The soft sounds of feet stepping onto and off of stone had gradually become louder the longer Aggathas and I waited. We had only waited five seconds before the first of the half a dozen warriors stepped out of the tunnel that allowed him and his party to get to us.

I chuckled and moved forward before my demonic pet could. I didn't hesitate even as the human ranger who had captured goblins gasped in surprise at the sight of us as I closed the distance between him and I.

I closed my fist and threw a single punch at the warrior, aimed squarely at his face, a face hidden underneath a dark mask. The punch was packed with power and intended to end any fight in a single blow.

Behind him, I could hear his allies closing in on us, and knew even as my fist sailed through the air that my pet would be occupied with the others in a matter of moments. They were messily separated with the next fastest coming in separately from their friends, and the remaining four jogging in lockstep towards us.

"Aggathas! Leap over me and go after this fellow's friends." I yelled, speedily commanding my pet to assail the man's peers. At that moment my fist penetrated the man's masked face and skull, colliding hard with the bones of his skull, but not nearly hard enough to stop me.

It took a second for Aggathas to obey me but obey me it did. The demon took to the air right above me and landed on the other side of me, a few meters away half a second later, so as to obstruct and challenge our enemies.

The weak bones of the man's skull gave easily and were obliterated by my powerful attack, my fist facing little resistance before it began sailing through the man's head. My fist sailed through the man's skull, smashing any resistance it faced with ease due to my power, magic, and speed.

The man's flesh was pierced through by my attack, and I pushed my fist through the head of my opponent. "Gross." I said quietly, in response to the array of fluids that soaked my hand.

I retracted my fist swiftly and chuckled as the body fell forward and softly hit the ground. The man's body was in solid condition aside from his head. "One down... five to go." I said softly.

His head was a mess. There was a solid hole in it, caused by me ramming my fist into his face. Bone fragments and brain matter alike were beginning to seep into the floor, as was blood and other fluids from his head. The fluids mixed together into one wet and slick mess at my feet.

And so I swiftly began a routine I had grown familiar with during my life of war. Oil-like magical energy began to drip from one set of my fingertips onto the stony floor at my feet. And from the other bright blue energy began to drip down at my feet.

"I enjoy necromancy," I said, chuckling. "And I like that I can mix it with healing and alteration magic." I said, darkly, remembering the results of experiments I had undertaken with necromancy over the course of the last few months.

I rose the hand from which bright blue energy was dripping first and aimed it loosely at the corpse in front of me. At that moment I heard a fierce-sounding caw from my pet as it rushed forward to engage our enemies.

The bright blue energy flew from my outstretched hand and drifted through the air until it touched the body of my former foe. "Regenerate what he lacks," I whispered sinisterly, grinning all the while, ordering my magic to work in a specific way. The energy melted into the corpse, and before my very eyes began to take effect.

The sounds of flesh mending itself together would normally have been audible as the magic took hold and stitched together my latest victim, but instead, the sounds of the violent motions of my pet and its prey filled the cavern with raucous noise.

I watched the effects of my magic, studying it with a careful gaze. The hole I had caused in the man's head began to mend itself before my very eyes, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that bone was being regrown to fix what I had broken.

My expression was neutral as I wanted to watch necromantic energy twist and corrupt the corpse before me.

Over the course of the last few months, I had rapidly grown to enjoy necromantic magic. It was a powerful, life-stealing, and at times a mind-twisting form of magic I used without fear since I was naturally adept at magic.

I had come to appreciate the unholy magic that I could wield. Sacrifices given to me by my cult of necromancers, led by the hateful and violent spell-singer Hagitha had resulted in the sub-domain of necromancy becoming a frequent voice I could chat with and learn from. It also resulted in me becoming more and more fond of the undead I and my servants created.

The corpse on the floor at my feet was starting to look healthier, and I grinned at it. "That's it..." I said quietly, even as more of the humans closed in. Their footfalls grew louder, and their shouts grew more urgent.

I frowned as they continued to stomp on the ground towards my pet. Should I intervene? Hmmm... No, for now Aggathas is enough. I thought, after listening to the demon's gleeful sounds and the violent noises its motions created. I turned my attention back to the corpse.

The second person entered the chamber, with a hammering heart and taut muscles. I could hear his heart hammering in his chest, even as distracted as I was. Aggathas took a step forward and screeched at him. And then the demon struck.

