The party sped towards the fallen titan at different paces. Althos was, of course, the fastest. Being a god meant having endless physical stamina, coupled with infinite magical power so Althos sped on, caring just enough to remain visible to his companions.

The jackaloids were not far behind him. The carnivores, used to a tough life of hunting in the barren desert, had the stamina to dash for hours which was backed by their significant speed. The quadrupeds maintained a pace that kept them just a few minutes behind Althos.

The scorpion lagged behind, but even it wasn't tremendously far from the party. Althos didn't just speed off out of sight of the thing, he carefully monitored his pace to ensure that it remained able to see him and follow him and the wolves. Plus the thing wasn't slow, its multiple legs carried it speedily over the desert, it just wasn't as fast as Althos or the canines.

While approaching the place where Althos' radar informed him that the titan had fallen, each of the members of the party began to hear a distinct noise off in the distance. The sound was very loud, and flew outward in every direction around the fallen titan, carried by the desert wind.

It was the sound of a creature in incredible pain. The noise was little more than the noise made by someone in agony, unintelligibly communicating that they were in mind-scrambling pain.

After perhaps 10 minutes, the loud moans suddenly stopped. The desert fell eerily silent with the sudden ceasing of the previously audible cries of pain. The sudden end of the noise made Althos speed up, more curious than ever to reach the creature.

At that moment, shortly before Althos reached the top of the sand dune he was climbing, he looked back and saw that he was alone. His jackaloid-companions were visible, but behind him, climbing the dune, and the scorpion was further back but also within view. The god had monitored them to ensure no one got truly separated, but he was still a bit disappointed to see the scorpion so far back. The thing hadn't even reached the bottom of the sand-dune yet.

Next time I'm just gonna carry... I still haven't named my newest familiar. Althos realized that he still hadn't given his newest familiar a name with a start. He felt both annoyed with that development, as well as a bit of shame.

I'll just begin to consider what sort of name befits the scorpion, while we examine this... thing. Althos thought to himself while approaching the top of the dune.

Minutes later he reached the top of the dune. And was greeted by a heck of a sight to behold, far below him.

Althos could see the creature's dying form from the top of a sand dune. His followers couldn't and even when they reached the top of the dune he doubted they'd be able too. Because this particular sand-dune was evidently much taller than any of the tones Althos had seen to date.

From one side, the side Althos and later his followers would climb it from, the windward side, it didn't seem all that tall, however, once anyone in the party climbed to the top of the geographical feature they learned that that impression was wrong. At least on the other side.

At the top of the other side of the sand-dune, the leeward side, Althos could look down and see that the bottom of this side of the dune was several dozen meters deep. It was so far away from them, that only Althos' vision would actually be able to see the bottom of it.

Before his followers arrived, Althos stood at the top of the dune, and he could see it. The gigantic creature his radar identified as a desert titan.

At the bottom of the dune laid the form of a creature so large Althos had never seen anything comparable to it, not even the monstrous physical body of the undying titan was comparable. A grievously wounded, gigantic thing wearing equally gigantic clothes. Bloodstained clothes that only barely prevented its blood from soaking the sands on which it laid.

The creature wore a thick outfit composed of light and breezy material but due to its sheer size and scale alone, it must have still been thicker than many suits of armor worn by smaller creatures. It was covered in an outfit that stretched from head to toe, and in fact, the only feature the deity could make out distinctly was the thing's eyes.

It was unconscious, though Althos had yet to fully realize that, because its unconsciousness didn't prevent its eyes from being wide open and staring vacantly at the desert sky.

The creature's eyes alone were larger than Raverangos. They were positively gigantic green orbs that aimed an unsettling combination of deep-seated aggression and pain vacantly at the sky as if it were the clouds themselves that were responsible for the titan's current condition.

While gazing at it and studying the odd thing's anatomy as best as he could while its body was covered by massive clothes, Althos realized that the thing had recently lost consciousness.

The creature wore a thawb, something Althos would soon learn had a name, but at a glance, the deity had no possible way of ascertaining that knowledge. The creature's thawb was an ankle-length, white garment that covered nearly its entire body, aside from its head.

