When my forces and I reached the gate leading into the tiny town of Spree we heard voices ring out in fear. The voices belonged to the villagers who had seen me floating above the castle in my draconic form. They fearfully shouted that we had returned, which had the effect of spreading the fear that the guards stationed atop the platforms beside the gate were feeling in the first place.
Their fear surged into me and empowered me. It felt good, as inciting fear in my enemies (or my friends or servants) was something that made me stronger and filled me with power. The sensation of the fear of my enemies pouring into me was akin to the feeling of hot water pouring onto my skin after I spent a day out in the cold.
My forces and I ignored their cries. We were their masters and superiors, and how they felt meant little to any of us. In time they'd learn to accept this new order and if they didn't... Well, that'd be fun too. I wasn't needlessly violent, but a little violence, in self-defense, could be fun to engage in.
The truth was that I didn't particularly intend to engage in needless violence. I certainly could do that, and it'd be very fun, but it'd also be destructive and wasteful. I had far more entertaining tools at my disposal than my ability to enact violence on those who opposed me. I actually wanted to experiment with the different tools I possessed that could be used to bring my enemies to their knees, and not grow overly reliant on any single tactic for expanding my dark dominion.
The forces of the overlord, which in addition to him himself included four strange humanoids and a massive horde of lightly dressed, lightly armored orc-like creatures, silently marched into the town of Spree. They were not at all phased by the fearful shouts of the peasants who had come to fear them and had been dreading the moment they'd return to the town.
The horde silently walked under the gate and as they walked past it they found themselves facing a quickly gathering crowd. The crowd consisted of various peasants, all of whom were adults and had armed themselves with items like pitchforks and spears. They were lightly clothed, wearing their usual laborer clothes, and they all felt fear as they attempted to intimidate their new dark lord.
Fohion stopped and motioned for his army to stop as well. The motley crew of minions, and his force dark lieutenants, all paused and as they did so decided to study the ragtag band of peasants. There were less than two dozen of them, compared to the five powerful warriors and the hundreds of powerfully infected minions who would gladly give their lives to protect their lesser masters and their one true lord.
"Why do you insist on standing in our way?" Fohion asked, gazing upon the peasants who were at least brave enough to stand up to him. The peasants in front of the powerful dark lord nervously tightened their grips on their weapons and steeled themselves as one of them stepped forward and looked up at the imposing figure leading his oppressors.
"We won't be looked down upon!" The figure yelled though the audible nervousness in his voice undercut some of the passion he clearly felt. The dark lord of the minions, and indeed Spree, ignored this passionate declaration.
"We are not your subjects, you bastard!" The peasant continued, and this time there was a touch more steel audible in his voice. Though he also fucked up by calling Fohion a bastard, as some of the man's minions roared and stepped forward, their own weapons drawn, causing the peasant to stumble back and for some of his allies to cry out in fear and shock.
The minions advanced closer to Fohion and only stopped when he held up a closed fist, wordlessly commanding them to stop. Audible sighs of relief rang out from the crowd of peasants when the dark tyrant stopped his minions. That all stopped when the dark lord himself stepped forward and gazed upon the peasant who had spoken to him.
"You have... something. Maybe it's courage. Though I am unsure of if it's courage or just you gave in to peer pressure..." The dark deity commented, his voice calm and soothing. As he spoke his gaze began to turn in the direction of the other peasants, and when his eyes fell upon them they felt a powerful sensation of shame fall over them.
"Either way, your choices here will be remembered. Now... What will you do? Will you throw your lives away by resisting me, or will you wisely submit to your betters?" The dark divinity asked, raising his blade and slowly pointing the thing at the crowd before it came to point at the peasant who had spoken up.
The man visibly trembled in fear, and Fohion smiled darkly. The dark entity was feeding on the fear he inspired, and he felt like inspiring more of it. He activated a pair of powerful perks that he had kept hidden until now, one entitled "Just Like Me" and another entitled "Fear the Flames". These powerful perks were a pair of powerful fear-boosters that made him utterly terrifying. The instant he activated them he seemed to subtly but powerfully change.
Until the moment he had activated the perks his powerful physical perfection had been focused on the parts of him that were attractive. Parts such as his eyes, and his smile were boosted to vast degrees by the might of "Eternal Ascension", perpetually becoming more and more attractive with every passing second.
The instant that he activated the two perks that previously unchanging aspect of himself changed, albeit temporarily. His beauty became a harsh thing, and the light in his eyes turned into a roaring fire that promised those who gazed into it madness and destruction. The god's beauty became a weapon that induced fear, panic, and even madness on those with weak wills, causing several of the peasants to spontaneously scream in fear.
The dark god chuckled, and so did his minions. They were utterly immune to any fear he induced, as they saw themselves as lesser, imperfect extensions of his divinity and will due to their nature as Blacklight beings.
"The weak will follow or feed the strong, villagers. Remember that." The dark overlord growled his voice a thing of quiet fire and fury. He radiated the horrifying aura of an enraged dragon and his eyes had transformed into sinister orange, cat-like slits. He was also internally luxuriating in the fear the villagers were radiating as they began to cower in his presence.
Some of the peasants dropped their weapons entirely, and only barely managed to not fall to their knees in fear. Tears began to form in their eyes, and had they had the strength of will to wrench their gazes free from the mighty being who towered over them they would have in a heartbeat. None of them had that strength of character though, and so they all gazed upon their malevolent overlord.
"Men of Spree... You must decide, are you countrymen or are you cattle? Will you live and serve, or die and let your families watch your corpses be feasted upon and worse?" The dark entity said, his voice turning into something louder, and more wholly inhuman than it had previously been. As he spoke the minds of the villagers were filled with grotesque, detailed images of the minions feasting upon their corpses.