"Arise." I muttered quietly, ignoring the noises of combat behind me. Its flesh was still stitching together, weaving together something almost like a normal, unscarred face. I rose my other hand and aimed at it. The oil-like energy that had been dripping onto the floor beside me, just like the blue energy had been before, suddenly began to leave my hand.

It coalesced into a single inky sphere just outside of the skin of my hand. I nudged it forward, and watched as it lazily drifted forth, floating casually from my palm into it collided with and then seeped into the body on the floor before me.

The orb's darkness was slowly absorbed by the body, the process taking several seconds. When it was complete, I watched as eldritch energy began to flow through it, infusing the corpse with a dark and renanimatory energy. Assorted processes began to occur to the corpse, processes which were magical in nature and would make the thing reanimate, a process that was like a cruel and distorted parody of life.

"Arise!" I said again, louder this time. Confidence seeped into my voice, as the dark power that infused every fiber of my being began to leak out of me.

"ARISE!" I shouted, loud enough that the clamor of combat nearby wasn't enough to drown it out. And at this point. I took a second to examine the healed and animated corpse as it began to shake, stir, and rise to combat its former friends at my side. It was at that moment that Aggathas dealt our enemy a killing blow, but it happened while I was engrossed in studying my newest creation. That was why I was about to look rather silly for a moment.

I turned to my pet, and threw myself towards it, intending to aid it in finishing off its foe. "Aggathas... allow me to join you!" I roared from behind my pet, and the creature began to laugh, the sound cruel and animalistic. I was about to realize that Aggathas had already finished its opponent. Aggathas was laughing at me.

I leaped to the side of my pet and landed in a tiny pool of slick, slippery blood that had dripped from my minion's beak. My feet, clad in fur boots, weren't affected by the slickness of the fluid that lightly coated the floor.

My pet was now covered in dripping, splatters of blood. It dripped from the demon's beak, coated its muscular chest, and then dripped down to the floor at its feet. I groaned when I fully realized this and complained. "Can't you eat less messily?" I asked, annoyed. It chuckled at this, amused by it but less amused than by my earlier, needless, enthusiasm. The sound of its chuckle was avian and annoying.

On its other side laid the corpse of the warrior whose flesh it was munching on. The warrior was clad in destroyed leather armor, and bleeding from a number of different wounds Aggathas had inflicted on it. The vulture-like demon's feet were actually touching the corpse and blood pooled at the thing's feet.

In front of both of us, emerging from the tunnel, ran in the first pair of rangers. I motioned for my pet to stand aside and allow me to face them.

[Their allies are close. Allow me to face these two.] I instructed my pet. The thing huffed in annoyance but obeyed me as I knew it would and took a few steps back.

"You humans are... brave. Foolish. But brave." I told the pair who were now studying me. They studied my whole body, but once they had done a once-over they focused on my hand. My hand was covered in a slowly dripping mixture of blood and brain matter.

The pair of humans in front of me was dressed in matching leather armor, black armor that hid their features from anyone who happened across them. Their faces were entirely hidden from view aside from their eyes. One pair of them was a bright, vivid shade of green. The other pair was a deep, energetic shade of blue.

The one with green eyes calmly rose a bow and aimed it at me, before smoothly drawing an arrow, notching it, and pulling the string back so as to ready themselves for whenever they felt ready to strike. The other one, the one with blue eyes, drew their sword from its sheath and stepped forward to confront me.

Behind the sword-wielding ranger, the bow-wielder took a few steps into the large cavern so as to allow their allies space to move past them when they arrived. I easily heard the final pair of warriors rushing towards my pet and I, from a bit aways.

"That's it. Come to me." I said arrogantly, my eyes lighting up with enjoyment at the thought of fighting them.

The archer took a step to the left of their companion, so as to ensure that if they fired the arrow they had readied they wouldn't accidentally hit their colleague. "Not bad archer," I said, thoroughly focused on the sword-wielder, but still more than capable of readying myself against an attack by a human with a bow.

It was at this point that the final pair emerged from behind their allies. Another pair of human rangers dressed in fur armor.

"Confront the... winged thing!" The archer whose bow was pointed at me uttered. "We... should be able to handle the conjurer." The archer muttered softly, unease seeping into their androgynous voice. Their companions studied the situation for a moment, studying me and then examining Aggathas. And then the two nodded and moved to the side of their allies so that they could focus on my pet.

Aggathas responded in kind, raising its clawed hands and moving to my side, all while focused on them. The final fight was about to begin.

