The Storm King-Chapter 1179: The Rise of Others
The ritual Xaphan used to contact his ‘friends’ in the Elemental Plane of Fire was quick to set up, with the most time-consuming part being the actual inscription of the enchantment itself. In the course of its inscription, Leon even improved it by using a storm crystal filled with origin power as the enchantment’s power source.
Normally, storing origin power within something was incredibly difficult and wasteful. Few materials could store such concentrated power without exploding, but Leon knew that storm crystal was capable of storing the power of the Iron Needle, and so could handle strong power. In his case, it was more wasteful to use his own power as that represented power he couldn’t use for himself. At least in part, ascending through the post-Apotheosis tiers needed a deep pool of origin power, so using any for an enchantment that didn’t need it was wasteful.
But Leon didn’t need to use his power. He didn’t even need to use the origin power of any other post-Apotheosis mage in his Kingdom. Instead, he used a new model of what Mari had stubbornly continued calling his ‘Raime device’.
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This device was the enchanted wireframe he’d invented to try and help in achieving Apotheosis. Achieving Apotheosis had taught him that he hadn’t really needed it, but the thing itself had proven itself capable of condensing magic power into origin power, regardless. Over the past century and a half, Leon had adapted the ‘Star Condenser’, as he’d taken to calling it in defiance of Mari’s attempted name, and used it to condense origin power outside of a human body.
This, combined with a functional limitless amount of storm crystal to use as a storage medium, meant that he could get creative with his enchantments. The Nestorian Drives had been greatly improved after he and Nestor closely studied the enchantments he’d found in Tir’s monastery, but much of those improvements would’ve been impractical had Leon not made this adaptation with the Star Condensers.
So, with Xaphan’s enchantment powered with origin power, Leon believed it could reach out and touch any fire demon that Xaphan wanted to speak with. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to confirm that, as Xaphan hurried him and the half dozen or so enchanters Leon had enlisted to help in the enchantment’s inscription out of the room.
“If you stay,” Xaphan had warned, “you’ll be sensed. Many of my old friends won’t even bother speaking with me if they sense the presence of a human.”
Leon accepted this, though he did so reluctantly, and left Xaphan in that room of his palace for the remainder of the day. Xaphan had many other demons he wanted to contact, after all, and Leon wasn’t going to hover outside the door for hours and hours.
Instead, Leon returned to his personal wing of the palace that sat near above the rest of the palace. The celebrations for Elise’s ascension hadn’t quite ended, after all, and she had a particularly pleasurable way of celebrating.
When he entered her bedroom, he found her lying on soft sheets, lazing around without a stitch of clothing on. She’d made sure that her surroundings were luxurious and palatial, with plenty of heroic statues—most of which bore a striking resemblance to Leon, especially those that were rendered in the nude—tapestries depicting exotic locations, and murals portraying many of Leon’s greatest triumphs. These included his participation in the campaigns against the Talfar Kingdom and the Serpentine Isles, as well as his participation in the Bull Kingdom’s civil war. In the very center of the room’s floor, however, was a stylized mural depicting their wedding, giving it a place of honor above even his military glories.
These were only the start of the decorations in Elise’s room, but of all the silver, gold, and gleaming white marble that Elise had chosen to fill her bedroom with, all of it paled in comparison to the woman herself, lying on her stomach, the bedcovers on just barely covering her butt and nothing else.
With a smile, Leon gently sat on the edge of her bed. From the way her aura rippled, he could tell that she wasn’t asleep, though she was still lying down with her eyes closed, and she’d certainly noticed his entrance. With loving tenderness, he lightly traced the lines of her toned back muscles with his fingertips, eliciting a moan of pleasure from his first wife.
“Mmmmm,” she moaned as she turned her face toward him and crossed her arms beneath her chin. Her lips arced upward, and she said, “If you stop, I’m chopping your fingers off…”
Leon paused his ministrations for the briefest of moments. “My my,” he sarcastically responded. “Such threats, and from my own wife, no less! What kind of curse have I been placed under, to marry such a violent and ill-tempered woman?”
