It only got worse from there from Azreal’s perspective, Sure he infected the half-troll girl as planned during a genius cave in. but really, the whole fight got way worse from then on.

First, the Orc got possessed by some lowbie God, who beat him soundly in a fight, and chopped off his wings, then even worse, he fucking cooked them and made some kind of divine dish. The Orc thankfully passed out after the bit with the cooked wings, but he powered up the turret/ant swarm people in the process. They were the real threat.

And his living bomb would not complete, he probably could have escaped with the new flesh wings carved from the corpses of his defeated minions, but the giant spider turret person was operating on the girl, keeping her in a state between life and death, maybe even making her into something new, that could not be allowed.

He began to approach to dish out some unholy injustice, when every ant, turret, girl, and even about a third of his zombies all turned to look at him. They did not see an angel or a monster come to destroy them, they only saw food. They were like a horde of starving dogs looking at a giant steak.

“What now?” he said, some of the composure slipping from his voice.

Then everything moved at once to restrain him. Even, much to his mounting horror; his own brand new flesh sculpted wings.

It was like someone flipped a switch and his wings suddenly wrapped up his own body. Zombies, melted into a giant flesh hand that pulled him towards the now silent chaingun turret. Other parts of the wave swept away his greatest defenders, either melting corpses joined the fleshy wave, or his custom elites wrapped up and restrained like he was.

Then it got much worse, something was reaching inside him, pulling on every fibre of his being, even seeming to dig into and infect his soul. The lich torturing him for weeks and corrupting his soul with darkness felt like a pleasant walk in the park compared to the agony he was now in. the tendrils latched on to his connection to his followers, and then pulled again, draining them and spreading the smokey tendrils into their minds and souls.

Then he understood, this mighty being wearing the body of monster and machine while still wearing the face of a woman, she had done something even greater than he ever dreamed, she evolved the zombie plague into something that can infect the soul, then spread it through him to his followers to steal his faith pool.

She was also draining his essence. Rather than let him die, she kept re-shaping his body to fit his new smaller and fewer mana pools. He was only a foot and a half tall and his only mana pool was made of the smokey energy when she was done pulling on him.

He might not have been too upset in the long run, this new energy was much better than the 4 he previously commanded, he could re-learn all his old powers and special attacks someday. Plus many more powers, unique to this new mana, his pocket dimension power would be exponentially more efficient, he sensed that the old spell was like ripping a hole in a bag, then sewing it back up. But now it was more like reaching into a pocket. He may even be able to safely travel the spirit world now.

Unfortunately for Azrael, Omega had no plans to let the evil creature go, even death would not stop it from potentially coming back to harm her or her people. So she tied his soul to that of the little girl, as a minion. Now his Level would always be at least a few below hers, re-could respawn still, But tiffany was now his church, his master, his God. If she died, he died. No lost wandering angel, no spirit world, do not pass go, enjoy your total soul destruction.

She did not even need to tell the ex-angel. He saw his soul get used to empower her heart and mind. His mind bound to her will. He felt the anger and horror in his heart burned in the pyre that was his new love for his master.

Thus the angel died. And Azrael the Aetheric Mephit servant was born.

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Omega released the little cherub/demon thing she had accidentally made. The zombie virus itself had been turned into an aetheric creature, which fed on any of its component energies, life and death merged made soul mana, so the aetheric version of the virus could spread through soul to soul contact, most people were safe from such a phenomenon, but the angel had followers, and the virus spread to them through me pulling out all his divine energy.

Hopefully, they would like the change because they were now tied to Tiffany in the same way as they had been to the angel.

She used her System Interaction skill to check the status of the girl

Tiffany Arch-Crusher E(253) 25350 Xp

Half-Troll, half-Ogre-Mage, Aetherial Princess

Stats: (3500 Xp)

>3 Phys (Str 3.25 Dex 2 Con 3) (1500 Xp)

>3 Ment (Int 2 Wis 3 Cha 3.5) (2000 Xp)

Skills: (850 XP)

(C )Skills Aether knowledge 1 (250 Xp)

(D )Hide 2 (200 Xp)

(D )Spot 1 (100 Xp)

(E )Play 12 (120 Xp)

(E )alphabet 4(40 Xp)

(E )walking 14 (140 Xp)

Feats/achievements: (6000 Xp)

(C )Aether plague patient (2000 Xp)

(C )Aether plague controller (2000 Xp)

(C )Minion/Sidekick(2000 Xp)

