Black Magus

Reina Featherfall.

***

Flesh Mother. Brood Queen. These names of mine were mere titles that reflected my abilities. A sorcerous hold on twilight that both purified and tainted the druidic arts I inherited from a grove that no longer was.

Undying Fiend. Such a thing was simply what I became. A being who made a deal with the darkest devil in existence, pulling me to the brink of death's door so that I could straddle it indefinitely. However, I was still Reina, the half-elven druid girl who was slain by her loving parents. I was still Reina. Yet, I was no longer a mere individual. I stood amongst the Elven Devil's Troupe as one of the wisest, most intelligent, and most powerful beings in the Mortal Plane and had the assets to prove it. A junior artificer's license. A witch certification. Business organizations. The Life Center and Reina's Cleanup Crew.

I stood amongst the Elven Devil's Troupe at the trunk of the majestic tree that was the Legio Noctis. Leagues ahead of the scattered legions, we were to carve our way across the Mortal Plane in its entirety. Forever marching. Creating. Destroying. Doing the unthinkable for the sake of those so far behind us.

We all had our specialties. Wilson; chemicals and undead. Freki; food and fire. Leary; bones and war. Mine was equally simple. Realms and Worlds. As World Keeper, it was my job to ensure our camps were sustainable, in balance with nature; and, in some cases, well hidden. It was my job to care for the many wild creatures that tagged along with us during our journey across the Bodhi Peninsula; and the many more who would come to us in the future. In many cases - especially in the most vile and uninhabitable places - my job was to build our wild strongholds and hidden cities.

Last and most certainly not least, it was my job to care for and upgrade the biological components of Umas - if they had them. To do that, we all needed to expand our learning on wise rocks, or as Etan and the drow called them, Lair Stones.

The size of the abodes they created depended on both the density of the owner's mana and the size of their well. Our mana wells varied in size. Yet we all possessed arcana; with arcana came the potential for our territories to occupy a region fit for a country. Something we would not always require or be permitted to have. And our divine powers only exacerbated the issue. With our divine powers, our domains could grow to encompass a realm and then some. Not to mention, the wise rocks of Eotrom had evolved on their own accord. Everyone from the Imperators and Primes to the Troupe had a unique lair stone; Amun more so than anyone else, with one per domain. But the lair stones of my world and Iris' ring were different. For me, there was the Brood Heart. For her, the Sentinel. Homes and factories, the both of them, for our children.

Thus, it was declared that our future habitats and hides would come in two flavors. Arcane, formed by lair stones. And natural, traditionally raised cities. Such a distinction depended entirely on region and the need for anonymity, unlike the next categories. Depending on the terrain, the political climate, the environment, and several other factors, our hides would either be Opened or Closed.

The latter would be inhospitable and impassable environments for most creatures; domains hidden beneath deep water; covered in extreme temperatures; filled with pestilential plants and toxic creatures. Anything that could deter those who would dub us as evil abominations in need of vanquishing. A preemptive measure to prevent bounties being placed on our heads and armies arriving at our door. For then, nations would fall.

Open hides, on the other leaf, would appear as your run-of-the-mill abode or homestead left open for any passerby seeking refuge, trade, or simply a great time. Assuming they could see it in the first place, for only some of our hides would be seen. Our Hidden hides would go unseen by the populace. And more, significant efforts would go into ensuring the place remained unnoticed. They were meant for places with heavy laws, for we would surely ignore them. Not only that, but it was a necessity for my flesh factories.

Permanent abodes and settlements were to be the exception, not the rule. And many of those settlements would be spread beneath the waters of the realms, the Underground, or the Darkworld. Born solely from our decision to spend years or decades or more in a realm, engaging in all things commercial, political, and otherwise. In all other cases, the rule was, we of the Legio Noctis - nay, Eotrom was a nomadic empire. We were explorers. Wanderers. As were our lands.

