Corruption of Souls

Ch.84

Visi wasn’t kidding about having work. It took most of the day to Renew the captured AICs and then We had to give Andre our ruined armor with a sheepish amount of shame at having been caught off-guard so badly. We also had him work in a comm system for the helm. He grasped stuff like that with an uncanny ease that was both amazing and disturbing. Especially considering he still claims that the simpler something is, the less likely it is to fail.

“I’m now the God of Crafts.” Andre explained with a disapproving look at us. “It’s all thanks to you and all the work you and all those who come here give me. Harmonia wouldn’t stop boasting about it to everyone either.” The humble yet incredibly handsome dusky-furred horse stallion complained from behind his shop counter. Shirtless as always to give people the show that is his rippling musculature.

“We thought she was just promoting your shop!” We blushed at misinterpreting Harmonia’s gleeful exclamations about her husband. Oh yeah, they got married quietly some time ago. We forgot that.

“No, that was about my ascension. My Craft was taken to it’s very limits when they had me work on making alloys and parts for our own spaceships. I’m amazed I could follow them after they explained things instead of assuming I would know. The next thing I realize, I’m officially the pinnacle of Crafting in the world and I’m slapped in the soul by an Aspect. Hmph! The audacity.” Andre commented like it was an insult that he earned his Godhood rather than had it handed off or groomed into him like it was for us and Urta for instance.

Seriously though, he’s our world’s version of Hephaestus! He’s a treasure!

“Well, thanks for taking the time to fix up our armor. Goodness knows the nation must be booking all of your time not even considering all the work you do for the military. Do you even sleep?” We asked him in concern and Andre huffed.

“Sleep? Sleep is for the weak-willed Undead or those who treasure it too much. I haven’t slept a wink the moment I became Undead. I consider my Curse a Gift. I couldn’t bear to live without something to do, even if I was oblivious in the meantime. The only ‘rest’ I get is when Harmonia drags me out of here by the beard and knocks my horseshoes off.” Andre declared as if sleep was evil and everyone would be better off if they worked at all hours of every day and night.

“Ah. Well then, We’ll let you get back to work.” We nervously said, uneasy at the concept of such an extreme approach to existence.

“You take better care of that gear and I’ll consider it a favor!” Andre yelled at us as We rushed out of his shop that We belatedly noticed had the sign stating Open: 12am-8pm and Closed: 8pm-12am. That mad-horse literally only closes his shop to have sex with his wife? Holy fuck!

We spotted our first new Slime Demon daughter Acacia wandering about in a proper blouse and jeans before an Everfree Slime Daughter ambushed her and started chatting her up. Hopefully she integrates well with this new world she’s woken up to.

“Hello mummy.” We heard a familiar scratchy voice mockingly say behind Us. We turned around to see Patches in a set of priest robes. “Are you a Cleric?”

“We told you no then, it’s still no now Patches.” We sighed and hoped We weren’t about to be gutted.

“Aw, but you’re such a good Goddess! Surely you would appoint Clerics, right?” Patches was suddenly next to us and draped off our right shoulder while poking the side of our right breast.

“We appoint nobody to leadership roles, Patches. Corruption is inevitable if frustrating. We can instate many things, but We won’t control how our followers choose to follow. So long as they adhere to good morals and do not mistreat others harshly, they’re well within their rights as individuals.” We replied to the anti-establishment betrayer of many heroes.

“Certainly that is a reasonable stance. But perhaps should someone abuse their power? Collect tithes beyond the church’s needs for instance?” Patches insisted as he switched to our other shoulder, gesturing out towards Harmonia’s defensive if well decorated shrine surrounding her trunk.

“What are you getting at? That can’t be happening already.” We felt worry creep into us. Was someone in our church already abusing their power? It hasn’t even been half a year since We were properly established!

“Ah, but what if I told you a few conniving little rats were already twisting your words? Whispers of enticing mass orgies, hedonistic masses of wealth, unsanctioned whorehouses and breeding programs outside of official channels?” Patches whispered into our ear fin and he ran his hand down our spine and then along our tail, helping send shivers from skull to tail-talon.

“W-what? So soon?” We felt dread. This can’t be happening.

