Chapter 3

Early the next morning, we arrived at the branch and settled in for breakfast. Lena also wanted to use the free time to formally introduce me to the newcomers, but I wasn’t interested in meeting them since they would be gone soon. Besides, I had other stuff on my mind—

"Will you calm down already?" Lena asked for the third time in the last twenty minutes.

"I am calm." I replied while staring into the portal.

"Torga, I know you're eager to meet the kid, but if you don't calm down, you're likely to do something you'll regret."

“I appreciate your concern, Lena. But I. Am. Calm.”

Lena growled in frustration and used her magic to raise the land around her until she was staring Torga in the eye.

"You're acting like a child."

"Am not," I muttered without looking at her.

Lena screamed in frustration, hopped down from her perch, and had just begun to storm off when she heard Torga ask.

"Did Uriel manage to acquire a jewel for me? I meant to ask him earlier, but I haven’t had the chance yet."

"Oh, so now you want to listen to me?" She sneered.

"Look, I apologize for being difficult. Truly, I do.” I sighed. "It's just, I'm, well I'm—"

"You're, what?"

"I'm Hungry.” I hissed. “It's been ten years since I had a good meal and all of you smell so damn delicious, it’s driving me crazy." I growled. I slammed my head into the ground as a way to calm myself down.

"Oh—Oh!” She exclaimed as my words registered in her mind. “Why didn't you say anything?" she hollered.

"What exactly am I going to say? 'Hey, guys? Mind if I eat a few of you?' Oh yeah, I'm sure that would've gone over soo~ Well~" I snarked.

"Well, no. But you could've stopped to eat something, at the very least!"

I was quiet for several seconds, my eyes landed on each member of my party in turn, then moved on to the newcomers. As my eyes moved from person to person, my hunger grew until—"Alright, new plan. Everyone out. Get your asses over to the other planet. Anyone... And I do mean, anyone, still here in thirty seconds is getting eaten.”

"Torga, you can't just- Lena began, but she was quickly cut off.

"Twenty-five."

"Hey Fatass, don't you threaten my- Fenris yelled but he too, was interrupted.

"Twenty."

The group stood around in shock for another ten seconds before they saw the truth of my words, and they realized— I wasn't kidding around. Once this realization hit them, they left behind their equipment and all but Findral practically dove into the portal.

"Master, do you remember which planet we're going to?" She asked while slowly backing towards the portal.

"Asgard. Six."

"Okay, just checking!!" After confirming, she dove into the portal and I was left alone.

"Finally, I can finally let go—" It started out small, a leaf here, a blade of grass there. But eventually, the full weight of my hunger made itself known. The monster buried just beneath my scales, always so close, yet kept at bay by my will, was finally set free...

Like a man dying of thirst, the monster began to rapidly pull the surrounding magic towards me and gulped it down again and again.

Not five minutes into this cycle of consumption, the surrounding forest was completely drained of magic; The plants had lost their previous bright green color and were now a sinister black. Not even the animals were saved from this fate as they too were quickly drained of their life-giving magic and were left as mere husks of their former selves. Their bodies exsanguinated from the loss of magic, not even the strongest among them lived for more than a few seconds under the assault of the monster's insatiable appetite.

Soon the destruction spread beyond its immediate surroundings and spread further into the forest, where more and more plants and animals were drained of their magic until they too died.

The monster continued to feed for thirty-minutes and in that time, over ten miles of forest was drained completely dry. The plants killed; the animals turned into husks. Death permeated the area long before the monster receded, and I returned to my senses... For the first time, I was forced to face what I was truly capable of— And it terrified me.

Trees were felled under their own weight; their leaves missing or turned black, the grass and other such plants were also reduced to shriveled black husks. As I turned my head towards the portal, something caught my eye: it was all that was left of a deer after its magic was sucked out; Its fur had fallen off leaving it bare, its eyes missing, and its bones were showing through its skin.

*Ding* Ding*Ding*Ding*Ding—*

Pop-up after pop-up appeared before my eyes, each detailing a creature I’d consumed in my madness. I couldn’t bare to look at them, at the evidence of my loss of control, so I dismissed them almost as soon as they appeared.

My jaw tightened as I began to scan the area for a sign— any sign of life. I found none. After scanning the area for a few minutes and seeing exactly what I'd done, I shook my head and let out a defeated sigh. Thank god, If I hadn't forced them all to leave when I did, that would've been them laying on the ground instead of a deer. He gazed at his surroundings for a few minutes more, then his eyes narrowed. Let's see if I remember how to do this.

I closed my eyes and thought back to all the times Lena had tried to teach me to use my 'Magic Manipulation' skill. I could almost hear her say...

"Focus, Torga. Bring forth that colossal amount of energy inside you and push it into your surroundings. Bend it to your will, you are the master of your energy, not the other way around." Lena said.

"What about the magic that's around me; the magic I don't create?"

"In that case, you need only to push your will outside yourself. Then the magic in the air will be yours to command as well."

"Outside myself?”

Lena shrugged, "It didn't make sense to me at first either, but you'll understand it eventually… Probably."

I opened my eyes and did exactly as Lena said. Reached deep within myself and pulled my magic to the surface, or at I tried to. What actually happened was I accidentally tapped into a slightly different skill. The ground beneath me began to violently shake as I used the 'Elemental manipulation' skill to reach deep into the planet and pull the earth towards me. The result was me being bodily thrown into the air by a massive pillar of stone and sent flying.

I crashed into the ground, slowly rolled over, and lifted my head into the air. I glared at the pillar. I opened my mouth and activated my “energy breath” skill and released a blast of energy that easily disintegrated the pillar.

"Stupid Magic..." I grumbled, then tried again. This time, however, I was prepared and directed the earth to flip over the deadland; fresh soil was exposed and the deadlands were buried deep beneath the ground, where they would serve as nutrients for new plants to grow.