Across the Legions, our mobile domains were organized into tiers. The largest of them, Tier 11, consisted of the Woven Worlds that forever orbited their weavers - the Imperators. Like Mani, the Legion home worlds were interdimensional structures; hollow worlds, with their surfaces exposed to the Mortal Plane and their inverted interiors looking out into the divine realm of Eotrom.

Tier 10 was the Matryoshka Moons, akin to the Deathworld woven above Shujen. Woven to be NoxNet-connected hubs of information constructed around the Legion's Senior Lore Skull, much like a celestial throne mixed with a corps headquarters, but with castles and cities for undead and fiends alike.

Industrial Asteroids or, in some cases, Rings followed them at Tier 9. Again, they were connected to the networks, but in this case, it was to oversee a division's industries and artisanal endeavors. Similarly, Tier 8 was the Brigade Sky Shards. Proper garrisons for each regiment and countries for regimental staff, contractors, and civilians, persisting at the sky's edge above their assigned biomes.

Creating each of those tiers was Amun's responsibility. Likewise, maintaining them would be the responsibility of their creator. The Tier 8s and several more below, however, were due to be my responsibility.

The one called Edward Pascal, the Grandmaster Chief Engineer, had a lot on his plate. Not to mention, the crafting of flesh was more aligned with my abilities. So, with the founding primes' Umas created, I unburned him with the responsibility of being the one to create, maintain, and upgrade the Legions' Umas for the foreseeable future; allowing him to return his focus to engineering.

The first of them was the Tier 7 capital ships; the Zeta-Class Umas like the Cuttleship. Across the Legions, there were only 11 as of yet, but there was due to be more once we traveled further across the Mortal Plane, leaving new Legions behind us. After all, each brigade was due to receive one. A few were more mechanical in appearance, like the Aluminum-Rain cloud turtles and moving mountain crabs used by some drop troops and dwarves. The rest, however, resembled moths, weasels, snakes, or some other creatures, with only a slightly off-putting visage.

Significantly fewer of the Tier 6 vessels and even fewer Tier 5 vessels had been distributed to the battalions and companies, namely because their ranks had yet to be filled. With the former being Omega-Class Umas and the latter being Alpha-Class Umas, there was none in the Legions yet qualified to take ownership of such assets. Not even the platoon-sized Beta-Class Umas or the squad-sized Sigma-Class; the Tier 4 and Tier 3 vessels. All others, the arcane and normal vehicles, would still be the responsibility of the Senior Master Chief Engineer.

Or Iris.

Of course, we were the exception. And, of course, our Umas were born from creatures taken from our divine worlds. Leary's Omega-Class Uma, for example, was a colossal bone worm filled in the interior with the likeness of a linear, grandiose castle. To make it the tunneler he dreamed of, I grew various glands within its body that could calcify dirt and excrete it from the anal glands; expanded into a ring around the tail as it passed, leaving something like a snake's ribcage for his other Umas to run through. And yet, that was the intriguing part about Leary's Uma. In preparation for his elite force, Mick Green, his bone worm was made to be modular. Being made of bone from the organs down to the skin allowed the ribs and vertebrae to detach without reducing structural integrity. And so it was that these vertebrae and ribs were made into his lesser Umas. But not for him.

For his future minions, Leary made skeletal planes out of bony birds, tanks out of exoskeletal Mustelids, racers out of osseous rodents, and calcified ships from sea urchins and shellfish. And if that wasn't enough, the bony organs, hairs, eyes, and mandibles were made to detach and operate as anything from fast attack shards and trains to scouting vehicles. All for his future minions. But things were different for the goblin paragon. For his Alpha-Class Uma, he took a massive bat of bone and turned it into an aircraft carrier; for his Beta-Class Uma, he took a Bone Badger and turned it into a tunneling tank; for his Sigma-Class Uma, he took a skeletal rat and turned it into an armed racecar. All of them were given biological upgrades. Metallic claws and teeth. Acid or poison spitting glands. Color-changing pigments. Among others. But so too were they given technological upgrades. Turreted wands. Thrusters and gravity negating plates. Recycling and manufacturing bays. Any and everything he'd need for his band of mounted soldiers.