“Aw, you’re so naive and precious mummy! Didn’t you consider what sorts of folk you were popping out of that magic womb of yours all willy-nilly? Carim isn’t a nice place, it’s downright foul in fact. I’m surprised you didn’t consider betrayal an instant result of your selfless and generous act. Didn’t they try to kill you right away?” Patches reminded us and We shivered.

“Why are you calling us Mummy?” We mewled uneasily as his hand moved under our tail and groped our booty. It felt less like an intimate gesture and more like he was just so happening to rest his hand there.

“Why, because you’re the All-Mother isn’t that right? Mother of the Skaven race! Reviver of Carim! The True Horned Rat of the ancient faith. You do tend to be rather horny.” Patches patted our butt with a chortle and We began to walk away, feeling sick and violated. “Be seeing you again soon mummy! Watch out for those Clerics!”

“Is he a good guy or bad guy?” We commented with a shiver as We rubbed our thighs. “Hmph, well if there are ‘clerics’ in our religion doing things we don’t wish, We need an agent. One that is truly loyal to only us.” Who could it be though? It’s not like We personally know anyone of any station among our churches in Carim.

“Goddess Wiatr!” Came the voice of the tall and powerful as well as heavily armored Alphonse who jogged towards us from the Shrine of Harmony. “Dear Mother, I’ve come to report-.”

“It can’t be that easy, can it?” We interrupted him as We looked him up and down, only now noticing at some point after Patches had bothered us, We’d subconsciously shifted to being a Skaven, only now our dragon horns remained. Upon noticing this, Alphonse gasped and knelt. We sighed as We looked at our tail and touched our brow where our horns met our skull. “Alphonse. What rank do you hold in the church?”

“I am but a humble Vicar in charge of this battalion of crusaders sent forth in your name to purge the Corruption Dear Mother.” Alphonse replied reverently and We blinked in a good deal of surprise. If our church follows Catholic systems of order, then Alphonse is just under a Diocesean Bishop. That’s not small peanuts. He’d be an intermediary between the Bishops and the priesthood ranks.

“Hm.” We hummed in consideration before Pillar approached with some of his Defenders looking over reports. “Pillar?”

“Hello dear. I’m going over preliminary reports on the progress of liberating Tartarus and I was wondering what has or has not been approved by Princess Ninia or Warden Ailisiv?” Pillar’s question sent a cold sweat down our brow. “Ah. I see. Well then, best to ask forgiveness rather than permission. Do whatever needs done boys.” Pillar dismissed his men and then crossed his arms as the towering white wolf looked down at us with a hum. “Well, you’re rather tense.”

“Pillar, We need help. Could We borrow you for a moment?” At our lover’s nod, We sighed in relief. “Alphonse, follow us. Also love, where have you and others been? We know Hunter is injured at the moment and Berserker is dealing with the caribou.” We questioned as We led him and our bewildered Alphonse towards the Keep. Visilia is going to need to wait a bit. “Knowing you Pillar, you probably already know what has us so distressed.”

“Well, I’ve been looking into Patches’ accusations about the Clerics. I audibly dismissed it to throw off any potential eavesdropper listening in on our conversation, but I heard him out.” Pillar answered in a tone that told us he didn’t like Patches. “I’ve had Krimzon and some of the other Ghosts look into his case and to keep an eye on that manipulative bastard.” He growled that last part out in anger, before pulling us closer to him and he gently squeezed our shoulder. “Next time he does something like that, I’ll have Krimzon blow his kneecaps off.”

“As touching as that is, please don’t. He’s Undead anyway and he’d just hold a grudge. He’s legendary for holding a grudge and lashing out at those he deems culpable.” We warned our towering lover and future husband with a tone of warning after we entered the Keep. We slammed the gate shut with our magic once we were inside, then We teleported the three of us to our thankfully vacant throne room and sighed. “Vicar Alphonse.”

“Yes Goddess?” Alphones scurried to kneel in front of us and We bit our lip.

“Do you hold our authority over the authority of any of your superiors?” We focused intently on him, using Daring, Svartr and Cynder’s accumulated ability to read others. Willow was a bad judge of character, so she was going to withhold judgement here.

“Of course! You gave me life once more, gave us all life once more. You gave of your body in our time of need with little urging and blessed us for our loyalty to you. I would give my life again at your word.” Alphonse declared with the fanatacal zealotry of a true believer.

We looked at Pillar as We sat down on our throne. “Ah, I see. Vicar Alphonse. Your Goddess has a special task for you.” Pillar intoned in a voice priests for the next three dimensions would give their left kidney for.