“The best kind,” she preened as his fingers began digging into her shoulders. She closed her eyes briefly, reveling in his firm, yet tender touch, and when she opened them, she stared over her shoulder at Leon, the heat in her gaze unmistakable.
Leon returned it but was in no hurry to take her. He found that he liked the slower build-up, teasing her until his lady begged for more intimate contact. In Elise’s case, he rarely had to wait long.
True to form, he didn’t even have to wait ten minutes before she turned over to lie on her back, exposing the other side of her perfect body to his hungry gaze.
“I think there’s something you can do that’ll feel a lot better than this,” she said. “And this already feels good…”
Leon’s grin turned crafty, and though he was always ready to satisfy his ladies, he was in no rush. He let his hands continue to wander over her, lightly stroking any inch of exposed skin that he could reach—to Elise’s frustration and delight.
“Are you sure we should be doing this?” His tone was sly and teasing, though in it was a kernel of accusation. “You are now immortal, but that doesn’t mean that you should be lying around all day, not doing anything. Time still flows, there is still much for us both to do…”
A groan escaped Elise’s lips. “Your diligence is both profoundly disappointing and a huge turn-on. I’m not going to stay here forever, husband, I just… wanted a break. You and the rest of our family have pushed me to train harder than I’d ever thought I could stand for the past two centuries, and it has delivered me to heights unimaginable when we were younger. I never thought I’d ever achieve Apotheosis, even in my rosiest of dreams.
“But now that I have… now that we’re both immortal, now that our family is immortal… why can’t we take a few days to relax together without worrying about anything else?”
Without hesitation, Leon pulled the covers away from her lower body and pushed her onto her side, facing away from him. Then, he gave her tight tush a few light slaps—hardly enough to hurt, but they made quite a delightful sound. Elise shrieked in surprise, then rewarded his initiative with a few laughs and moans.
“That sounds like a lazy attitude,” Leon growled. “Laziness demands punishment, doesn’t it?”
Elise rewarded him again with a sultry giggle and looked ready to play along. However, her smile froze for a moment before she pointed to a crystal decanter on her bedside table. “Helen delivered that this morning. It’s a new blend. She says it has the best chances of working out of all the brews she’s made.”
Leon took a long, steady breath as he stared at the decanter, and the softly-glowing wine-red liquid within. It was enough to fill two goblets, and he was sure it was no coincidence that two crystal chalices were next to the decanter.
He didn’t need this explained to him. This was a fertility potion, plain and simple. Such things were quite common in the Nexus given the sheer number of more powerful mages around. Mages, after all, grew less fertile as they gained power. This drop in fertility didn’t show itself that much in men given the sheer volume of reproductive material they could produce; the fertility problem was instead much more pronounced in women. Whereas a mortal woman would have her time of the month, a tenth-tier woman might have ‘her time of the decade’ instead. A post-Apotheosis woman might not be ready to have a child for even longer—centuries if not millennia.
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As a result, fertility treatments abounded in the Nexus, though they mostly targeted women. Clans with Inherited Bloodlines also existed, and they usually had their own solutions for the fertility issues brought on by their inherited power.
In Leon’s case, despite Maia and Valeria pouring over all of the records he’d taken not only from the archives below Teira but also from his Clan’s old palaces in Sentinel lands on Aeterna, they hadn’t yet found a treatment that had worked. Even the Thunderbird herself had gotten involved, yet her methods hadn’t borne any fruit, either.
This was hardly a personal matter, however much Leon wished it was. He and all of his wives had now achieved immortality, but as a King, it was arguably his first and most important duty to ensure a secure succession should anything happen to him—something which several of his friends and ministers had reminded him of. Any children he had was a matter that affected the entire Kingdom, and so the whole Kingdom was invested in the productivity of his bedroom.