Contrary to Leary, others arrived with Umas. Namely, Rickley, who was the owner of a mount already. A curiously large poison dart frog with a spatially enchanted crystal implanted on its back that grew to become her Beta-Class Uma. A theatric necropolis within a lush valley that could thump across the ground in ways only she could enjoy. For her Alpha-Class Uma, Rickley took a Giant Dusk Frog and had me seed its crystalline warts with private lots and alcoves, while the primary space was contained mostly around the stomach. As her Beta-Class Uma sat atop the head of her Alpha-Class Uma, it, the Dusk Frog Cairn sat atop her Omega-Class Uma. A Poison Bog Crocodile, hollowed and filled with Duskwoods and ponds for her to rest around. Then, curiously, she took a giant fly for her Sigma-Class Uma and had it sit on its larger cousin; a fly, on a frog, on a frog, on a log.

Cephalopod genes were given to each of them, granting them camouflage and several other tailored genes to increase the range, frequency, and volume of their croaks and buzzes. Again, they were passed onto Iris so she could install speakers, transmitters, and other sonic devices for Rickley's craft. Plus something Amun called a tractor beam into the sucker of her giant fly to give her ease of access.

The one to arrive with a pet but not an Uma, was Wilson. From the seas, he picked up a sea otter that turned dark through the same process Amun used with the Menagerie. It became a shade otter, then grew into an undead, colossal paragon of itself when it saw Amun. Once it saw me, it turned it into an Omega-Class Uma. A necromancer's island paradise and simultaneously, a habitat for his Alpha-Class giant otter. Like a mountain or island chain, the smaller Uma would rest on the belly or hold the paw of the larger one when 'docked.' Likewise, the Beta-Class giant skull Uma remained attached to the otter's chest like a pendant while the Sigma-Class eyeball-ship could come and go as it pleased.

While all of his Umas had chemical factories and alchemical labs stuffed throughout, the skull possessed tools and weapons meant to distribute his foul concoctions to the realms. Projectile launchers were installed in the orbit of one eye. Beam enchantments and turreted wands were clustered in the orbit of the other. Teeth were given life to sink into the jawbones on command, which were hollowed to make embrasures. It was given a tongue so that it could spit and flick liquids. Plus a throat and lips so it could inhale or exhale noxious gasses.

Other members of the Troupe formed their Umas during our years in Eotrom. Chief among them was Blude and the Orcinus Mafia. They had Omega-Class Umas born from their other halves, as that was what was required to brave the World Seas. So too, however, did they have squids for their Alpha-Classes, Dolphins for their Beta-Classes, and crabs or jellyfish for their Sigma-Classes. They had weapons. They had machinations that gave them no need for my life or body mana. Yet still, they received them, in moderation, granting them the means to recycle and sustain themselves without end.

So too did both Geri and Freki have their Umas born from divine wolves, but not other halves. Skoll and Hati were remade into the clothes Geri and Freki proudly wore. Instead, it was Skoll and Hati's mates that were made into their Umas; Freki's Alpha-Class trains and Geri's Alpha-Class big rigs. From there, the two diverged further. Freki went towards the divine sea for his Omega and Beta-Class Umas, choosing an octopus for the former to turn it into a colossal sky-dwelling train station and a crab for the latter, turning it into an armed and armored dune crawler. Yet for his Sigma-Class, he picked a giant moose to turn into a bike of fire and smoke.

Geri, on the other leaf, went for a more modular approach, yet went towards the divine sea like her brother. Her Omega-Class Uma wound up being formed from the body of a giant squid while her Sigma-Class Uma- or rather, Umas were made from the eggs the squid was due to lay before its untimely demise. Meanwhile, her Beta Uma was also a crab. A boulder crab turned into an arctic crawler. In either case, the non-identical twins had their vessels imbued with sensors, scanners, and as many turreted wands or spell cannons as their surfaces could fit. Unlike the Mafia, however, greed or determination demanded they be made as capable as possible. They had biological, technological, and magical weapons installed from top to bottom, plus the biological means to be as ravenous and voracious as they were.