“Name it and it shall be done.” Alphonse declared, still not lifting his eyes to us. We wouldn’t have that, so We gently lifted his snout in our iridescent aura to look us in the eyes. Then We removed his helmet to look into his golden eyes.

“Weed out the Corruption in the Church. The oldest Undead in history has...hinted at the church already violating our tenets and arranging all sorts of greedy and hedonistic affairs behind closed doors while honest folk toil and have meaningful relations as is proper.” We were going to continue, but Alphonse flushed with fury and disgust.

“Those-! I’ll rip their throats out and-!”

“Calm Vicar Alphonse! Your kind were never known for their morality or their upstanding decorum. These old misers and weak-willed fools are remnants of the old order. You would do no good to foolishly rush in and perish before you could accomplish anything.” Pillar declared sonorously and Alphonse reined himself in. “I will help with this. Religion is my forte after all. I may not be able to get directly involved, but ask and you’ll have the resources at your disposal.”

“It shall be done! I will gather my most trusted priests and We shall form a conclave of wetworkers to root out Corruption and protect the people. In your name Goddess Wiatr.” Alphonse declared and then snarled. “It will have to wait until I can return to Carim. I cannot trust my correspondence will be private anymore.”

“Very good. Be careful Alphonse. We’ll be fairly upset if We hear about your death and We could rebirth you.” We said gently and leaned forward, cupping his cheeks and kissing his brow. Alphonse nearly looked about to weep with joy when We did that.

“I shall maintain the utmost secrecy My Goddess.” Alphonse declared and he hurried away when We nodded in dismissal.

“You realize you probably just started an Assassin Order, right?” Pillar asked us and We sighed in resignation.

“Yes, but in the end, despite their misguided change in goals, they were still good people with noble intentions.” We slumped into our comfortable throne and ran a hand along our right horn while our rat tail flicked over the right arm of the throne. Just how much are We Defined by the beliefs of our followers? We became doting and motherly whenever our children-adopted children were involved. Then there’s this new physical change that was Skaven yet more since it was the visual portrayal of the Great Horned Rat.

We need to snuff out this Corruption fast or it could Corrupt us in a far more insidious way.

“I will say that this looks very sexy, weirdly enough.” Pillar told us as he looked us over. “You look like a dragon rodent without wings or scales.”

“Are you just saying that?” We asked with a pout while wondering what We should choose as Our True Base Body instead of oscillating between our four birth forms. Then, our tail suddenly split into three and a mohawk-like black mane grew from our head, which We felt run down our back. “W-what?! We didn’t do that!” We yelped as our fur went from iridescent to pure white with an iridescent glowing aura emanating from us. Did Alphonse’s Faith alone do this?!

“Oh. Well, that’s rather interesting. So deities in this world are physically affected by the beliefs of their followers.” Pillar calmly observed before We felt a twinge in our core and We flushed hotly as a nearly-consuming need to breed struck us like lightning! B-but We gave most of Fertility to Urta to avoid this~! “Dear?” Pillar warily said as he backed away, but this was a bad idea because our attention snapped to him and our vision went pink.

“Male!” We crowed and pounced on the much larger wolf who yelped as We somehow overpowered the towering hulk and proceeded to rip off his armor with our bare hands.

(<3)

“Thank gosh I found you and outright took what was left of Fertility from you with only Renewal left.” Urta huffed in exasperation at the fact all that kept us from forcibly breeding with Pillar until We were an immobile ball of rat pups was Urta finding us practically mauling Pillar to mate in our crazed state.

Pillar wasn’t upset, rather he was worried for us. He’s such a sweetheart.

“Okay, why did We do that when you already had most of Fertility?” We mewled to our wife. We were wearing our armor, but were still in our horned Skaven body. Thankfully We weren’t forced to be shorter when in this form, because being eye-level with the bottom of Urta’s beautiful chestplate was glorious and We’d prefer that to looking at her navel. Though that’d be hot too.

“You still had a good bit of it’s traits urging procreation. I like how rampantly hungry you can be Wiatr, but if it’ll cause you problems when paired with your Sex Aspect, then I’ll just have the whole thing aside from Renewal. You’ll still be your usual horny self, but now you should have less rampant breeding urges.” Urta grinned and We pouted at her using the same pun as Patches about how horny We are.