On top of its body, Althos could sense strange creatures. They didn't register on his radar, but he could detect their presence. He wasn't sure of why. When he tried to focus his vision on them, they seemed to fade out of view and become indistinct, but he managed to gain a thin awareness that they existed.

After a few attempts at making out any sort of precise identification, the god gave up with a huff. I'll figure it out when I get closer. When we get over this thing. He thought, annoyed that they escaped identification, for now.

On the thing's head, it wore a light blue headscarf tied around its face as if to hide its mouth and nose from the elements. Only a thin space, relatively speaking, from which its eyes could be seen were exposed to the elements.

The creature's limb number and placement was a mirror image of the anatomy of an orc, a dark-elf, or a human, but obviously on a much larger scale. It had two arms, two legs, a head, neck, torso, groin, and legs. When looked at in the loosest of framings, Althos felt like he was looking at a human or an orc, but he himself was an ant. The titan gave off that sort of air, even from dozens of meters away and while unconscious.

Its hands were empty, but they were closed as if it had once been gripping something. Perhaps a sword of some comical scale, or the grip an equally large and even thicker shield.

The deity instinctually felt that this, a moment of solitude while he was alone, standing over the dying form of a creature he had never seen before was a perfect opportunity for him to do what he did best. Instead of rushing to heal the thing, he prepared to dive into its mind. But as he did so, he felt a pang of something like guilt gnaw at his conscience.

He tried to justify this not particularly unkind decision. It's dying anyway. He reasoned to himself. After thinking about it for a second longer he slightly revised his decision. For now, I'll enter its mind and take what's in it.

If I learn that this thing might be tied to the quest, or might otherwise be useful, I'll take its soul and heal the soul for later usage. I should prioritize the quest. Minimize distractions. He reasoned while deciding to create conditions under which the titan could gain a reprieve. I honestly don't even know if my magic could heal something of this scale. He thought.

He was grateful then to hear someone assuage his conscience. M.A.'s voice entered his consciousness just to make him feel less guilty for prioritizing the pursuit of knowledge instead of rushing to heal the thing.

[Hello Althos, your doubts are right. The gods whose chosen children eventually became the first giants were a selfish bunch and decided to ensure that no gods would be able to steal the love and faith of their children. They did this, by inflicting giants with a special curse that made it so that only specifically designed healing spells, spells beyond your abilities right now, could heal them.] M.A. informed him.

Althos was sincerely shocked to hear of such intense selfishness. Wow, that's... a lot. Althos thought to himself, honestly shocked to hear a god do something so defensive to its own worshipers. In his mind, it was one thing to punish someone you hated, like the nature goddess he had learned about earlier did and another thing altogether to so viciously ensure other gods struggle to convert your own worshipers, by hurting your worshipers.

But M.A. wasn't done yet. She quickly sent him another message.

[This curse caused giants to reject even the kindest of adherents of non-giant gods. If you either gain knowledge of these spells, gain a healthy amount of influence over the healing domain, or gain influence over the giant domain, then you'll be able to heal giants. Until then... this is beyond your abilities. Odds are your instincts recognized this.]

Reassured by his assistant's words, the deity nodded and refocused. He mentally readied himself and then cast the spell needed to enter the mind of the dying titan.

Like a practiced professional, the deity speedily dove into the thing's mind, a process he now did rather casually and stole the thing's thoughts, secrets, memories, and knowledge right out of it. In the seconds Althos was within the titan's mind, he learned its name, the location of its home, and that it was assassinated. Or rather that it was being assassinated, since the thing was still alive, but not for much longer.

He didn't even bother trying to preserve its mind and instead opted for efficiency. This is probably an act of mercy. After all, now the thing won't feel any more pain. He reasoned, this time more confident that his actions weren't the cruelest possible actions since he was now wiser than he had been before and knew about the thing's circumstances.

But this time the theft didn't finish as smoothly as Althos' other thefts had. Seconds after he left and returned to his own mind he felt pain as he faced an unexpected and forceful response.

His mind was suddenly and violently rocked by the instantaneous infusion of the accrued knowledge, secrets, and memories, from a lifetime of over two thousand years of memories, and not like the weak memories of the undying titan, but full, courageous memories. Althos felt physical pain centered in his skull, and gritted his teeth in response to it.

