Sulfur born.
War forged.
Tieflings.
Hell-spawn.
Tyrants.
Demons and devils.
These are but few of the titles granted to my kind.
Some, we've knave'd for our kin, others steeped and contrived in the depths of bigotry, and hypocrisy.
I know there are at least two fully of my kind left in these lands. Long lived as we are. Fettered by the folly of diplomacy.
"Your life." They said, "Or your end."
Since then, they have chained my being for seven hundred years.
As for the second of my kin, they lie in the depths of another goblin-blooded kingdom. I assume they too are chained as I, their mana stripped, their bodies bound in holy seals and adamant chains of starborn mithril.
We live, directing war for these petty creatures. Tactics beyond their limited understanding, success promising riches and fame.
How petty.
Yet through all these years they still haven't learned the tongue of war. The three race alliance grows ever weaker, as these goblin-blooded wars wreak havoc in the lowest race.
The correspondence I have with my fellow sulfur-born has been undetected for centuries. I imagine that our plan will erupt soon. Free magma shall be my future.
*clack *clack *clack
The sound of heels echoed throughout my chamber. Chained to the ceiling as I was and forced to face the floor of the entrance I observed the new arrival.
"Demon." The little thing paused, its heart raced. This one has shown such good instincts every time it entered my cell.
It knew fear for its life, yet still it came to me. I imagine it would be killed if it refused, then another sacrifice would be chosen.
It had chains on its limbs, and though nearly imperceptible, the blood of my kin in its veins.
Its mere existence angered me, what have these so-called humans done to those of my kin? Cultured but not forged in war as I used to be?
But I will not take it out on the child. Whence my plans succeed, this one will be freed, cleansed of the foul goblin-blood and reborn, recultured as her blood dictates.
If need be, war-forged as I was.
"Be not afraid kin, your blood lies to you." I spoke, it was an assurance, a true one for I meant no harm.
"Ahem." She cleared her throat, still nervous after all these years. "I have the latest of the war on the western front. The enemies have seventeen scout units holding the mountain range, we've lost three mountain outposts, a-and our scouts are unable to locate the main force."
I blinked. Were I even the slightest impure I would have smiled. "The main force heads to the deep mountains, they will attempt to hit the northwest wall of the fort you call Itzulrkatz." I said. As for the source of my information, I still remember the reports of the last six months. I still remember the message that my fellow war-forged had given through mobilizing enemy troops.
Our plan was as hot as fresh obsidian. Smooth, ready to be molded. Ready to cut.
"W-what do we do?"
I looked down at my little attendant. How amusing, after all these years the goblin-blooded still have not learned to wage warfare alone.
"Split your main attacking force, have them hunt the scouts with locals to assist. The fort can hold for two months alone, take troops from Aztrol to reinforce Itzulrkatz."
The attendant bowed.
"C-can you g-give us more?" she said, trembling.
I shifted a little in my chains, startling her.
"eep!"
When she returned to her normal posture I spoke again. "Yes, reinforce public order in Strückfüas."
The attendant bowed her head, one final question on her lips. "May I ask why?" she said.
I looked at her. Such admirable courage for one who was not even cultured in sulfur nor war. Especially for someone lesser amongst the goblin-bloods.
"You may ask," I said. My chains clinked and grinded as I brought my head closer. "But I will not give an explanation."
"hiieep!" She was startled again.
The petty creatures who design themselves her master would accept this, they barely understood further explanation, especially since they've become nearly fully reliant on my input for their petty wars.
Just like that, the attendant left the room.
She was fortunate, I wager that as she is the only scapegoat who has not chosen replacement yet. They would not harm something that would continue to bring what they saw profit. Considering that soon is the time of freedom, I've gotten liberal with my "advice".
Now, what is left is just waiting. No more speaking in the dialects of war, no more consideration. Simply mindfulness, and readiness.
Soon, I will be free.
My eyes did not close as I waited. The focus of my dormant magma in my right wing.
Of my many restrictions, the scale feathered limbs had the largest, but also the most fragile properties.
I know not your name, not your age or how forged you've gotten through war, but sulfur-born, we will be free.