So, with no small amount of shame and embarrassment, Leon brought Helen and Tikos into the problem, hoping they might be able to contribute a solution. Nestor was also consulted, as were a few discreet healers and researchers in Artorion.
That had begun more than a century ago, and yet there had been no change. As a result, when Leon temporarily removed his hands from Elise and poured the potion into the two chalices, he did so almost reluctantly, with little hope that it would work. Still, after giving one of the chalices to Elise, he brought the other to his lips.
‘At least the potion tastes good this time,’ he mused as he imbibed liberally, not pulling the chalice away until it had been drained of the potion.
Elise finished first and returned to staring up at him with such passion and intensity that he wasn’t sure if it was the potion or the look she was giving him that had his body reacting, but either way, he was ready in a moment.
Even if the potion didn’t help them have children, at least they could at least enjoy its effects. And they’d certainly be enjoying the effects enough that if no child resulted, it would certainly not be due to a lack of effort on their part.
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“So… Did anyone respond?” Leon asked the demon.
Nearly a full day had passed before Xaphan contacted Leon through their contract, informing him that his time with the enchantment was over. Leon then hurried over, leaving the official petitions and other correspondence he’d only just started to tackle without a second’s hesitation.
He found the demon, still burning with white flame, almost curled up on the floor in the center of the intricate enchantment, much of which Leon noted had been burned away—and he’d used the blood of a lightning screecher, a man-sized bat-like creature with thunder-like screeches and lightning-covered wings that could cross the breadth of his Kingdom in a day, to draw it, and those creatures’ blood did not easily burn.
Upon his question being asked, Xaphan slowly returned to his feet, but even then, he did not look happy.
“Yes,” he responded, the crackling in his voice sounding more violent than usual. “I’ve learned much, Leon. We have… I have much further to go than I anticipated. Seventy years ago, Amon assumed the position of Prince of Flame, killing the previous Prince in single combat. My enemy… my old friend… has reached a height greater than any I’ve ever reached. Those who supported me in the Elemental Plane of Fire… those I once counted as friends and allies…” He paused, his shoulders sagging slightly. “I have none left. I am no one, not even a Lord. I have no support. And my enemy is one of the seven most powerful demons in the universe.”
Silence fell in the wake of his statement, broken only by the crackling of Xaphan’s fire. This silence weighed quite heavily on Leon as many questions ran through his head all at once, the potential answers to those questions not bringing him much comfort.
But then he clicked his tongue and said, “So fucking what, demon? Lord of Flame, Prince of Flame, does it matter? We still have to deal with Amon, don’t we?”
Xaphan cast a scathing glare over his shoulder, but let Leon continue.
“This just means we’ll need a little more time, that’s all. Kamran, Amon. I ask you, Xaphan: what does it say about us that our enemies are so powerful?”
“That we’re utter fools,” Xaphan groused.
“That’s right, friend, it means that we’re absolutely and utterly demented. We’re the sort of shit-brained freaks, head-whacked nuts, ground-licking, featherless, fangless, dull-witted, lunatics who count some of the strongest beings in the whole damned universe as our enemies! The sort who make our Ancestors shudder in their graves!”
In a quick move, Leon launched himself into the air and called black fire to his fingers as easily as he would silver-blue lightning. He hovered at Xaphan’s eye level, all but forcing the demon to look him in the eye.
“And that means we’re going to win. Let’s beat them so badly that their Ancestors will greet them with disdain and revulsion! For we’re too foolish to stop, aren’t we? Aren’t we?”
Xaphan stared at him for a long moment before loudly scoffing. “Dipshit human…” he muttered. “Yes, yes we will beat them! Kill them! End their entire damned bloodlines!” The demon grew more animated as his voice grew louder. “Amon thinks he can fuck with me?! When I return to the Elemental Plane of Fire, I will remind him of his place! And then I’ll finish what I started so long ago and return him to the Ash!”
