Considering that I didn’t even notice the attack coming, let alone the formation of the limb that was attacking, it was surprising that she couldn’t have gotten something better than an arm. I would have gone for the neck or tried to simply bisect my opponent. In my experience, anything worth worrying about would only be pissed off by loosing an arm. Of course, I had dealt with things that wouldn’t care about decapitation or bisection, but that usually meant you should move on to magic, explosions or both.

I was considering that as I watched what looked like an organic sickle come down on my shoulder and pass through it with a fleshy crunch. I sprung sideways, blood trailing in my wake. I hit the wall feet first, my new angle revealing Steph still on the ground. While that part hadn’t changed, she had.

Now, what I was looking at wasn’t anything unfamiliar. After all, I was historically a rather skilled shapeshifter. I might not be capable of it at the moment, but normally I could change the shape of my flesh as easily as I control the flesh itself. Because of this, the half of her body that she had morphed into a multi-segmented limb tipped with what appeared to be a chitin blade wasn’t really that odd.

The limb was functionally a tentacle, but more anatomically a tail. Okay, so it was growing out of her torso, right next to the four others that I could see forming with it, but it clearly had bones. That wasn’t surprising. Tentacles are really hard to use in combat. Trust me, I’ve tried.

The problem is that the muscle structure in a natural tentacle isn’t very well suited to the sort of explosive force that is necessary for it. They are great at flexible and detailed motions, like assembling clocks and perverted sex acts, but they don’t have the wonderful joints that carry the force of a blow. I personally never use them for direct attacks, not unless I’m in the Celestial Kingdom. Of course, that’s only because I can change physics to fit my whims there.

In the moment that my legs crouched against the wall, absorbing my momentum, a smile spread across my face. She had violated the deal. I sprung off the wall, crashing into the half humanoid. My knee came down into an exposed lung, as my remaining hand snatched my prize. The moment my momentum allowed, I jumped away, ripping out the fist sized organ in my hand.

The not exactly tentacle slashed its black-ish blade at me as I exited its range, leaving a shallow gouge across my chest. I needed to be careful of this sort of attack. It wasn’t just that she could hit hard with an impressively sharp weapon, but the weapon was also alive. That meant that her soul would defend against external interference with her flesh, including the inertia draining aura that made up part of my presently inbuilt defense.

Her surprise attack had also managed to bypass my other form of physical defense. That one worked by selectively reinforcing my body’s resilience when I felt it was needed. Normally, I would sense an attack coming and activate that before it hit, but this time I hadn’t been able to see it until my arm was half gone. That wouldn’t have been a problem if my divine senses had been working right, but my physical senses weren’t as good as the short-range omniscience it normally provided. It was both living and unexpected, meaning my body had basically been that of an ordinary human being.

I had landed out of her current range, but held no illusions that she would stay immobile for long. That’s why I wasted no time in swallowing first one half then all of her heart. A lengthened limb came at me as the last of it reached my stomach, but stopped in mid strike. I could feel the void inside reaching tendrils of… something. I gave it what it wanted, and it gave me the rest.

Divine strength flooded me, surging through my spiritual body. It felt amazing, easily hundreds of times greater than the driver that I didn’t kill, obviously. I could feel my divine structure moving and changing, parts formerly stagnant slowly grinding back into operation. Before, my soul had been like an ever-changing sea of chaotic patterns, but slowed down so much that it seemed frozen at first glance. It was still an ever-changing sea of chaos, but it gradually began to speed up, mutating and evolving with every moment that passed.

Steph, for her part, wasn’t doing so good. In an instant, every scrap of primordial light was stripped from her body, pulled into the infinite darkness that wove its way through what I was using as a soul. I hadn’t ever tried something like this before, it shouldn’t have been possible with magic. My guess was that it wouldn’t directly kill her, but I couldn’t really say for sure. What I could say was that it took any divine abilities she had. That included the unnatural vitality that was allowing her to live in her current state, which made the previous question rather pointless.