The elves had long withdrawn from my guard, the same is said of the dwarves.
Power, Survival, Preservation.
These beings know only annihilation and greed.
Then the goblin-blooded, they come in variety, colors, stripes, beastly and "pure". Simultaneously the highest and lowest on the spectrum of evil and good.
Greed and Lust overpowering all races combined, not even true goblins can rival them. The desire for extinction, even of their fellow kin. Yet the ability to gather against one common enemy, to find a single target for that extinction.
Still a select collection holds onto the idea of preservation, just as many know kindness, and a frankly baffling amount understand coexistence.
I know for I've seen the magic captures of their cities, of the everyday person, of harmony. Not even venom hid in the smiles of their children.
Oh Teyjla, treat life well.
I closed my eyes in preparation. The next consultation would be in months, the time for eruption approaching soon.
"Sir demon? Demon sir?"
I hadn't counted the time passing, I elect to vote it three weeks of preparation.
Opening my eyes I saw the attendant. Her stature indicating greater fear than before. Oh? Hoh, she snuck into my chamber.
"Sir demon please!" she said, nearly praying to the deities for my attention.
"Kin, speak your mind." I said, pushing my face a little closer in the chains.
"I-I." She stuttered before taking a deep breath. Calmed to the best of her abilities, she continued. "I-I-, I won't tell anyone so can you please explain why we need to increase public security in Strückfüas!?"
I shifted closer in my perched chains. Opening my mouth to speak, I gave her another deflection. "You will know once we are free."
After thoroughly examining my internal clock, I was certain. Two months have passed.
"W-what!?" The child was flustered, her face twisted in a multitude of expressions.
Perhaps not all the blood of these goblin-blooded is to be purged.
I studied her face. She had not yet grown the magics of our eyes, but the magics of the faces in the three races were fully manifested.
Preservation is not the complete erasure of foreign change. It is a continuation of survival, things detrimental to survival are to be isolated. Removed from their place. Not extinguished.
She, and the descendants of any others are the future.
Then, I felt it. In the nearly kingdom-wide holy seal cast upon me, one rune came free. The magma deep within my right wing flowed once more.
Free I was, to break containment without condemning those of faith to an eternity of suffering.
I felt the magic circle collapse as I circulated heat to the rest of my body.
The seal crumbled slowly, but in its freedom, my right wing slowly loosened my chains.
"Eeep!" the attendant went pale.
"Fear not little one." I spoke with a rumble, "I mean no harm to my kin."
Chains slightly loose, I touched the tip of my wing to the ground. Connected with Teyjla once more.
The ground started heating from the contact.
"Although, this may hurt you." I said. Her face grew even paler as I freed my right arm and reached towards her. "Take a scale, a lesser scale from the forearm. Attach it to the back of your neck if you wish to live." I shook my arm, emaciated as it was. It let loose cold dry scales that I've held for centuries.
She stepped back as they fell, both large and small. She looked as the floor began to bring light into the room once more. Horrified as she had to choose between running out the door or listening to a devil speak.
"Take the scale, kin, it will only help." I said, my body continuing to warm itself.
The starborn mithril chains were yet to color.
She trembled between the door and my wing, scales covering the ground before her. Her trembling hands reached for the smallest scale she could find. It was half the weight of her body, and just the size of her head.
"W-what do I do with this?" she said. Her head facing mine. Perhaps the blood of my kin was a little too thin within her.
"Attach it to the back of your neck, or your scapulae. Your blood will do the rest." I freed my other arm and shook loose more scales. I was unworried, the benefits other races get from our scales are miniscule compared to what lesser members of my kin get.
They mesh well with those of our blood, bending even to their intentions. However, uncontrolled they bring the erasure of blood. No being is so foolish as to face extinction in such a manner.
She heeded my commands as I freed myself from my chains. I reached my arms for the ground, falling short just seven meters.
No matter.
With my arms I freed my other wing, my sky reaching horns now glowed with life, ready to molt again.
The magic of my containment was too weak to hold me still, and no longer able to hold the magma coursing through my veins.