“Are you two done yet?” Visilia huffed in irritation as she approached us where we stood to the side of the formation up in the Corruption-rife levels of Tartarus. “Why are you literally glowing now?” Visi asked in exasperation at us and We crossed our arms under our bust with our snout raised up.

“Because We’re Radiant and Beautiful. That’s why. Is this enough men?” We asked Visilia, who had six squads at attention before her, both our own Skaven crusaders and her Night Sentinels. We felt an incredible desire to go and hug each of our children, but managed to withhold the desire for maternal action. We swear, the only time this feels even more intense is when We’re spending time with our babies. Which We felt was utterly lacking lately.

“Considering what we are up against. Yes.” Visi flatly told us as she looked us over before shaking her head with a sigh, clearly wanting to say more, but withheld it.

“Hold!” A Tartarus Cerberus demanded after she climbed up the side of the mountain next to the platform in fully sealed armor that was rusting and looked ancient. “Why have you forcibly taken much of Tartarus?! Her Royal Highness Princess Ninia is greatly upset!”

“You can go back down and tell Ailisiv to tell her sister to get the sword out of her ass. We’re cleaning this place up for you, not taking over. Once the Corruption is purged enough for your own people to occupy We’ll gladly pull out.” Visilia casually huffed in reply and looked the fully armored Cerberus woman over. “You’d better get back down, that armor doesn’t look up to snuff with keeping the Miasma out.”

“Your concern is noted, but your presence before Her Majesty is demanded as soon as possible.” The armored three-headed giantess declared before climbing back down the mountainside.

“Great.” We sighed before we started going into the mist, hearing horses walking close to us. Of course, the Crusaders and Chasers kept them at bay. “How long until-” We began to ask before a spray of white splashed against half of our group. The culprit was a huge bird that had just relieved it’s primal urges all over us. We almost think We would prefer bird poop, ew.

Enraged by this, all of the Night Sentinels started shooting at it. Bullets, plasma, rockets, grenades, you name it. They just shot the living shit out of it and then they kept shooting. It was enough to deter the other animals at least.

“Uh...that works We guess.” We commented in disbelief at the sheer overkill We witnessed.

The group snarled before we continued. We shook our head and wiped some cum off of us as our small battalion followed Urta’s directions. We didn’t make it to the stairs before sunset. We had to set camp in this Miasma-fogged flesh forest with beasts that would be just as likely to cum on us as they would be to attack us.

“How much further to the next usable stairs?” We asked our Goddess of Fertility and War.

“At least another bridge and platform.” Urta replied unhelpfully. “Maybe a day.”

“At least we have soldiers with us.” Visilia sighed with a rub of her helmet. We all had to keep wearing our airtight suits even with impending sleep because of the Miasma.

“Shifts of five?” A Night Sentinel asked.

“That would be preferable.” Visi nodded in agreement, so they got to work on setting the rotation times and prepping groups of five for each shift. “Before we all settle in, can someone hunt those horny fuckers down and kill them? We don’t need to wake up in a puddle of cum!” She barked and a few eager volunteers went after the offenders.

“That’ll help.” We commented when We leaned against Visilia, lamenting that We couldn’t have skin contact.

“This Tartarus is annoying the fuck out of me. It’s full of sick perverse monstrosities and demons so busy with maintaining a status quo they aren’t even grateful when something happens to change it, even for the better.” Visi grumbled in disgust. “I’d rather be fighting Hell than be here, but with them being so quiet right now this is the most important thing we could be doing.”

“Sorry, love.” We sighed as the sounds of the violent hunting echoed through the area. “We didn’t know it would be like this.”

“With how the old civilizations in the Age of Fire were, cities this large and fucked up in infrastructure were normal by the end of the Era. Finding one still around was a surprise.” Urta muttered and Daring perked our ears up in our helmet. Urta has archeological knowledge? We’re going to pick her brain sometime.

“Brilliant.” Visi snorted out.

“Come on Love. This is what the Heroes of old had to deal with, except we’re not having to die over and over.” Urta replied and made us feel beyond happy about that. We haven’t ever used our estus on ourselves either, hopefully that keeps up.

“Let’s just get some sleep.” We groaned as We laid down for the night, our wife and Visi laying against us even if we all still had to wear our fancy high-tech armor.