Cursed Draw

Fall to your knees, worship me, obey me and I will feed you power like a mother bird feeds her chick.

- The Book Of Creeds

Chapter 23: A Generous Deity

Soren

Soren Creed’s eyes came slowly open, the ice of the mountaintop around him attempting to keep them frozen shut. He was unsure exactly how long he had been meditating but it was long enough that a sheen of ice had built up all over his seated body. The layer cracked and fell away as he stirred.

Before him on the ground lay his Dealer, The artifact amulet known as Heaven’s Wings, Soren had removed it from his chest as had he left it in the Dealer’s internal fire would have kept his body at a warm comfortable temperature. Utterly defeating the purpose of meditating in such an inhospitable place.

Not that the cold was an actual danger to him. Having already attained the fifth rank the nineteen-year-old had one hand on the pillar of divinity and was well past being threatened by something like the weather. He still felt the cold though, and that was precisely the reason he was up here.

Not bothering to reach down, Soren simply willed Heaven’s Wings to return to him and the amulet instantly took its place embedded in the flesh above his heart. Whole once more the blonde boy stepped forward.

The tiny plateau he had made the site of his meditations was little better than a ledge jutting from a rock face about two hundred feet below the summit of Mount Tethes. The only mountain in the Northern Muck Lands that actually deserved the name.

Green and vibrant below the snowline, the fertile little country stretched out before him. The locals of the Muck Lands called the place something else but Muck really did describe it. There was just so much swamp. Swamp, huge rivers connected by hundreds of tiny waterways, the occasional island, and then more swamp. Soren understood that further north there was solid farmland as well kept healthy and fertilized by the swampland he was overlooking now.

After the disappointment that had been Cursed Isle Soren had begun to consider he had erred in coming here. The River Island region represented the strongest of the Muck Landers and he had already slain and remade their defending champion. The card was powerful enough but if it was the best he could hope for from this region the entire trip had been a waste of time.

Still, when he had tortured his body and cleared his mind the former priest had begun to feel the tug once more. That strange feeling he had been following the past few years that he knew was his god communicating across the skeins of reality with him. At least one more person he was looking for could be found here. Unlike his own god, Soren was an extremely generous deity, he had made the trip north to find the power he could use to Bless one of his high priests. The Queen Of Rushing Waters was a good start to empowering the man’s Deck, but a start was all it was.

Continuing to grow in power and gaining one of the final four ranks required Soren to cultivate worshipers amongst so many other things. It was not a requirement that he used his own valuable time to give those worshippers the strength that he had. Most gods including Soren’s own offered things like cryptic knowledge or challenging quests for those who wished to grow in power. Soren Creed on the other hand just went out and got you what you needed. So long as you obeyed he would shower you with the ability to achieve what he wanted and so much more.

Traditional logic said that Soren should be devoting his time purely to crossing those last final barriers and entering the realm of a true god but he loved his followers. He wanted those who put their life in his hands to flourish and stand above all others, most importantly he wanted them to survive the coming end of the world. If that meant creating that power himself and simply giving it to his priests and paladins so be it. Soren was only nineteen, he had time.

Stepping out off of the ledge the blonde southerner waited a second before activating his wings. The wind whipped through Soren's robes as he fell, it eased but didn’t cease as the flaming angelic wings burst from his back and he came to a gentle stop hovering in the air. Ignoring the pull of the wind he focussed on the pull of his god’s will.

It wasn’t as clear as when he was meditating, whilst he had sat with a clear mind he could practically see the path unfolding in front of him, a golden beam of light striking down from the heavens and burning a golden road into the earth for him to follow. Eyes open and flying through the air he had to settle for a tug in vaguely the right direction.

With a slight flap of his wings, Soren took off soaring high enough over the Muck Lands that nothing native should even see him, let alone be able to slow his progress. The wings twitched and moved as he flew but they didn’t have to actually flap to keep him aloft. He wasn’t sure exactly how they worked but work they did. Some sort of manipulation of Wind and Heat Resonances if he was forced to guess.

Soren might not understand the science behind how his wings functioned but his control of them was immaculate. The Heaven’s Wings artifact Dealer had been bonded to the boy since before he could walk and had been allowing him to fly before his first full word. Soaring over a marshland in the open sky was beyond simple for him.

Not that it would matter if he did crash. Even from thousands of feet in the air the sheer amount of life essence flowing through Soren’s veins meant his body would heal the injuries such a fall inflicted before he even felt the pain. The prevention of injury would technically slow down his Vials refilling for a few days and likely ruin his robes but the idea intrigued him.

Not only would such a fall be easily the most exciting event to happen to him since arriving in this god-empty land, but he was on a pilgrimage of sorts after all. Granted it was a proxy pilgrimage to fulfill the prayers of one of his high priests not a spiritual journey of his own. It still felt wrong to not use his feet much on such an endeavor. Who ever heard of a pilgrim who made his journey by casually flitting among the clouds?

With a wry smile, he deactivated the wings and allowed himself to fall. Despite knowing he would be unharmed, Soren felt his pulse rise as his body accelerated toward the swampland below. There was nothing quite like the feeling of death approaching, of riding that edge where skill and luck were all that separated one from oblivion. As powerful as he had grown so young Soren knew such a thrill would be a rare delicacy for him. At times like these, he could trick his still mortal body into simulating such feelings.

Crashing into the murky waters, Soren's form struck the bottom a few seconds later. As predicted the pain had been too brief for him to even truly register it. ‘Oh well.’ Such a sensation would present itself when he next fought a real opponent. They were out there, just not here in the Muck Lands. He wouldn’t let such a desire distract him from his duties as an almost divine being. As sacrifices went it was minor.

Taking one last moment to savor the surge of the fall-induced adrenaline flowing through his body the former priest kicked off of the thick mud and allowed himself to break the surface.

This was only appropriate after all, he thought to himself as he swam to the shore. His rank was known as a ‘Walking God’ anyway. He should probably start acting like it at least some of the time.

Grasping ahold of a low-hanging branch from what looked like a Spruce tree Soren hauled himself easily from the water, and shook wet blonde hair from his face. That at least still felt human annoyingly so in fact. Maybe he would miss it when it was gone like he did his fear but he doubted it.

It didn’t really matter where the nearest town was. Soren had no need for supplies as it would take years for his fifth-rank body to starve. He could and would still eat, of course, there was no reason to deprive himself of yet another pleasure in life. He also didn’t need to replace his ruined robes to survive, but like the food he wanted to have nice clothes. Even if he occasionally ruined them by throwing himself from the sky.

Still, in spite of all of that, he set off to the east in search of a town he had seen from the air. It was fairly out of his way if the tugging of the god’s will was anything to go by, but that didn’t matter. The town would have things he wanted and he had time to spare.