I freed my legs of the chains, and using my wings I gently lowered myself from the ceiling. My tail followed suit, thumping softly on the ground behind me. I turned to look at my former prison, the imprint of my form returned to the chains, the visage of my magma was held in the failing seals.
Best not to touch that.
The ground was now enough to illuminate up to my chest. Oh I have not been able to stretch my wings or feel Teyjla's touch in centuries.
My bare feet touched and heated the stone. My fingers stretched as I now groomed my claws.
"U-uh sir demon? What exactly does the scale do?"
Ah, yes. My cantra stayed. Good.
"It will slowly change your blood to the extent that you desire, only adding to the sulfur born blood of your being." I said, stretching to my full height of nine meters.
"My blood?!?" She parroted.
I nodded, smoothing and slicking back my hair. It was long, reaching to my lower mid-back. "Yes, however I will not have you erase all the non-sulfur blood of yours. Later, when we have more time I will direct the change myself." I said.
She looked on dumbly, her eyes shining from the color of the floor.
I spoke again, explaining more of the scale. "For now, it will grant you protection from the scale of my flames."
I picked her two meter tall frame up as I walked to the door. "Should you not be forged in war your height may stop at six, maybe seven meters."
The slave artifacts on her person melted off her as I walked. Her cloths caught flame as well.
"Eeek!" she screamed as we neared the door.
Ah, as one not initiated through blood her body has yet to generate armour and coverings for what other races see indecent.
Mayhaps our culturing should be updated too.
I did not glance at her as I began to spread my magma, mana for the other tongues. I looked at my attendant. For her sake, I mused, I should use more of other tongues.
Throughout the dark dungeon my mana spread. Its characteristic heat burned whatever microorganisms infested the place. Good and bad.
"Attendant, what is your name?" I asked. I descended down the stairs. To keep a sulfur born weakened, one must elevate their prison.
She answered slowly, doing her best to cover her body. "It's Amiil. My name is Amiill." Her shifting and adjustments did not stop.
I could tell she wished to know mine, though it seems her courage did not rear itself to her curiosity.
"My name, is Adobpyrfin Jedönign. What do you know about the history of this nation, Amiil?" I said.
I ducked down under ceilings as I approached the ground floor. The guarding magician seems to have been sent out to repair my binds. Weakened as I was without the touch of Teyjla, they believed I wouldn't be able to escape my bindings. At least, not so quickly.
The conductivity of heat in this confinement is also slow, keeping my jailors unaware of my escape.
Amiil's face was red as she sporadically looked at my wings. Perhaps she desired a feather to cover herself with?
I tucked my wing in and plucked a feather with my free hand.
She grabbed it gratefully and draped it over herself.
"I haven't learned much, only that the past four hundred years of conquest was under your doing. That the markets for everything improved in the past two hundred years." She trailed off at the end, staring at the molten remnants of her restraints.
I walked a little longer in silence. Careful of the building's integrity, I took small steps.
"Slavery has been with the kingdom since the beginning. The Malfin family, its ruler all that time, the paradise city. The…" She stopped, clutching the feather tighter. "The church." she said, nearly just a whisper, yet heard by my ear.
"I assume the Malfin family has a member of the clergy?" I ducked past a chandelier in a room full of empty cages.
Truly why was the tower empty today?
Amiil nodded her head. She curled up with the feather. Clearly horrified by whatever she saw.
I considered for a moment, not continuing to probe her. To let her stew in whatever horrors she remembered, if only to not aggravate them.
However, horrors left unaddressed can only grow, and burst. Like the eruption of a dormant volcano.
"The religious folk, did they eat the young?"
Amiil trembled. That was a yes, but there was more. In a tiny voice she added to my assumption, now fact. "Years of torture, in the name of marination. Healing, to seal in f-flavour. Alcohol, meat, pastries, furniture." Her breath quickened. "Young, old, jerky, soup, eyeball shots."
I nodded along. With the relation of goblin blood and the evolution of logic and culture, such things were possible.
"You may stop now." I said to her, "When we are done, those horrors will never touch you."
She stilled for a moment, her voice firmly echoed out. "Alive, fried, raw, skinned."