And then there was Etan. One with a pet that didn't become an Uma. One whose Uma received no upgrades from Iris nor me, for he imbued all the power he'd ever need into them. They all came from the vibrant nebula around his world without magic and thus were designed to exist in the void above; for the most part, at least. The ones that weren't were the Beta-Class Nebulous Jumping Spider and the egg it hatched from- his Sigma-Class Uma. Like the material comprising the egg, the spider wove near-incorporeal webs of gravitational energy and distorted space between the places it jumped; using them to alter its trajectory as it leaped. Those Nebulous Webs, as Etan called them, held the peculiar ability to act like ley lines. With them, beings like Etan could travel between any point above the skies at near-instantaneous rates. Of course, two of such points were his Omega and Alpha Class Umas, the first Nebulous Owl, and the egg it hatched from. Stony, asteroid-sized raptors with crystalline chests, hollowed like Rickley's frog to grant him and his dominion a grandiose monastery in which to dwell.

While nothing else was done to them, it was entirely possible that his Umas capabilities far exceeded ours. But alas, because of the nature of his organization, we could never tell. Quite the opposite of the most eccentric and complicated members of the Troupe.

Being both Divine Mothers of new branches of life, Iris and I had not Umas but creatures of our creation. Hers forged from the bowels of her world; mine, created by my very hand. Of course, the other members of the Troupe had new twigs grow from the tree of life. Yet none of those branches were so complete as to form an entire branch like me and my counterpart.

The Tech Goddess' augmented creatures were as varied as the lands down below. Yet, above all, she picked the most unsuspecting creature for me to enhance. Technica Apis Vespa, better known as the Tech Voney Wasp. It was a mix between a bee and a wasp, with the unique ability to harvest organic and inorganic matter and refine them in several products, including Vehsipane - something I was to facilitate.

With the help of Iris, the proto-queen's mechanical innards were animated with my magic and thus optimized, vacating enough for Iris to comfortably operate. That didn't mean there was no room for improvements, however. The proto-queen was picked because of her ability to create hives and lay eggs like any other queen. Thus, with my help, she was made to behave like any other colony, and also like my broods. Like my broods, the larvae would grow into different castes depending on if they were fertilized, what orders they were given, and how much royal jelly they feasted on before spinning their cocoon, adopting the characteristics of those they consumed to better themselves.

Like the queen, these drones could be individually piloted by Iris' peers. But if an augmented being was to consume the royal jelly, she would gain total control of the swarm. And such control would reflect upon her appearance greatly.

Such things were a long way away, however, as she first had to find a suitable location to build her hive. As did I. Albeit many more. I was to do so in any imbalanced place in the Mortal Plane. In the very Darkroom. In my Umas. But then again, I did not make Umas. I could not make Umas for myself, for I was the mother of flesh.

Upon the elves, humans, halflings, gnomes, and a few dwarves of my place of birth, I cast my power. They and the animals they so loved were crystallized in my staff and fueled with the power of life mana to gestate a single being. A daughter with the frame of a halfling, the mind and drives of a dwarf, and Elven senses. She was given a simple request. To take her Brood Heart and feast upon the seed crystal of flesh used to create her. Then place it into the vacuole within her chest. In turn, I had a quest. To scour the Darkroom. Not only for genetic samples and templates. I searched for suitable corpses.

I found it in the form of a Duskpit Viper who died early in her midst of gestation. Being one of the relatively few types of snakes to hatch within their mother, such had to be the case, as roughly two dozen eggs were resting inside her. Unhatched and unmoving. Then and there, in the depths of some unnamed forest, I poured my flesh magic over the mother and her lost brood. It was a peculiar power. Unless I used it to augment or change my body, it could not be used on the living. And while it could produce fat or bone or meat or anything else, the true power came in manipulation existing flesh.