I stepped forward of my own volition, studying the ranger who dared to engage me in close combat I was more interested in him than in the archer. That ranger threw himself in my direction, his hands gripping the hilt of his sword tightly, as he lifted it up to place it between myself and himself.

"How painfully basic," I said loudly, as I waited for him to try and slash at me. His eyes narrowed in annoyance, but he didn't try to slash at me preemptively. He wasn't flashy, and he studied me as openly as I studied him. He stopped his forward dash still far enough that he'd have to move forward more if he waited to strike. An odd decision, really.

My eyes were focused on him, but he wasn't my only foe. His companion was still, their bow still aimed in my direction. For a moment I wondered which of the two would strike first, or if they'd try to assault me in unison. And then the archer let go of the taut bowstring that was restraining the arrow they had readied. At that same time, the swordsman leaped forward, a look of joy visible in their eyes.

Do they think they have me? I wondered, playfully as the arrow zipped towards my head. It flew forth much faster than the human ranger with a sword did, and so I suspected that what I was about to do would come as a shock to my enemies.

When the thing was less than a meter away I reached out and delicately grabbed it out of the air with a grace that belied my size. My hand simply shot forth and grabbed the arrow, taking it by the shaft and snatching its momentum. As I did so, I simply chuckled and quietly told my enemies a single word: "Nope."

Behind me, the foe I had slain earlier was now on its feet, fully reanimated, and rushed towards me. It was moaning pathetically and moved to aid me, which was so unnerving to my enemies that the swordsman froze in shock and fear.

I heard the thing, even as I tossed the arrow I had just grabbed into the air and flipped it using my mind. I sighed in annoyance and without turning my head spoke to the ghoul I had just created.

"Go aid the demon. Delay one of its foes." I commanded my minion, arrogantly letting my enemy know my commands.

The ranger with a bow turned to the ghoul, adjusting their bow as well so it was aimed at the thing, and began to stretch a single, darkly gloved, hand back into the quiver they had on their back so that they could grab another arrow. I looked at them quizzically and drew my hand, the one with the arrow, back.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked the archer, an instant before I lobbed the arrow back at them.

The object in my hand rocketed forward, sailing much faster than when fired from a bow. In a matter of moments, the arrow crossed the distance between us and embedded itself deep in the archer's breast. The archer's eyes went wide with shook and they rose their hand to the arrow's fletching, timidly gripping it for a moment before falling backward onto the cavern floor.

"And now... You." I said, turning back to the swordsman and casually disregarding the swordsman's companion. The swordsman's eyes were glued to the still form of their friend. I watched for a moment and prepared myself to move forward until the swordsman opened his mouth and exploded at me.

"You... monster!" The swordsman roared, incensed by the ease with which I dispatched his colleague. He again took steps towards me, and I grinned at him.

Behind me, my demonic pet and the ghoul I created were actively battling their pair of foes. Their enemies were both using swords, deftly dodging my ghoul's eerie claws, and the muscular blows of my pet. Whereas I was focused on my foe: an incensed swordsman.

We stepped towards each other, and the moment the swordsman was close enough to lash out at me with his sword he swung it at me, his rage and adrenaline fueling him as he aimed a fierce strike at me. I chuckled and watched the sword flash towards me, crawling towards me relative to my perception.

"This is... painfully slow." I said when the thing was finally close enough that it merited me moving out of the way. The sword was aimed at my head and so I tilted it lazily out of the path of the sword. I watched as the swordsman reacted to my move, his eyes widening in panic, and I grinned.

"Now... what to do with you?" I questioned, grinning at my foe.

Not far from where I stood, sounds of fierce, athletic combat echoed across the chamber. Aggathas's fierce, unarmed blows, were narrowly dodged, or sometimes blocked by the swordsman the demon had decided to attack.

The ghoul I had created mere moments ago sprung to unlife with potent, innate instincts for battle and a mighty hunger for flesh. Those things fueled its brutal approach to battle, and it surged at its chosen foe, the other swordsman who otherwise would have been free to tackle Aggathas.

The swordsman was shaken by the sight before him, which led to him being nervous and forgetful as his enemy approached him. In fairness to the ranger, seeing someone you knew, had shed blood with, and had trusted, become an undead creature and lunge at you with an unholy, monstrous hunger, would shake many humanoids. Even I knew that.

The ghoul leaped at the warrior, who shambled back in an attempt to outstep and flee from the undead monstrosity that had once been his friend. The transformed former human was truly monstrous to look at, and its transformation into an undead creature had caused some of its armor to be melted away, revealing bits and pieces of the radical changes the thing had undergone.