I gently closed my hand, bringing warmth to her feather wrapped skin.
"Cease this, the horrors won't reach you again." More on the expansion of greed and pride wasn't needed. I cannot stomp out the capacity for evil, that would risk total annihilation of the world's sapient races. I can only reach whoever I can, plucking them away from the rot.
Amiil stopped her mutterings, clutching her head. When she stopped trembling, a whisper spread. Quiet enough that even I, a warforged, could barely hear it.
"But, it will grasp the others."
Maddening was evil, horrifying still was its grasp on life.
Amiil was calm now, resolved even. I could feel it in the scale she held, her desire for power. For survival, and preservation too. I see it, her desire to purge the world of rot. To clear the skies of smog.
It seems she will be war forged.
"..."
At the end of the hall I saw a guard, slackjawed and nearly defecating himself. He raised a glaive, about 130% his height and took a stance.
The trembling of his body belied his fear. "..." He tried to shout, to bark commands at my being. His fear held his tongue still though.
With the butt of his spear he tapped a sleeping guard awake. His hopes to activate the prison alarm.
I could allow that. The last fight I had lost was the result of a five day battle with the most elite members of each species. That includes all the variants of the goblin-blooded.
"H-H-H-HALT! S-STAY BACK!"
Even unscaled, my skin could withstand the mana augmented assault of an elite human warrior.
"BACK DEMON!"
Hmmm, they may have installed teleportation devices. I flared my mana, destroying the construct that activates the alarm.
"A miniscule risk is still a risk in the end." I walked towards the guard, so elevated was his fear that he looked near red as the stone underfoot.
When I neared ten paces (of small creature scale) the guard passed out, weapon clattering to the ground.
The other guard, desperately trying to activate the alarm, called out to his friend. "JAKE!"
I used my free hand to move Jake to the wall.
Oddly enough these humans had nearly no trace of goblin blood in their veins. Perhaps human evolution will defeat the blooded capacity for evil. I looked closer at the next guard.
Perhaps I was wrong. I could see, from my perch that this one had not a trace of goblin in his blood. Yet the structure of his self still held great capacity. It seems humans would become completely free of good and evil blooded nature, and be forced to lean towards a side as they cultured.
Such a tough problem, for so long as there exists animosity, human-goblin behavior will exist. And animosity can never be extinguished.
The attempt would be admirable though, Amiil, if you truly wish to do it, I wish you luck.
While I was deep in thought the guard rushed towards my scrutinizing face, swinging his greatsword at me.
The clang of the sword brought me back to the present. I was in the midst of a prison break after all. And I do seek to recover those of my kin who live in dire straits.
"DIE! DAMNIT!"
A guard who didn't even use mana, tried to wound me? Admirable effort and courage. Abysmal planning skills for everything that resulted in this man becoming the guard.
I walked past him, crouching in the seven meter high room. It was quite wide too, enough for me to get past well enough.
"THIS IS FOR JAKE!!" He swung at my ankle.
That's still scaled by the way.
*Clank
Follies of the short lived.
I descended the tower once more.
The guard at my heel ran back to save his friend. Though I am not certain of whether or not humans have blood-pressure medicine.
As I walked, Amiil's body heat began to rise. Covered with my feather and scale, it was natural for a cantra such as she would quickly grow.
The great capacity of humans, with the culture and blood of sulfur. Perhaps I should direct the growth now.
I glanced at her, she had long since hidden behind my feather, a simple feather ball she appeared as.
I directed some instruction through my will, my blood taking authority over the growth of hers. This will be enough. I needn't direct the properties of her growth too much.
I could see the color of my feather changing as it removed the unwanted blood from her system.
I passed by more guards as I descended the tower, the ceiling getting slightly taller with each floor I passed.
I disabled the alarms on each floor as I passed them. A great mistake to leave the interconnectivity of my capture to the goblin-blooded.
"THE DEMON IS FREE!! ACTIVATE THE SECURITY!!"
The backup seals, there should've been one per floor here. How lazy were my captors?
Before the mage-guards could get in formation I shattered the surface layer of the floor, ruining the runes with but a stomp.
"CALL FOR REINFORCEMENTS!!"