In pouring my magic over these dead creatures, they were covered in a membranous cocoon filled with an auburn fluid that called out to me in a language so strange. Only because of my training before entering this room did I understand the meaning behind those soundless words. Only because of my knowledge of genetics could I take all aspects of the creature and withdraw, change, and infuse them with genes from other worlds.

They mostly came from Freki's world and Iris' ring. Its frame was altered with genes taken from the volcanic snails of Freki's world. But rather than sulfur and iron, the shells were altered to use tellurium and adamantine, then were further tailored to imbue that material into the bone and scales rather than a shell. So too was the skeletal structure altered with creatures from the Orcinus Mafia's water world, if only to grow water mana-infused fins along the ventral sides; and also the scales themselves from the Voney Wasps of Iris' Ring. Those genes, however, gave the scales the means to grow a bio-metallic beard, collar, and belly of fur that was further altered to be thicker, feathered, and infused with my Floral Mana. offering concealment.

The eggs, of course, got the same treatment. Yet they remained within the snake for the time being. Waiting for the day new daughters would be born and sent out to create broods of their own, like the one I'd just created.

Satiated with the genes of the druids of my home and the foul creatures of this world, she watched in awe as the newly formed snake slumped from its embryonic shell, unmoving. Then, instinctively knowing what to do, she placed her hand on the beating red stone in her heart and climbed into the beast's maw without delay.

As a Lair Stone normally would, its essence poured into its surrounding environment, giving it a template of what materials to create before it was given guidance as to how to use them. But in this case, my flesh daughter's will held onto that essence as it shrank back into her frame, unable to be released. Her will kept the essence from shrinking further to reform the lair stone, keeping it from being contained. Her flesh and the life I gave her ensured it stayed until it had nowhere to go but... everywhere.

From this explosively gory process, an Uma was not born. The organs and systems within the creature were not homes and districts, they were digestive pits and gestation complexes; assembly lines and flesh factories. Many of which were already in motion, gestating a halfling frame with the same genes as the now-writhing snake the factory was made of. This was not an Uma. It was a Gestated, Undying, Modular Bioorganic Assembler. A Gumba. And its first assembled being was my first companion.

Percival, the Owl that had followed me since my departure from Redagh, flapped into the factory after the now-Queen to receive his enhancements. Like she was experiencing, his body was redesigned using the genetic profile of this brood - the Flesh Mother's Brood. And yet, so too was he blessed with my magic so it could house many things in its comparatively small frame. When he emerged, still, he was my giant owl, Percival. Yet, his essence was now contained within a skeletal effigy, or avatar, the size of a normal owl, nested safely in the imposing figure's beak. My other magics were infused into the rest of his body; Life, Floral, Flesh, and Disease. With that, Percival could still act and behave as the creature I'd grown so close to, even if his smaller avatar was running wild elsewhere.

With that, I could enter his chest cavity like all the others with their Uma, where the interior was like a hollowed tree built to my liking. With that, I could assimilate into the skull like some did with their power armor, granting me full control over the frame.

With that, I can spread my brood everywhere.

It took quite some time for her to hatch; weeks after the factory was brought online and days after my familiar was upgraded. The others had long since gone off to spread destruction across this realm of power, as had I, to a lonely island in a distant sea, surrounded by goblins. I waited and waited for her to be born. Hoping. Praying she would come before the final phase was upon us.

It was three days before the crucible when she appeared. A woman with a Halfling frame, housing a Dwarven mind, and drives paired with Elven senses. A Queen with black metallic scales cradling her face and running down her body, with a head of dark feathers and a coat of nightly fur that shimmered in the light like gold. My daughter, with retractable claws, talons, and wings paired with venomous fangs. My overseer of the Flesh Factory. Blessed with my powers, druidic, divine, magical, and sorcerous.

I call her, Delilah.

Delilah Featherfall.