The thing's hands had been transformed and mutated by the dark magic I poured into its body when creating it, transforming from human hands into darkened and sore-heavy claws. The thing's skin had done from being a healthy pallor to taking on a deathly blue hue. The human had had brown eyes in life, but his undead face had entirely black orbs within the eye sockets instead.

The mask the ghoul had worn during the final moments of his life had been ripped away by the thing shortly after its rebirth, and now its face was revealed for all to see. The ghoul must have been handsome in its human life, for the thing's face had sharp cheekbones, a sufficiently large nose to not look emaciated, and a strong jawline, but all of those features were warped now, predatory and threatening rather than charming and attractive.

The thing's teeth had been touched and warped by the magic more than any other part of its body. Once fairly standard human teeth filled its maw, but now as the thing opened wide and threw itself at its enemy with a rabid hunger visible in its gaze, row upon row of jagged fangs filled its mouth. A foul-smelling breath escaped its open mouth. An open mouth that drew nearer and nearer to the human ranger the ghoul had set its sights on.

My opponent speedily tried to withdraw his blade and ready another attack but I wasn't nice enough to allow that. I threw a single punch at my foe, carefully aimed at his sword-arm.

My fist hammered the ranger's arm, striking it from underneath his joint. It wasn't a particularly hard hit, but it did its job: my opponent flinched and dropped his blade. "That's rather unfortunate." I told him, smirking. I placed one of my feet on the sword's hilt and with a flick of my foot's heel sent it away from us, kicking it away and into the interior of the cavern.

Fear and tears alike filled the ranger's eyes, pain thrumming in his mind due to my first blow's effects on him. I followed up on my remarks by thrashing him with a single heavy kick aimed squarely at his chest.

The blow sent him reeling back from me and caused his eyes to roll back in his head thanks to the sudden, vicious force that rocked his body and threw it hard onto the floor. Behind me, I could hear the violent noises of my minions tearing into their enemies.

"You know... humans, so far, seem to be weak enemies." I mused while reflecting on the humans I had met to date, disrespectfully disparaging my opponent's entire species as I began to casually approach the damaged human. The human stumbled back in fear and fell onto his rear end as he tried to distance himself from me.

"'Humans'? What are you then, if not human?" The fallen man asked, fear audible in his voice, even through the mask that hid his lips, nose, and other facial features from view. I looked at him and grinned calmly.

"Me? Oh I'm the 'Lover of Lies'." I told the human, a wide grin etched eerily onto my face. That explanation puzzled the human, who kept retreating. The silence that filled the air between us was disturbed by the sounds of my pet and my creation downing their opponents. The agonized screams of the pair of rangers were eerie and added to the gruesome atmosphere of the scene. I considered turning to face my pets but decided to ignore them for now.

I was now just a few steps away from the fallen human. "Hmm... There are so many fun things I could do with you. I suppose, for the sake of saving time, I'll just whisk you away. For now." I said quietly, targeting the confused man in my mind, and immediately teleporting him far from here, across dimensional boundaries, and into an empty cell in my prison located in the city of Namira. He vanished from my sight.

Part of my reason for doing that was to ensure that one victim of my rescue mission stayed alive for me to pillage their memories and raid their minds. In the rare few instances in the past, I had overseen or participated in combat missions like this I always left a victim alive. I had learned long ago that even with the first tier of influence over the mind domain I couldn't take memories, thoughts, and knowledge from a corpse. I then turned to my minions.

The scene before me when I turned to face my minions was a gruesome one. Both creatures were stabbing into the fallen humans, on their knees and greedily cutting up their victims. Blood and other sickly fluids poured onto the ground beneath the fallen forms of the defeated humans. I sighed and turned to walk in the direction my radar informed me the goblins, and Raverangos were waiting.

As I left, I spoke loudly to my followers. "When you're done here come find me! I'll be waiting beyond this tunnel." I informed them, as I ventured into the tunnel where my fallen foes had come from.

I sped through the tunnel, a narrow and dark thing, and made it through to the other side in a matter of seconds thanks to my speedy stride. Upon reaching the other side, the first thing I heard were the cries of numerous goblins, their little voices filling the cavern that expanded open before me.

I emerged from the tunnel into another stony, wide-open space. This one was well-lit by numerous torches and was occupied by my sentinel demon Raverangos. The wide-backed demon had brought a number of corpses, corpses heavy with a range of scars, with it.

