes, he could just snap his fingers and create all the food and mundane minerals he could want from thin air, but that would be his valuable time wasted when he could be doing better things.
Just because he could snap his fingers and solve most problems, he still wanted the kingdom he was creating to be somewhat self-sufficient.
Lux didn't have any grand plans of attempting to build an educated workforce. Unless he used all his time and a lot of magic, something like that would take generations. At most, he was likely going to import some advanced trades like smithing and masonry from Essos.
That was his plan for the masses. For his private force, Lux had already started scouting for those with magical potential, finding a decent amount of Wargs in his land. The ones he decided to teach magic would likely double as his bureaucrats, their payment for his teaching being eternal paperwork slaves.
The only reason he hadn't started teaching yet was the fact that his Essence of the Archmage would allow him to teach people of this world with magic potential magic that was actually useful. Sure, controlling an animal was cool and all, but when compared to wizarding magic, it seemed kinda lackluster.
Not wanting to be the only one able to teach, he'd started working on a ritual that, in theory, would ignite the magical potential a person held in their blood, allowing them to naturally perform wizarding magic without his Essence doing all the work.
His testing would soon be done, and that meant he could put Bella to work as a professor. He just needed to test things out and ensure a person's natural abilities like Warging would still be kept after the ritual.
Reaching the outskirts of his town, Lux smiled to himself, seeing a crow perched on a tree.
He figured it was about time to deal with his little voyeur.
~A New God's Conquest~
Weirwoods were an interesting magical lifeform, something he was looking forward to studying, Lux thought, standing in the Godswood behind his castle.
But that could wait for another time. Now, he was going to have words with the man, or thing, that was trying to intrude on his privacy.
Lux placed a hand on the tree's pale-white face, his mind being pulled into a twisted mess that was the Weirwood's magical network, hearing an ominous laugh echoing through his mind.
"Boy, I didn't think you'd be foolish enough to enter my realm. You've only hastened your end," the voice he figured was that of the last Greenseer said, making him chuckle.
"I think you've got that wrong… I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me."
Heh, he'd always wanted to say that.
"The young are always so brash," the disembodied voice lamented, clearly overestimating himself.
After those words, Lux could feel the thing trying to pressure his mind and soul.
And he said 'thing' because he could tell that the Three-Eyed Crow wasn't human any longer. Instead, it was a corrupted conglomeration of souls bathed in hatred, all working toward a single purpose: taking over the world.
Well, hold on one minute. Lux couldn't have any of that now. There was only room for one megalomaniac around here.
Going on the offensive, Lux let his presence run wild, tearing through the flimsy domain created by the Crow, sending it running with its tail between its legs, but not before finding its body's location.
Leaving the tree's magical plane, Lux took a step, Apparating into a vast cave, the walls lined with roots, a man looking like a withered husk sitting in the center.
"Nothing more than a mortal trying to play god," Lux sneered, walking up to the body and prying a withered eyelid open to get a deeper look into its memories.
The thing definitely wasn't Brynden Rivers anymore. He'd always thought there was something fishy about the Three-Eyed Crow in the show and books.
By now he'd figured out that the history of this world was closer to that shown in the books, and he'd never gotten to the end, but if the show was anything to go by, it wasn't Bran Stark that left the cave, and it was likely the Crow that ended up winning the game of thrones.
With a quick walk through the thing's mind, he found that it was another creation by the Children of the Forest, and surprise, surprise, it turned on them like the Night King, forcing them to do its bidding.
Lux created a holy sword of light, stabbing the creature. The body disintegrated to ash while its tainted mess of a soul was purified out of existence.
After getting that over with, he noticed small heads peeking out from the many branches, each with nut-brown skin and varied hair colors.
One of the more feminine-looking ones with red and gold hair jumped down, bowing slightly at the waist.
"We thank you, human, for freeing us from the clutches of that monster."
Lux rolled his eyes. "Don't be so quick to thank me. I still haven't decided what to do with you lot," he said, making the little elf-like girl tilt her head. "Twice, you've created threats that endanger this world, and one of them is still out there."
Now the small girl was starting to back away. She didn't expect him to know the sins they'd committed.
Lux knew that the Children had a form of teleportation that allowed them to travel between the Weirwoods, but the magic cast by the Three-Eyed Crow was still up, keeping them trapped in this cave.
"Human, you have no right to judge us. This is our land," she managed to muster up the courage to say, even knowing she was greatly outmatched. The person who so easily ended the life of their captor wasn't someone they wanted to mess with.
"Correction, it was your land, and now this is what's come of your species, left to hide away like pests from the predators of your own creation," Lux mocked, seeing the anger on their little faces before continuing. "And now your fate rests in my hands. So tell me, do I really not have the right to judge?"
Lux found the many emotions crossing her face very amusing and cute. Almost like she was going through the seven stages of grief until she finally landed on acceptance.
"What would you have us do?" she asked, making him smile.
"You all shall willingly enter into a blood pact with myself. That way, I can make sure you don't end up creating the apocalypse or something worse on accident," Lux offered, getting a few shouts of anger from the Children further back.
The girl who had the task of talking to him also didn't seem pleased, but it looked like she knew when she was outmatched.
"My Lord, will you give us a moment to discuss this?"
Lux nodded, the little elf hopping over to the others, talking in their weird language they probably thought he couldn't understand.
Already, a few of the Children were plotting his death or planning to backstab him when he least expected it.
Lux made another light sword. His patience was running out. Targeting a male elf who was fervently pushing for them to try and kill him, he sent the blade flying, the little guy not even knowing what had happened until his head hit the ground.
The others looked at him in horror and fear, all while Lux impatiently tapped his foot, urging them to come to a decision.
Taking the hint, the group of twenty-eight little elves approached, heads lowered.
"We will go along with your offer," the same female elf he'd been talking to said, her voice almost a whisper.
"Perfect. Now I'll just need each of you to hand over seven drops of blood."
Summoning a bowl and a knife, the collection went without a hitch, likely because the remaining elves didn't want to lose their heads.
Unfortunately for them, the blood pact he had in mind wasn't as simple as he made it sound.
You see, house elves were such useful creatures, and he wanted to get his hands on a few to handle the daily chores.
He knew that the house elves from the wizarding world were normal enough looking before the dark ritual that bound them to wizards as slaves and was looking forward to seeing what effect, if any, being bound to a god would have on the elves of this world.
The ritual was nothing complicated for him, and after it was done, it seemed the little fellas noticed something was wrong.
Too bad, because now they were forever bound to him, their loyalty enforced by the binding ritual.
House elves get. Today had been a productive day, he thought, patting the dust off his shoulder.
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