He did his best to endure the pain and tried to calmly assess the memories that sprung to his mind first. A few moments passed and because of the pain he had to endure while assessing the memories his assessment was far below its usual quality, but even with that, he was astounded at the variety of the memories he now had locked in his brain, memories that belonged to the desert titan.

The undying titan may have had a longer lifetime than the desert titan, but it spent the majority of its life in the dungeon it had corrupted. The desert titan's memories were different. They were varied, powerful, and contained a range of emotions, from fear, to triumph, to joy, to loss, and more. Althos could tell he would like them when he got the chance to sit down and sift through them.

Althos had only had a few moments to examine them, but he could tell that this creature's memories would give him hundreds of lifetimes worth of knowledge, secrets, and thoughts. The thought of it excited the deity, even though he was also in pain from them.

This creature's memories are of a different caliber than anything else whose memories I have taken or been given... Althos thought to himself. He was keenly aware of that simple reality, and also excited by it.

And then something Althos had never experienced before happened. An echo of the creature whose memories he stole, dramatically sprung to life within Althos' mind.

Even without a true mind of its own, the desert titan retained a single shred of its incredible sense of self and roared into Althos' mind, like a savage lion issuing a challenge to the lion whose territory it was bolding striding into.

The titan's voice boomed into the god's mind, and the single shred of self sagely identified a place in the god's mind which it could plant itself in. Then the thing began to make itself at home, ignorant to Althos' true nature. After a second to adjust, the thing began to speak right into Althos' skull.

If my memories are stolen, even if it's in my last moments of awareness, I can at least inform the thieving rat who stole them of whose memories he's stealing! And make him regret it! Althos heard an unimaginably loud voice practically howl in his brain, rattling his skull further.

The voice was incredibly "loud", at least as far as thoughts could be. It was incredibly deep, and contained a rich timbre. Althos suspected that under other circumstances it would be a pleasant voice to listen to. But he wasn't having a pleasant time as the thing roared in his skull and almost physically rattled his mind.

Seconds later as Althos felt the nearly irresistible pull of the titan's memories, he heard the voice, that of the titan, once again boom into his mind.

I am... or rather I was, this regions' sultan. I was the undisputed ruler of this windswept sea of sand, the sultry sultan Mahmud Suti. And now I lay dying... and some fucking thief decided that my mind was ripe for the picking! I can almost respect such audacity but that won't stop me from seeing this as a chance. The creature said, not establishing a true mental link, but rather doing the telepathic version of howling helplessly into the wind.

If someone can withstand this... they may just be able to avenge me. To etch my name into the history of my species... as a creature that not even death could stop! If someone could avenge me... Bah! I don't need some big, grandiose reason. I just want to be avenged. I just want violence! And anyone stupid enough to steal from me, would make a perfect vessel for my revenge! The voice stopped again, huffing in anger. And without knowing it, it made a fatal mistake.

It had no way of knowing why what it had just done was a grievous error. But Althos heard it call the person who stole from it, him, stupid. And that was a mistake.

You're calling me... stupid? The god thought, irritation and malice teaming up to temporarily, albeit somewhat successfully eliminate his other emotions.

I am not stupid. The deity thought to himself, his mind fixating on that single word to the point that the titan might as well have spent the last few minutes roaring in Althos' mind that the god was just a stupid child. And of course, a deity who sought all knowledge would be deeply offended if something called it stupid. Which explained why malice seeped into Althos' heart and dyed both of his eyes pure black.

No one has ever called me stupid. The deity realized, a cruel grin slowly creeping onto his face.

Death isn't really a good enough fate for someone who makes a mistake that... well a mistake that stupid. Althos declared, anger seeping into him, and changing his outlook on this whole situation.

But as a god... I don't really have to let this thing die just once do I? Althos realized, the very first pieces of a scheme starting to come together in his mind.

And then the titan spoke again, just once more.

You! Thief! If at the end of this, you're still you and not a puppet of sorts... I command you to avenge me! Solve the mystery of my death, and ensure that whoever moved my assassin does not succeed in... whatever goals they have! The deep booming voice ordered, fully expecting to be obeyed.

