The Grande Met molded the first human out of clay and water, but his power was so great he couldn’t talk to his people. Couldn’t guide them. So he created the Lwa, the intermediaries like me, to spread his teaching.

~Agassou, Priest-King of the Lwa

Kafele woke up on a slight rise, disoriented and confused. There was no easy way down, especially with one arm. Remembering how he got there, the trial returned to him, and he shuddered, thinking about it.

Pulling open his robe, he saw his mutated Shield. It was a coffin shield and was longer than it was wide. A Corpse Piton was the central symbol, an item created by the Vodun to trap the dead. He’d never seen this type of piton but recognized it immediately.

A heritage based on a Corpse Piton was curious, but Hex Vodun dealt with spirits and the dead, so his heritage shouldn’t be unusual. Still, there was a moment in the transition between life and death that even a Vodun risked shattering their soul. Not that it particularly bothered him since he had a powerful soul that few his age could rival.

Either way, his people called that life and death transition the Vals Dagbreek, which meant False Dawn. Had Crow heard that, he’d have had questions—lots of them. It was a crucial transition that they capitalized on to make their spells more powerful—at least those dealing with curses, spirits, and the dead.

Sitting down, Kafele took everything out of his spatial ring and put it into his Shield. The space wasn’t large, but not everyone was a freak like Crow. He’d spit blood if he knew Crow already had a Soulscape, and that expanded his storage area to the size of a landmass. Still, he had several cubic meters, which was twice the size of his spatial ring.

After he finished, he found some rope and tied it to a rock outcropping. Using his legs to grip the rope and his hand to make sure he didn’t fall off, he made his way down and off the rise. Unsure where on the first floor he ended up, he couldn’t choose to use the sun and pick an easterly direction.

As night approached, he smelled smoke and roasting meat. Carefully, he approached the camp. The trees were sparse in this area, so it wasn’t hard to spot the light of a fire in the dwindling light. Kafe spent another ten minutes observing a man roughly thirty years of age seasoning a haunch of meat.

Silent as a nightmare, he came up behind the man and sliced his throat. The man never had a chance to activate his Shield, and Kafe straddled him before using his wicked-looking dagger to cut off the man’s arm and hung it up in a nearby tree by its fingers. He needed to drain as much blood as possible.

While that was happening, he searched through the man’s belongings and stashed away the meager amount of pills. Kafe did make one mistake. He forgot about the Shield. Next time, he’d keep them alive and let them bargain for their pitiful lives by dumping all the things they’d stored up.

Taking a bite of the cooked meat, Kafe immediately spat it out. Looking around, he discovered the animal it came from—a young child no more than thirteen. The sickly sweet taste was familiar to him. Still, they only ate human flesh during specific rituals, not because they were monsters that enjoyed it.

After tossing away the cooked meat, he removed his robe and stood stark naked beneath the moon. His dark blue had crisscrossed white scars that stood out. The stump of his arm was sealed with a Hex rune, which was formed of his own blood. Dipping his finger in a cup of the dead man’s blood, he retraced the rune until it activated once more and bathed the area in a red hue. Taking the drained arm, he cut his arm and used his own blood to draw a similar Hex rune on the cut part of the severed arm.

Once completed, he matched them together and started humming. His Shield brightened significantly as he activated his spell, only he’d never thought it’d be this powerful. It disrupted his work, and he cursed himself for being foolish. He should have tested his new power before now.

Salvaging the situation was easy, but his blood caused the arm to balloon up. Willing his fist to close, the man’s arm attached to his body shook a few times before the hand slowly closed. Muttering the rest of the spell, he let the arm assimilate with him. At first, it’d look a bit weird, but over the next year, it’d slowly change until it mirrored his other arm.

He could have just regrown one by finding a Medik or even an alchemist because pills existed that could accelerate regrowth. However, this method was faster. Using a towel from within his Shield, he wiped the blood off his body. Across his shoulder was a bright white scar that stood out against his blue flesh.

Doing several more exercises helped improve blood circulation through his new limb. He then switched to cultivation because he had to get back into tip-top shape. If not, he wouldn’t feel comfortable tracking down Crow and bringing back the Python’s Tongue.