I grunted in satisfaction and nodded my head. That should do it. Now to get out of here. I've wasted enough time on this planet as it is. I lowered my head to the portal and allowed it to suck me in.

Welcome to the Bifrost

Please select your next destination from the available branches—

I ignored the choices and blurted out my destination.

In order to reach Asgard from this location, you will have to make 4 transitions. Do you accept?

“Yes.”

Understood.

The kaleidoscopic lights flashed brightly for a moment, then the first transition began. A flash of red, a flash of blue, a gaping maw of darkness I didn’t want to think about, and then I was ejected onto a world as different from Uathea as Lava is to an ice field: The ground was covered in blades of grass so green, it looked like they’d been individually painted. The golden leaves of the trees swayed in a gentle breeze.

However, what truly distracted me was the sky: It was pitch black, save for a bright rainbow that split the sky and radiated light. The rainbow somehow projected enough light that I could see as if it were daytime on any other planet. After I finished gaping at my surroundings, the first thing I noticed was the sudden lack of people waiting for me. The priests from Phoria were noticeably absent from the group waiting for me.

Findral was the first to make her way over to me, so I asked her what happened.

“The head priest and Fenris had some kind of falling out, you’d have to ask him for the specifics. But it ended with Fenris giving them half their money back and kicking them out of the group.”

“I see… Thanks, Fin. I’ll ask him about it later.”

“Of course, master~” She cheerfully replied.

“By the way, where’s Uriel?”

“I think he’s over with the merchants. Would you like me to go get him?”

I twisted my head and glanced back at my body, then looked down at her. “That’d be helpful, yes.”

She nodded her head, then walked away with an obvious sway to her hips. The sound of someone clearing their throat caused me to look away from her. Lena was standing next to me.

“See something you like, Torga?” She asked in a sickly-sweet tone.

“Not especially. I was just reminded that she was a three-foot tall goblin a few years ago, and now she looks like—”

“A succubus?”

“A dark elf.” I replied with more intensity than I meant.

Lena quirked a brow at me but didn’t say otherwise. “She’s a good girl, Torga. And she reveres you. It would be understandable if you were to—”

“Finish that sentence, Lena. I dare you.” I hissed.

Her mouth closed with an audible snap.

“I may have only adopted Ayla, but I think of Fin as my daughter too. I dare you to say otherwise.”

Lena went stiff for a moment, then she relaxed and sighed. She shrugged her shoulders and gave me a half-hearted smile. “Sorry, Torga. I sometimes forget where your heart lay. My bad.”

I grunted and decided to let it go. I knew Lena didn’t mean anything by it, she was as protective of the girls as I was. Sometimes even more so.

“By the way, what happened to the priests?” I asked. If anyone would know what happened, it would be her. Fenris told her everything.

“The head priest Samuel was— uh— Upset about your involvement in our travels. I won’t repeat what he said so don’t ask, but he had some rather distasteful opinions about you and Findral.”

“Shame.” I sighed.

“I know. I never thought a priest would say such things—”

“Oh, no. I meant it was a shame Fenris kicked him out before I could eat his soul and devour his body.”

Lena went silent for a long moment, “Torga, sometimes, you scare the hel out of me.”

“I do believe Torga scares the hel out of everyone with half a brain, Lena.”

I snorted and turned my attention to the newcomer: He was an older male dark elf. He wore what passed for nobleman’s finery to the dark elves, which consisted of a regal set of maroon robes the same color as his that hung loosely off his wiry frame. Black silk trousers peeked out from beneath the hem of his robe with every step he took. His shoulder length silver hair was intricately braided through with bands of gold. And, like most druids that spent their lives in the forests of Uathea, his feet were bare.

“Hello, Uriel.”

Uriel took a long drag from his pipe, then nodded his head. “Hello, Torga. I was wondering when we’d have a chance to talk.”

“On that note, I’ll leave you two to it. I have some merchants to wrangle...” She trailed off while looking at the crowd of people in the distance. I could tell from her body language that she didn’t want to deal with them.

“Tell anyone that gives you trouble that I’ll eat them if they don’t behave.”

“There’s an idea.” She snorted. She walked away after offering her thanks, leaving the two of us alone.

Uriel looked up at me with a blank expression on his face. He took another long drag from his odd smelling pipe. When he exhaled, smoke came out of his nose in a wave of white and the odd smell grew stronger. “You’ve gotten bigger.”

“Not by much—”

“I’ve seen mountains smaller than you. Like, seriously, what the hel is up with your growth?”

“Good question— Though, that is why I wanted the jewel.”

“Ah, right.” He moved his robe to the side and pulled a small pouch out for my inspection. He opened it and poured three stones into his palm. “While I’m positive the enchantment will work as its meant to, I’m less sure of how long it will last. That’s why I’m going to fashion these three into one and use that. Hopefully, that keep the enchantment from breaking down.”

“Good idea. It would be very inconvenient if I suddenly returned to my normal size when I’m inside a city of something.”

“The explosion would be bad too.”

“Yeah, that would also be bad— Wait, what explosion?”

“Oh, just the instantaneous release of your entire mass in the form of compressed magical energy.”

“I see— And, do these explosions happen often?” I asked, a feeling of dread settling into my stomach.

“No, of course not. Only one out of ten stones will explode. Truthfully, I’m curious how big the explosion would be. The last time a stone detonated, it destroyed some castle back on Rhan. Really pissed off the royal family, it did. Of course, yours is ten times bigger than that stone,” He patted my scales and smiled at me. “But worry not, I’m sure that won’t happen to your stone.”

Then why mention it? I sighed internally and began to wonder if I genuinely wanted the stone after all.