What does this thing think I am? Some normal creature who somehow possesses the skill to steal the memories of something over 2,000 years old, but still weak enough to be cowed into submission by a loud voice in my mind? Don't you, a mortal, dare presume to command me, a god. Althos hissed, the last part a powerful command, as the god felt godly pride surge through his body.

The god focused for a second and then used his sharpened will and his mental faculties to take aim at the generalized location from which Mahmud's voice had been roaring in his mind. The deity took a firm hold of the anger he felt swirling in his heart, anger which took on the mental appearance of a swirling mass of energy dyed an unholy shade of black.

He mixed it with the pride he felt in his godhood and fused the two emotions into a swirling, mental weapon he held steady while waiting for a chance to unleash it. In his mind, this abstraction took on the form of a spear that was half-black and half-blue.

My mind is my own... and you have no place here! Althos hissed, readying himself to expel and probably destroy the last remaining part of the titan's mind. He felt no sympathy though, as the thing had tried to invade his mind, and arrogantly presumed to command him.

When he felt he had a read on where the voice was doing the mind-version of hiding, he unleashed the swirling, mental spear he had held onto. As he did so, he uttered a single mental command Be gone! Althos roared, his mental voice matching and then surpassing the voice of Mahmud in intensity.

The unleashed mental spear exploded out from Althos' mind-hand. It "flew" from his mental hand outward, soaring through his mind, before ripping through the area where the voice of Mahmud sprang forth whenever it had spoken.

Gah! No... No! Mahmud's deep voice roared out, screaming as the god blasted the thing out of his mind. The screaming went on for a full minute, a minute during which Althos was finally joined by his newest companions, the jackaloids.

Eventually, Mahmud's screams grew more distant. And then, they faded into nothingness. Althos grinned when the screaming ceased, and he felt his mind return to its past peacefulness. That was... weird. Althos thought.

Titans are... something else. The deity observed, noting their incredible power. The undying titan had been an unstoppable beast in its lair, and now this titan had such a strong sense of self that even without a mind the thing tried to command him.

I look forward to making one of them a worshiper of mine. The deity thought to himself, before getting a moderately wicked idea, an idea that meshed well with his earlier declaration that death was too good for Mahmud.

He grinned and focused on what was going on outside of the depths of his mind for the first time since the titan first roared in the god's mind.

When he looked around himself for the first time since his mind was briefly invaded, he was delighted to find that the jackaloids were beside him. The creatures were seated again, relaxing as a breeze blew through their fur. At that moment, several minutes after Althos initially reached the top of the dune, his dire-scorpion familiar reached him and the rest of the party, uniting them at the top of the dune.

Althos didn't say a word, as he cast the spell to harvest the soul of the dying desert titan. Invisible but palpable tendrils of dark energy emerged from his form and sailed down the dune towards the titan. The cruel things penetrated the titan's brain and heart and drew out vital energy for a few moments.

When the spell was nearly complete, Althos winched as the energy began to feed on the titan's vital organs, crushing the things without an ounce of mercy or hesitation. But then he got the notification that alerted him that the spell had successfully extracted the titan's soul.

He closed one of his hands as if doing so somehow meant he was clutching the immaterial soul he had just acquired within his palm, and then grinned. When I gain the power to resurrect things... I'll bring you back. And break that damn pride of yours. Althos swore to himself, a cruel grin etched on his face.

I'll repay the pain you made me feel, a thousand times over. And then we'll see who was truly stupid He promised, making a promise to both the titan and himself.

Only when you've begged for mercy over and over again, a hundred times... a thousand times I'll make you mine. He thought to himself, his pride and an emotion akin to malice emanating from him at that very moment inadvertently making the domain of torture aware of his existence.

And torture's first impression of him was a positive one. After all, anyone who refuses to let someone die, just so they can be tortured more is someone the abstraction of torture itself would be fond of.

The deity devoted one last idle thought to the soul he now possessed. Stupid? It's your pride that was stupid. He childishly thought, before allowing the idle anger and irritation to fizzle out so that he could rightfully focus on walking down the sand-dune to the place where the titan's body lay, now vacant and awaiting the party.