Black Magus

I ran for what felt like days. Sprinted, I did; chasing after God's whispers; building my faith with each step.

How fast, I now was; capable of infusing my body with mana to move at great speed. Great speed for a goblin, at least. I moved across the land faster than any warg could sprint. And infinitely longer.

How conditioned, I now was; untiring as I sprinted and climbed and leaped without stopping. Unslowing in my momentum no matter the obstacle, for my faith demanded I make it to my destination with the utmost haste.

How strong, I now was; able to leap over ravines, jump atop boulders, and even compete with humans easily. My body felt both light and heavy. Lifting my feet with such speed was effortless. And yet, my steps thundered across the lands of Kasia as if I weighed a ton.

How durable, I now was; healed completely from the attack that birthed my wrath. I felt like nothing could halt my advance. With faith, nothing could. Not boulders or trees. Not fur throats or tusked-tooths, Humies, or even elves. But still, I stopped. The memories of a body once gone demanded I stop at a steaming watering hole for a drink. But there was no difference between before and after. My mouth was no more or less parched. My lungs were no more or less winded. My feet were no more or less sore. So I ran more.

I sprinted as prompted by my whispers, passing the Tri-Point to skim the borders of Rhar, where corpses lay abound. And again, I stopped. The memories of a mind now lost demanded I scour and scavenge the corpses for whatever could be found. Weapons and ruined equipment. Trinkets and gold. A flask and satchel filled with booze, sausage, and dried strips of meat. After claiming the satchel from a dead halfling, I claimed the sausage and took a bite of the meat, again noticing no difference. Instead, there was something else to be noticed. A scratching whisper that was different than all the others, yet the same. It came with images of things I'd never seen. A clearing, and a drawing of a ring surrounded by six smaller circles, each inscribed with some… sigil.

How enthralled I was, in drawing those circles atop a flat rock. I took the utmost care. Ensuring each line was perfect before I moved on to the next, wherein I received the greatest sense of satisfaction once I was finished. It was so great that I began to chant and sing so loudly that it shattered space itself, prying apart the fabric of reality to drop a golden brazier at the center of those circles.

Filled to the brim with onyx, the brazier roared into life from the heat of my song's fervor, blazing in an eldritch shade of blue-green energy that left the onyx smoldering, billowing a nightly smoke into the air that shaded the skies in darkness and illuminated the ground under a banner of stars.

Seeming to fight back, the sigils sprang to life one at a time to pour some invisible something into the air that pushed against the darkness and me both. I felt like I was in the basin of the Great Rift, oppressed by the very air threatening to crush me into nothing. But I maintained. The smoke did not. It gradually compressed into an egg's shape and shifted from a vibrant shade of blue-green and gold to a blacker-than-black hue before a final surge of force split that void of darkness in two. Two soon became four, and soon, a web of cracks had formed around the shell; bulging and shifting to release upon the realms, a small draconic creature of shadow with a barbed tail and eyes of snow.

Although it was just born, it was about as large as a house cat and jumped onto my shoulder with just as much grace. With it, came another wave of immense satisfaction, along with more scratching whispers that pulled me north. And so, I ran.

Throughout the night and day, I sprinted, trying to remember more and more of my dream in hopes of figuring out what this thing was. I did not get far, only learning the obvious. It was some weird small dragon-thing. It was even lazy like them. Despite it being a hunter with a fanged maw, wings, and sharp claws, it remained in the folds of my clothes throughout the day. Sleeping. Only when the sun started to fall did it awake to give me a close study. And therein I found it was still indeed some weird, small dragon-thing. The scales around its horns seemed to be… feathery. The horns spiraling back from his skull had bone-white horizontal grooves, and the great wings were not leather like that of a dragon, but feathered like a bird, beating silently as it circled me; its barbed tail trailing helplessly behind it.

Each study of the thing brought crude thoughts. Visions, unlike those from my faith. They were more like thoughts that were not my own. Thoughts of running, sprinting to some cave or clearing, and feeling… satisfied.

"What are you?" I demanded. But what responded was the thumping of a large beast approaching from behind.