“That’s more like it!” Leon exclaimed. “Keep that fire burning, demon!”
“It will never stop, human,” Xaphan growled dangerously. “Never.”
Leon slowly lowered himself back to the floor. “Good. Now… let’s evaluate the situation, see what it looks like at the moment, before we’ve even started to really lay any groundwork…”
“Who’s this ‘we’ you keep speaking of? Do you think I want some fuckboy human following me around in the Elemental Planes like a love-starved puppy?”
“We’re partners, you dumbass matchstick. You’ve helped me get here. Keep helping me and I’ll help you. Hells, right now, I’m inclined to say that I’ll help you regardless.”
After that declaration, silence once again stretched between them, broken only when Xaphan mustered a shaky, hesitant, “Thank you, Leon.”
“Wipe those tears, demon, you look pathetic,” Leon sarcastically stated. “And let’s look at things as they are. What have you learned?”
Xaphan needed a moment to compose himself before answering. “We… Amon has the support of almost all fire demons. As the Prince, his word may as well be law. He’s replaced two of the seven Lords with his own followers, and given the position he vacated—that he stole from me to another. The remaining four have fallen into line. Rats, all of them! Bottom feeders!”
“All right. Then what of his other power? How was he able to even kill the previous Prince if the position grants such power?”
Xaphan growled with such hate that it almost shook the room; his aura flickered with fury Leon had never seen before and killing intent poured from him in such thick sheets that it almost overpowered the natural heat of his body. “That’s… unclear. Zhu was there when it happened, and he told me that Amon suddenly returned after a ten-year absence from his post and killed the Prince in a single strike. Few questions were asked then, and none have been asked since.”
“So he was gone for some time and managed to find enough power to kill the demon equivalent of the Burning King, ruler of the human fire mages according to Khosrow’s Law, in one strike?”
“Such is the testimony Zhu provided.”
“And there have been no clues as to the source of that power in these past seventy years?”
“None that Zhu or any of my other old contacts provided me during my short conversations with them.”
“Hm,” Leon grunted. “And he’s still hostile to you?”
“Without a doubt.”
“Should we expect him to act against us now that he has this power?”
“… I’ve been told that he’s distracted with something. Svarog, the oldest Lord of Flame, rules in his stead, though Amon puts in enough appearances to ensure obedience. Otherwise, no one knows where he is or what he’s doing.”
“So… some secret project, then. Perhaps related to whatever gave him the power to kill the previous Prince? And likely not related to us, as I’m sure the Prince of Flame would be able to reach the Nexus in seventy years if he wanted to.”
“Undoubtedly.”
“And that he hasn’t indicates… something. But I don’t know enough to even begin to guess.”
A single red eye, wreathed in a body of black clouds, bearing enough power to shatter his mind with a glance, flashed through Leon’s mind.
“Demon… you don’t think… Planerend…?”
Xaphan froze; even the white fire on his body dimmed just from hearing that name. “We… should plan for every eventuality, human. Even those I’d rather not even consider.”
Leon slowly nodded. As far as he knew, the Grave Wardens hadn’t made much progress in locating the escaped Primal Devil, and the last thing Leon wanted was the ancient creature encountering and empowering another of his enemies.
But the Primal Devils did create the demons—at least according to themselves—so he imagined the Elemental Planes would’ve been a good place for it to run off to.
Then again, he had no idea what a Primal Devil like Planerend wanted, so he could hardly fathom a guess as to what it was doing or where it was. He just hoped his guess was wrong. Planerend and Amon together would be the worst-case scenario.
But at least it wasn’t one that it seemed he’d have to deal with in the near future. So the only thing he could do was what he was already planning on doing: building up both his Kingdom and his personal power. There wasn’t much difference, as far he could tell, between preparing to kill Kamran and claim his Ancestors’ place as the Storm King and preparing to face down the Prince of Flame.
He just needed power. Lots of it.