This was artificial, a sort of attack launched by the mighty dark entity himself, but the village militia didn't know that. They had no idea of the true darkness of the powers of their overlord.
Several of the villagers fell to their knees and began to weep as they lost control of their bladders and pissed themselves. Their trousers darkened and their faces flushed as the servants of the dark lord noticed this and began to laugh. The dark god himself smiled at the villagers, aware that he had bested them mentally.
The god motioned for his servants to follow him before he deactivated the potent perks he had wielded to devastating effect. The creature's worshipers quickly reorganized themselves and regained their composure before following him as he walked past the motley militia.
The forces of darkness stepped past the crowd and into the hear of the tiny village. As they did they ignored the whines and fearful cries of the villagers who had not stood with the militia, knowing, rightfully, that they lacked the capacity or the willingness to do anything about the dark threat that the horde posed.
They moved with a deceptive level of speed, unbothered by the reaction they garnered from the villagers. Fohion didn't care about the feelings of those he felt were lesser beings.
Fortunately for the villagers Fohion hadn't come here intending to take gold or lives. The greedy god knew that there were more resources to plunder from the halfling fortress located away from the village and so his focus had been on that rather than on terrorizing the villagers. They had brought that on themselves by daring to challenge the evil and powerful entity who was a spiritual successor to their past oppressors.
The horde took a matter of minutes to cross from one edge of the town to the next, and when their entire group was out of the village they kept walking. When the horde was finally out of sight of even the most eagle-eyed scouts in the town guard the villagers collectively exhaled. They were relieved that the god had returned and not taken a single life even if he had inflicted massive psychological harm to the bravest of the locals and thus had harmed them in other, less direct ways.
My minions and I found ourselves not far from the village just minutes after our encounter with the peasant militia that had come to yell at me. We were not far from the very first nether gate I had ever stepped through. I kept my eyes on the ground and occasionally sniffed the air.
My finely-tuned senses had a range that went on for dozens of kilometers and were steadily expanding, and I was guiding us to our destination. I could both smell the scents of the halflings and also see their tracks on the ground in front of me. I was able to do this with ease due to my skills as a hunter and ranger, skills I gained when I first became a sanguinarch and an archdemon of gluttony, but were enhanced by things like perks I possessed and my nature as a sort of uber vampire.
By peering at the ground I could effortlessly make out the soft tracks of dozens of different kinds of creatures, from sheep to humans, to halflings, to snakes, and all sorts of other creatures. I was able to make sense of my surroundings in ways that I previously hadn't, especially now that I had had the night to fully acclimate to my powers.
This resulted in a number of strange things. Even on the walk from the castle to the actual town, I had felt some of my more bizarre powers activating. As a vampire, I could feed on the blood of living or recently deceased creatures, and as I had made my way to my current location I had sometimes felt the corpses of creatures near me that had died recently inch closer to me. I had even felt what remained of their blood turning invisible and flowing into me, feeding me and granting me greater control over my vampiric powers.
Every drop of blood that I fed on heightened my control over my more predatory powers, such as the ones that directly related to undeath and death. Each drop of blood also had the impact of heightening my senses further, which was a powerful effect. The real impact of that was lessened by powers such as "Multisense" but I knew that if I ever opted not to utilize that power I would still possess an incredible awareness over my surroundings due to how much blood I was feeding on even now.
We were on a thin trail that only allowed a few of us to stand shoulder to shoulder. Because of this my minions formed a trail that followed me for dozens of meters as we made our way deeper and deeper into the less tamed and controlled parts of Mellow Hills. Ahead of us we could see a tiny stone bridge that crossed a thin river that was more narrow than even the trail we were on. As we closed in on it the line behind me began to narrow further so that my minions would be able to more easily cross the river.
When we reached the bridge I crossed it in a few steps, and my servants followed me with surprising swiftness. Beyond the bridge laid a field that farmers from Spree had planted wheat seeds in some time ago. None of the wheat had grown just yet, but the fields were lined with the seeds of the stuff, only some of which had actually been planted into the ground. As my forces and I raced across the fields we proved to be kinder than one might expect and not destroy any of the seeds.
I wanted to allow the crops to grow naturally, though I possessed a number of ways that I could alter and enhance them had I wanted too. I could have made them grow instantly, or infected them with Blacklight, but for now I left them unaltered. I liked feeding on the fear of the people of Spree so I'd let them stay themselves for a bit longer. Though I knew that surely someday I'd change my mind and turn even creatures as pitiable as them into Blacklight beings, freeing them from their weakness, fear, and lesser emotions.
I was the first of my forces to reach the edge of the fields and in doing so I became the first member of my faction to lay my eyes on the outer gates of the halfling fortress. The edge of the fields were atop a small cliff overlooking a tiny pond next to the small wooden gate leading in and out of the fortress, and it was staffed by a number of halfling guards who wielded short swords and spears.
They stood watch over a number of miserable-looking humans who labored for them, wearing rags and sometimes quietly groaning in pain. The humans did a number of tasks poorly, such as tilling at ground and stone that was too hard to be stirred properly by wooden hoes and sometimes poorly looking for nearby sheep that I could see hiding in the woods not far from the fortress.
All we had to do to reach the fortress was walk down a winding path to my left that curved away from where I was standing and sloped downward to the actual entrance to the fortress. I studied the path for a few moments while my minions caught up to me, and when they had appeared behind me more fully we wordlessly began to walk down the gently curving path that would lead us to the heart of our enemy's military might.
Now that I've hit thirty-one chapters of this story I have begun to post it to WebNovel! I like WebNovel, despite its... MANY flaws. It's also nice to share this story across multiple websites.