Known Powers: (15000 Xp)

1(C rank)(5k) Minor Aether Control (element control 2k) + (3 elements, 1k ea.)light, life, death, darkness(light+life = divine, dark+death = entropy, life+death = soul, light+dark = shadow, all 4 = Aether)

+1k element blast

+1k element shield

+1k element absorption

+1k element movement

(Ghost touch, soul element)(Bonus)

+1k subtle(Extra)

-1k ineffective (soulless)(Flaw)

(9000 XP)

(C )Active Bloodline Powers (6000 XP)

The young girls level being over 200 seemed really high for such a young child, but then she realized that the single rank, Minor Aether Control power, was worth 90 of her levels on its own because she was only an E rank creature, if she were C rank, she would only be level 2 and a half, she was not sure if she could even continue to train the power until she was actually a C rank creature.

Nothing had ever interested Omega more then what this girl might become someday. She was overcome with a feeling somewhere between maternal instinct, and a creator proud of their work.

The girl began to stir, as Omega scanned her from within to see what the stats might not represent. The Explosive goo Organ had been reduced to about a third of its size, rather than blow herself up, she could vomit goo on someone to infect them. The special attack did not seem to be in the system powers, or maybe it was a part of the vague (C )Active Bloodline Powers or the two achievements (C )Aether plague patient 0, and (C )Aether plague controller, between the 3 power/achievements were a hundred of Tiffany's levels and no real description of what they do. Rather then frustrated, Omega was excited that she still had more to learn. She could only copy powers she understood, so while she understood Aether enough to copy the (C )Minor Aether Control power, that was only because of knowledge she devoured from the angel wing meal, and that was more of an effect of the unknown orc God than that of her own powers.

The Troll girl crawled over to the sleeping orc and shook him.

Doctor Omega decided to clean up a bit before conversing with the people she had “helped”. First, she dug some pits, then she swept the still living zombies into the pits and filled them with smart matter to stop the zombies moving until she could test the girl's powers to infect and transform them. She pulled the turrets and other nanites back towards herself to re-take her humanoid form.

Omega scout led the Ant swarm back into the nest to help her look for the lost part of herself she had cut off to prepare for worst-case scenarios. She also needed to have a chat with the captive ant queens. She killed the main Amazon ant queen in the conquest of the nest but found 5 more queens restrained in a back chamber of the Amazon Queens nest. They may even be sentient, or at least a hundred times closer than the drones, So Omega scout was pleased to be done with the zombie horde distraction.

Congratulations! All major threats in the hex have been eliminated or allied with. The Hex is now yours to control.

Would you like to:

A: Raize Hex.

B: Start a new faction.

C: Cede Control to Allied Dungeon(Sydney).

D: Cede Control to Allied Ant Queen(Amazon, Honeypot, Vampire, Bullet, Leaf cutter).

E: Cede Control to Allied Eldritch Horror(Mr. Thing).

F: Do nothing.

Omega Had a lot of questions. Obviously, she would start a new faction, She wanted a team just to recruit Tiffany to it. There was no question of Which option she would pick, Who or what was Mr. Thing, and why they were an ally was the biggest question she had, really the most consuming one as she mechanically picked option B.

Congratulations! What would you like to name your new faction?

__________________, Confirm.

A text entry box appeared, she could change what went in it with her will, she experimented with names for a minute while she considered the makeup of her new faction. A Dungeon Laboratory, Giant Ants, apparently an eldritch horror, and herself, a sentient shape-shifting Swarm of magical nanites. So she picked a name she thought described them all, and any other strange creatures she would surely collect if her first day was anything to go by.

Nightmare Swarm, Confirm.

Congratulations! You are now the Leader of the Nightmare Swarm Faction

Congratulations! Your conquered Hex has become the Core of the Faction, you have 24 hours to choose a location of your Faction Core within the Faction Capital Hex and then choose a Guardian for it.

Congratulations! What would you like to name your new Faction Capital Hex?

__________________, Confirm.

She decided to stay on the theme for this one.

Nightmare Hive, Confirm.

Would you like to invite all friendly or allied creatures in the hex to join both the capital city of Nightmare Hive and the Nightmare Swarm Faction? Yes/No.

Sure, she didn't see why not.

Yes/No.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, then small connections formed in her meta-data showing her the people or creatures that were taking her as their new leader.

Time to start pumping her new subjects for information, she thought to herself as first the Halfling girl, then the Troll toddler, then all the ants were added to the faction members section of her metadata.