I expected her to die almost immediately, but didn’t expect her body to fall apart. In a matter of seconds, her entire body just sort of melted. It was like all the bonds that made her a solid just failed, causing her body to collapse into a sort of off grey sludge. Well, that explained a bit of a shapeshifter’s biology. They probably used magic to supplement their bodies natural mass and hold it together. It was a trick a number of daemons use to either change their form quickly or just heal faster than a classically solid body could. With all of her magic suddenly ripped away, her body had been left as a mass of disconnected enzymes. Which was what could definitely be called an instant death.

I looked over to the woman who I should really either kill or ask her name. She was looking at the pile of sludge with something best described as horror. “She violated your end of our deal.” She tore her eyes off of the slowly spreading ooze to look at me.

“You killed her.” She seemed somewhat shocked, although I couldn’t tell wether that was because I killed Steph or how I did it.

“Yes, and by attacking me she let me kill either of you.” I walked over to her, stepping in the Steph soup. “However, that doesn’t get you out of your end.” I smiled down at her.

“So, how do you feel about another deal. This time, you agree to help me get into the previously abandoned prison you told me about and obey all my orders, and in exchange I get you out of here without killing you. Provided you don’t try to kill me, of course. Will you agree to that deal?"

She stared at me like I was insane. “That’s oath rape.” I looked at her blankly.

“What’s oath rape?” This time she seemed to be to disturbed to openly question my sanity.

“It’s when you force someone who can’t break deals into swearing to serve you or a similar slave like arrangement. It’s a capital offense.” I considered this new information.

“And, who would enforce this?” I was curious to see what group would be presently in charge of such a thing, sense it had been handled rather differently before.

“The Guild would arrest you, then try you based on the situation. This would definitely not be good.” There was that name again, The Guild.

“What would they send to capture me?” She looked like that question had caught her off guard.

“Uh, Guild agents. They’re usually shapeshifters or maybe lilin, but they have a lot of enchanted equipment. They can easily kill people that resist.” I nodded, considering.

“And, what happens if I just kill them?” She looked at me like I was insane.

“They would send stronger agents or bound demons, I guess.” I nodded again.

“So, what you’re saying is that if I do this, I will have an endless stream of opponents that increase in power the more I kill?” She was looking at me oddly.

“Yes?” I let a smile spread across my face.

“Basically, that means that I will get a free buffet of powerful souls brought right to me. Plus, if I play my cards right, they will send opponents who are weaker than me.” I clapped my hands together. “Yes, this is perfect. I definitely want you to make that oath now.” Her mouth fell open.

“You’re completely insane.” I waved away her words.

“Now, you have a choice. Either, you agree to my terms and help me get out of here without killing you and everyone else on my way out, or… well, I kill you and everyone else on the way out.” I gestured to the battle ground the basement had become. “Even if you don’t think I can get out, do you think I won’t take a lot of people with me.” I gave her my best no, I really don’t have compassion, and yes, I can kill everyone you know smile. “And trust me, I will probably get out.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, before finally sighing. “I agree, if you promise not to kill me or anyone I know.” I made a pained grimace.

“Well, that could be a problem for both of us. We might run into someone you know, but is a danger to one or both of us. How about the same deal, but I can do whatever I want to anyone who is a threat to either of us?” She seemed to consider for a moment. I used the time to pick up my arm and see if I could get it back on.

The cut wasn’t exactly clean, mostly because it’s pretty hard to really cut bone. The flesh was severed, but the shoulder join had been more crushed than cut. I tried to line it up as much as possible, but it wasn’t easy. She finally spoke just as I got the last bone fragment into its correct position. “I can agree to that, but it has to end at the end of the day.”

I carefully held the limb in place, making sure my regeneration had to do as little work as possible. “One year, and you cannot tell anyone anything you know about me afterwards.”

She glared at me. “One day, and I cannot tell anyone anything I know about you afterwards.” I felt my significantly increased regeneration knitting my flesh back together.

“A month, and you cannot tell anyone anything you know about me afterwards.” My flesh finished fusing together, leaving nothing for me to do but test it.

“A weak, and I cannot tell anyone anything I know about you afterwards.” I picked up the sledgehammer with both of my now attached hands and brought it up in preparation to bring it down on her head.

“Month! Yes, a month.” I stopped the swing right in front of her face.

“And?” I asked with the corners of my mouth suddenly lifting upwards.