Some such corpses were slung on its shoulders, and others were strewn haphazardly on the floor around it. The demon greeted me with a little wave, its paw-like hand stained with blood. I grinned at the thing.

"You seem to have had a successful hunt." I remarked, walking over to one of my older companions. Raverangos nodded at me, the intelligent yet remarkedly bestial demon, quiet as I strode over to it.

Its eyes were alight with joy, and blood and other unspeakable fluids and substances coated it, not only drenching its thick flesh with a range of substances but also drenching the room in a cloying and sickening scent. I winced in minor disgust as I approached it, but continued my approach nonetheless.

The demon was close to the goblins, who were locked behind a single, gigantic cell on the other end of the cavern. They studied me carefully, fear in their wide eyes. I looked over at them curiously, while continuing to approach my first pet. There were around thirty-five of them, a larger number than the goblins in the tribe that made up part of my dark army but still small for goblin standards according to some knowledge I had gained over the last few months.

The goblins were nearly naked, and what little clothing the few of them wore was wrinkled, decayed, and damaged. Many of the women were topless, a few of the men worn only thin trousers and often such trousers were not made for goblins being far too large for their frames. None of them were brave enough to make eye contact with me, someone who was at least friendly with an imposing demon, something which in their eyes hinted at my strength.

The goblins weren't like the goblins in my army, not just because only a few of them possessed magical auras of any sort, but because they were all a bright shade of red. The unusual goblin tribe I had saved and drafted into my army all had different pigmentations and were all capable of potent magic from birth.

These goblins were clearly malnourished and my piercing vision could discern that their exposed bodies bore the signs of cruel treatment, possibly at the hands of their captors. I silently rose a hand in their direction and sent them a large wave of powerful healing energy, energy which surged over them and healed their wounds, and scars.

I heard them sighed in a mixture of pleasure, relief, joy, and humor. It was an odd sound, but in its wake they visibly relaxed, losing much of the tension that had filled them before. With that, I focused on my pet.

I reached my demonic pet a second later and began to study what he had done so far. The bodies it brought with itself were bruised, battered, and in two cases covered in inky-black tar-like energy. I instantly recognized the energy that covered the pair of bodies as the remnants of one of Raverangos' potent powers: the attack known as the "manifestation of chaos", a burst of chaotic evil energy that scarred those who were subjected to it.

"Nice. Good job." I said, my eyes glued to the six bodies before me. Their forms were universally lithe, covered in leather armor, and had bows, swords, or both, somewhere on their persons. After studying them I turned to look at my pet and more closely study it.

Raverangos' muscular form was relatively unscarred. It had a thick, well-built, and vaguely animalistic body. Most of the blood that drenched the demon's body wasn't its own. Some of the blood though was thick and dark, too dark to be the familiar, red, blood of mortals. It also smelled differently than the other blood did, a more meaty scent that subtly snuck into and mixed with the other, more familiar, metallic scent of human blood.

I rose the same hand I had raised to heal the goblins, which was incidentally the same hand from which the restorative energy that had stitched together the head of the ghoul I had created earlier, and emitted a burst of healing energy that pulsed from me and into the demon closeby.

"You did good." I told the demon, satisfied with the violence it had inflicted on my foes. I stepped beyond the demon and continued my tour of the cavern by focusing on the reason why I came here: to free the pack of goblins.

With little left in the cavern beside unused bedding not far from the cell, I was free to tell the goblins about myself and welcome them into my fold. I walked directly to the massive cell that held them, reaching it in a matter of long steps.

"Hello there." I said, greeting them, upon reaching the locked door that separated the cell from the rest of the cavern. The goblins approached me, their wide-eyes filled with curiosity and questions. It made sense for them to be quizzical, after all in their eyes I must have been a creature who befriended a demon, killed their enemies, healed them, and possessed vague, mystical powers.

"I am Althos. I am a god. And I just answered your prayer." I explained, simply. They appeared to appreciate that, as though a silence filled them once they heard me say that, delight filled their eyes and I heard their heartbeats quicken.

All at once they began to react, after a few seconds of silence while they processed their emotions and reacted to the news of their unexpected liberation. Their excited voices filled the cavern with a series of childish exclamations and questions.

"God?"

"We're free?"

"The prayer worked!"

"Wow!"

"We free!"

"You're cute." I told them, internally chuckling. And with that, I had just freed another tribe of goblins.

The final step in their liberation was accomplished when I ripped the cell door that kept them imprisoned in the cell off its hinges with a single forceful tug. It didn't resist my efforts to get it out of my way.