I could feel myself getting closer to Teyjla. I could see too, that some of these guards were sulfur-blooded.
Fascinating. My tail, reminiscent of our prehistoric dragon ancestors, lashed out above the guards' heads. Its full length was seven meters. Yet my only need was to shed some of its fur amongst the guards. I of course already established a growth plan in the fur.
"You may stay your hand, I have business with only few of you." I said to them, naturally they didn't listen.
With my tail I knocked the heads of the three kin I sensed.
They were immediately put to sleep.
"LUCY!"
"DEYVA!"
"BRO!"
Also naturally, the greater goblin-blooded wouldn't let themselves be stuck with the task of guarding me. "These kin shall be coming with me.
"I WON'T LET YOU TAKE THEM!"
Just as I had my duties, these ones did too.
With my free hand, I gently draped my brethren within the nooks of my wings. I took care to avoid the attacks of their fellow guards. Lest injuries befall everyone.
I descended with the attack of the guard behind me. The squeeze of the stairway was greatly unpleasant.
"HE'S ALMOST FREE!"
"DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE!!"
"It's so over man."
"I want to go home."
The guards did not seem to be on the same page.
By the time I reached the bottom floor the height of the ceiling reached twelve meters.
A cursory glance revealed a thin, ornate pillar in the center of the room. Religious symbols ordered about, magic geometry laden and built throughout the room.
A shame however, that there was but one man to use it.
I looked at the final defense before me.
"It looks like all the guards were useless ey? I've been telling them we need the best of the best and they send slaves and beggars to do it huh? And look at the mess it's become huh?" The wizard spoke. His every word mana laden, his mere movements followed by mana.
"I have no quarrel with you, mage." I said. I stood to my full height, securing my young kin.
"But you will fight won't you? I might be alone but that doesn't mean I'm weak." He said, confidence oozing throughout his form.
He was strong, I could see it in how carelessly relaxed his mana was. How much it moved.
If diplomacy is possible, then it should be used.
"I do not seek mass destruction mage, even if you were to reach my standard of strength I would not seek combat." I said.
The mage chuckled. "You're a demon, I'm a human. It's our nature that we fight." He said.
I shook my head. "Then all of humanity would've become extinct in the war."
"Bah! You were captured alive weren't you? We won that war! Don't think you'll still be stronger than us now hmm?" The mage said.
I approached the central pillar, letting my footfalls land heavily, and my tail digging through the magic engravings.
Eleven and seven tenths meters was the height of my preferred weapon.
It was also the height of the central pillar if the base was removed.
I struck the pillar high with my hand, and low with a leg, catching it as it fell.
Then, I slid the base off and threw it.
"Nice of you goblin-blooded to preserve my glaive." I said to the mage.
"Hah! So that's why the pillar was so decorated!" He snorted. "Unfortunately." He drew on.
The room began to glow, the runes lightening.
"The base is made of skyborn Mithril."
I watched as I, in the center of the room, acquired magical circles around my body.
"I win." The mage said.
I shook my head gently. This poor naive fool, where did the base of the "pillar" go?
Halfway through the magic activation, all the mana disappeared.
"Huh?" The mage said.
"You should've made this at a higher floor, and not included the door." I said as I walked to the now open door. The pillar base propped it open, its position breaking the magic etched in the room.
I leaned towards the mage as I slowly backed out the door. "Seven hundred years, and you leave this behind?" I allowed myself some mirth in my tone. "Good day to you, mage."
The mage's stunned state ended with a lightning blast sent towards me.
Glaive in hand, I parried the third circle magic.
"I wouldn't bother with that if I were you."
I was halfway through the door.
He started casting another spell, slower this time.
"You know, I have dependents on my person right? I would appreciate it if you ceased your foolishness." I told him.
He didn't dignify me with a response, instead only chanting faster.
His spell finished when I had just my arms, shoulders, and head left in the room.
"Railcannon!" He shouted.
A simple name for a powerful spell. I was tempted to test its power but alas, I have kin to care for.
"Good day to you mage." I said as I dodged the spell. I was now free.
My next objective, Free my fellow warforged.