“And I cannot tell anyone anything I know about you afterwards.” I swung the hammer back onto my shoulder.

“Well, lets get to it. I’d give you some of my blood, but I suspect it would kill you, destroy your immortal soul or worse.” She looked… unsatisfied by that.

“Destroy my immortal soul?” I shrugged.

“Or worse.” I glanced around the room, looking for something that could heal a lilin.

I had planned on using Steph, but me eating her soul seemed to have stripped her remains of all primordial light. I wasn’t sure if that was a product of eating it while she was still alive or something else, but it meant I couldn’t even use the blood she had left everywhere.

“Do you have anything you can eat here, or are we going to have to get imaginative?” I finally asked.

“Check the kegs for one with a S on it.” Curious, I followed her directions to the stack of what looked like beer kegs. It didn’t take long to find one with a large S printed on its side. I held it up and activated my divine sight. I immediately recognize both the spells on the keg and its contents. The spells were fairly simple, designed to keep the contents alive and in the same state for as long as possible. The contents were quite obviously shapeshifter blood, or a similar shapeshifter extract. Considering the container, I figured it was probably blood.

I popped the top off and stuck a finger in. I licked of the blood. Yep, that was shapeshifter juice. I brought it over to my new servant and pored a thin stream into her mouth. This actually worked quite well, since she didn’t need to breath. It was also shockingly effective. I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering how charged shapeshifter bodies clearly were, but it was still impressive to see how fast her crushed limbs uncrushed themselves. “Don’t attack me, try to run away or otherwise prevent yourself from hearing my orders.” Her mouth was a little to full to respond, but I was pretty sure she heard.

I stopped once my divine sight told me that she was accumulating magic again. It had only taken about a half gallon, which was good because I would have had to wait for her body to process the physical matter if she had needed more. Normal lilin can’t void matter very quickly, meaning they require some time to gorge. Fortunately, this wasn’t human blood, and it clearly went a lot farther. I figured I would just finish off the rest.

She stood unsteadily as I chugged the keg. It was good, even if it wouldn’t give any lasting power. I shook it upside down over my mouth, trying to get the lest few sangwine drops. I gave up only to find her staring at me. “Did you just drink 50 gallons of shifter blood?” I got the impression that was surprising.

“No.” I scoffed. “I drank about 49 and a half gallons of it.”

I glanced at the other kegs, wondering if it would take to long to drink them. “Were did it all go?” I looked back at her question.

“Would you believe me if I said Ginnungagap?” She gave me a weird look.

“What is gal-gun-gi-gap?” I picked up another keg printed with a S.

“It’s the outer darkness, perdition, the endless void that exists beyond creation. The place were the children of perdition come from. You know, the grassless void?” I pulled the top off and prepared to started chugging.

“What is a child of perdition?” The blood might not provide any long-term power, but it would fill my reserves and help the chaos magic that composed my divine body to evolve faster.

“You really don’t want to know.” I said before beginning to chug. There was a pause.

“Wait, why is it a grassless void?” I didn’t respond, for obvious reasons, until I had finished.

“That’s because it doesn’t have any grass.” I dropped the barrel sized metal container and started stripping my blood-soaked clothes off.

“What are you doing?” She asked with distinct panic in her voice. She probably thought I was going to force myself on her. I didn’t even have the instinctual make up that could cause that, let alone the desire to act on it. In fact, I was rather innately opposed to the idea of rape, if not for the same reasons humans normally were. But, she had no way of knowing that.

“These are past there prime, and they wouldn’t fit her anyway.” That answer clearly didn’t clarify things for her. “So, I’m Sam, what’s your name?” To be honest, I mostly just wanted to stop having to think of her as the nameless woman, but it was also good to be polite.

“Marian.” She said hesitantly.

“Nice to meet you, I hope we can have a mutually successful partnership.” I wasn’t lying, rather obviously.

“So, Marian, do you store any clothes down here, or are we going to need to use these?” I pointed at the slime covered clothes under Steph’s remains.

The upper half was pretty destroyed, but her lower half was still intact. “We should have the uniform somewhere around here, but that’s just the shirt.”

I shrugged. “That works.”