When I wheeled around I saw a horse-sized creature in the far distance lunging at me with great speed. It was almost a blur of spotted, amber fur and a white underbelly but stained red with the blood of those I just scavenged around the saber-toothed maw. Long serrated claws protruded from its paws, digging into the ground deeply as it pounced and brought its golden-maned head to bear. I met those hateful orange eyes calmly, paying more attention to the black lines trailing from its eyes to its maw while I reached into my satchel and thrust out a thick piece of meat.

"Here!" I danced the links around in the air between me and the hulking beast. "It's sausage. You'll- uogh!"

A flash of amber preceded an immense weight that crushed the words from my lungs. But again, I felt no pain. Nor did I feel the claws raking into my hide or the fangs biting into my skin. Neither did I feel anger, to my surprise. I only had a thought to destroy. A thought that added fuel to the fires of my faith and made me giddy to no end. In embracing it, I felt distant pain before something hot and wet splattered against my skin. The beast howled, reeling back on its hind legs and I leaped off my back, thrashing with my arms to spray myself in glorious gore until it fell into a pile of steaming meat; wherein I gazed upon my tools of destruction for the first time.

Razor-sharp metal extended a few centimeters from each of my fingernails, forming long claws stained with blood. Surprised, I tried to remember what they had looked like before and reeled back as they seamlessly retracted beneath my skin, which restitched to regrow black fingernails atop my fingers. Again came the satisfaction when they retracted. Again came the thoughts that weren't mine- this time about the creature dead at my feet, and me, with injuries that would slow our pace. And then of me again, imbuing both the dragon-creature and the beast with my... power.

"My... power?" I stared at the creature, remembering when I felt it with the orcs. I was angry then. I thought only of killing. But again, the images came of me looking inside myself instead.

Following the thoughts, I closed my eyes and gazed upon my inner spirit- that pit of wickedness. What was nothing before was now a mass of darkness surrounded by a ring of golden light. It circled my life well, feeding its unholy energies into the pool of vibrant energy within. Following these thoughts, I reached out to the strange small dragon. And with that action came a stream of that tainted energy. Like the heavy rains pouring into the great rift, my energy flowed into that creature, giving no apparent change to the outside.

However…

"Ah!" a satisfied purr trilled in the air while a deep and regal voice rang in my mind. "That's much better. Now, Leary, do the same to dire-cheetah."

"What are you?" I demanded.

"I was a mere Dragonimp. Now I am a Bone Dragonimp." It voiced in my mind. "I am your familiar, Leary. Now, hurry. God is waiting."

"Who is your God?" I asked, stubbornly.

"Your patron, and your God as well." It hissed. "He has blessed you with many things, Leary. And not mere tools of destruction, a new body entirely. Necessities, these blessings are, for you will need them if you are to live through your curse."

"Curse?"

"You said you would do anything to live, yes? Now that you forever live, we embark to do any and everything. So focus once more and pray for this beast to change," it said, hopping up to rest on my head. "These are your true boons. The most prevalent.

"Aside from me."

"AsIdE fRoM mE." I echoed with disdain as I looked within once more. "Who the fuck do you think you are?" Stupid fucking imp dragon. It was punishment. Of that I was certain. But if it was decreed by God then I would embrace it faithfully. And with my freedom, I would make this thing's life a living nightmare.

I unleashed my power with a roar, leaving nothing to spare. The energy, wicked and delightful, poured into the dead beast like flies to shite, burrowing deep inside the flesh to force convulsions and mutations within its bones. Satisfying cracks saw its claws grow large and wickedly curved while the beast writhed in phantom pain from its bones being pulled apart. Deep crunches saw each vertebra split from its disk and enlarge into cruel spikes along the spine, ending in a spiked club at the base of the tail. They grew shorter and more blunt, those spines, as they reached the base of the neck. Flattening, eventually, into a crown similar to moose horns, just large enough for me to sit comfortably beneath a saber-toothed head plated in bone armor. With a wheeze, the beast pulled its legs beneath its once-disemboweled torso, now covered by its ribs, widened and made to overlap like armor.

I jumped to my throne without delay, cackling madly as the final bit of magic spawned skeletal wings feathered in darkness on the beast's mid-back.

"Let's go, Sausage!"