By the time he was done becoming familiar with his body, Shield, and new arm, it was daylight once more. A few times, he broke out of his meditation because he sensed nearby danger. Other than that, it was mostly an uneventful night.

“Helloooo?” A woman called out to him as he stood up, and Kafe looked up, startled. How had she approached so close without him noticing?

She had bouncing blonde curls and plump breasts with full red, pouty lips. She wasn’t fat, but her curves were soft and sensual, and Kafe found himself staring. Until this moment, he admitted sex was something he was never interested in. Still, more than once in the last thirty seconds, he found himself reaching out to touch her.

“Who are you?” Kafe wasn’t big on social etiquette, so he went straight to the point. Even if his chemical urges were screaming to strip her and take her right then and there, he didn’t.

“Y-you aren’t a ghost, right?”

“Huh?”

“I’m Nadia,” she giggled, seeing his stupefied face. “Ghosts don’t look dumb, so I’ll take it you aren’t one.”

“Wh-what? I don’t know what you are saying.”

Nadia giggled once more. “Come, I’ll take you to a place you can sleep in a proper bed. You must be new to the tower.”

“Huh?” Kafele felt stupid. Unable to keep up with this girl’s thought process and quickly changing topics. “Wait. How did you know what?”

“No clothes. Most of you come through naked.”

Kafe looked down, and he’d forgotten to put back on his robe, thinking he was safe. Seeing his emaciated body filled with scars and various body parts that didn’t belong to him, he suddenly felt like trash standing next to a goddess.

***

Three months later…

“Hurry up, Kaf!” Nadia exclaimed and pulled him along the trail. He hired her to be his tour guide toward the main road leading toward the next floor. While following her, he couldn’t help but glance at her round butt and wanted so badly to grab it.

This sweet and charming girl would appear to be a blessing to most because she looked naïve and seductive. Instead, he felt like the last three months were a living nightmare. Every day he was torn between ditching her and tearing off her clothes. The longer he was around her, the less in control he was.

After the first month of traveling with her, they had sex, but he didn’t know who initiated it. The entire thing was a blur, and when he regained his rationality, he was already deep inside her. Sometimes, they’d spend days at an inn, never leaving the bedroom.

The strangest thing was the villagers who seemed to know here were all giving him sympathetic looks.

“Do you think I’m pretty?” The girl asked, turning around and watching him while she walked backward. She wanted to see his face, and as he stumbled, her laughter rang out with delight. Mostly, he was embarrassed because she caught him staring at her butt.

Cough. “Uhm, yeah. You are pretty.”

“Thanks! You are pretty handsome yourself.”

Why did it feel like she was the predator and he was the prey? It was a strange thought that popped into his head many times over the last few months. Other than her standard Wood Shield in the shape of a triangle, nothing screamed danger. Her shirt barely covered her cleavage, so it didn’t do a good job disguising the three stars he saw glowing along one edge.

Every day was different with her, and some days, like today, he felt she was very dangerous. However, he knew her strength was greater than his, so unless he took her off guard, the killing urges he had had to be suppressed. There was part of him that screamed she was weak, but Kafe didn’t become one of the strongest Hex Vodun by ignoring caution.

“The elders in this next town are more powerful than you can imagine. In this tower, looks and smarts are nothing to them unless you can back it with power,” Nadia explained. “To them, you are weak as a baby, so you must not anger them.”

Kafele smiled coldly and acknowledged what she said. As cold as his demeanor was, the town the approached felt even worse. This entire time, other than knowing she was taking him east, he wasn’t sure where they were. Every village was practically a hidden refuge that he’d probably never have stumbled upon on his own.

This place was different, though, because the stout building made of stone dominated the entire area. It was like a whole castle manor had lost its top. Rooves were built on top of rooms, and the hallways were the streets. In the center of the structure was an open courtyard, and no the far side of it was the only two-story building in the entire place.

“That tall building is the inn.”

“What is this place?” Kafe asked.

“Not sure. The elders called it a necropolis.”

“Wait… they are living in an old graveyard?”

“I suppose. You think this is impressive. You should see what is underneath.”

Kafele couldn’t wait, but he also didn’t show any excitement outwardly. The reason this girl brought him along was finally being revealed, but inwardly he was sneering. Sex might entice most men, but for him, it was only a way to placate her.