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His New Hoard Chapter 7: Problems and Pathways Sponsored by Lorvianne By Draconicon

Crossing the dry riverbank and walking up to the collapsed walls of the ruined temple took almost no time, but with the lead that the rogue had, the sound of combat already filled the air before they even reached the walls. Draconicon and Jaceb met each other's eyes, but didn't bother speeding up.

They both knew that their new acquaintances would prefer them to stay the hell out of the way.

"Um...y-you th-th-think she's okay?"

"I have very little doubt on that."

"W-why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure that they can hurt people better than I can."

They reached the walls, and he looked around the corner. No sooner had he poked his head into a gap than a tingle in the air warned him to yank his head back, and just in time. A fireball went shooting by right where his nose had been, and the air sizzled from its passage.

"On the other hand..."

"M-mage?"

"More likely a cleric, from what they were saying. And from how everything here works."

Tin-tink, clang! There was definitely an exchange of blows going on inside of the ruins, and despite the danger, the black dragon wanted to see what was happening. More than that, he wanted to make sure that their new ally was taking full advantage of the element of surprise.

This would be so much easier if this world followed rules that I already knew, he thought, shaking his head. Having to get magic from gods...this is going to make me mad, I just know it...

But there was no way around it. They were stuck here, so he had to make do with what they had. Worst came to worst, he could tap into his own pool of energy, but he really, really hoped it didn't come to that.

"On three?"

"D-do I have a c-cho-choice?"

"Of course."

"...Th-that's m-mean."

Draconicon shrugged, holding up his hand as the sound of metal on metal continued behind them. Considering that their opponent seemed capable of creating fireballs, that was only a good thing. There was no way that the jaguar these four were chasing would be fighting them in melee if he had the upper hand. He'd be using whatever spells he had to obliterate them from the face of the earth.

Three, two, one. He lunged out of cover and through the hole. Immediately, he was treated to quite the sight.

Shift. Knife-wielding rogue transformed into a plate-armored paladin, the roo leaping forward off of a large rock. The jaguar ducked, but too late. The claymore she carried swept at his tail, cutting off the tip. A yowl of pain split the air, despite the wound being relatively minor from what he could see.

The big cat had already turned, a staff of metal in one hand and some strange artifact in the other. He was quick, the dragon granted him that; despite his pain, the staff was tracking the 'roo through her fall, words of magic on the jaguar's lips. A crackling ball of heat formed at the tip of the staff -

"Oh n-no..."

Jaceb tried to lunge forward, only for the dragon to stop him at the last second.

"Wait. If I'm right..."

A hiss of released pressure flew from the staff, followed by a fireball whistling and spinning with holy fury. It went straight for the falling paladin -

Shift.

Except it wasn't the paladin anymore. It was the sword-wielding Doberman, one blade stabbed into the ceiling and the other spinning around in a quick toss. The jaguar fell back, but not before taking a slice across the off-arm.

Incredible, he thought as he watched the display. The Doberman had already wrenched his weapon free, combining his fall with a forward swing, slamming his blade against the raised staff, kicking off the jaguar before rolling back for his other weapon. They're able to shift at will, bringing out whatever weapon they want at any time...

Of course, such effort would take perfect coordination and precision among those that were sharing the body, but it meant that they were able to shift capabilities on the fly to whatever they needed at any point. It was rather amazing.

There was, however, still one question. The artifact.

Shift. As the Doberman became the German Shepherd again, the jaguar fell back, using his staff like a quarterstaff to deflect blow after blow. More than that, he was faster than he should have been, a slight blur along his outline as he moved through the ruins. Draconicon tracked him as he leaped from one rock to another, barely keeping ahead of the stabbing strikes from the canine.

Definitely enhanced, but not from the staff...and, lovely, he's multi-tasking...

He winced as he saw the magic building up between the feline's hands, passed back and forth between the artifact and the staff. Despite the fact that he could only hold the staff with a hand and a half rather than both hands, he was still deflecting most of the Shepherd's attacks, and he was charging up something nasty in the process.

"Aren't y-you g-g-going t-to...y-you know..."

"Help?"

Jaceb nodded.

"Not without invitation. I'm not bad, but I'm nowhere near that good..."

Suddenly, the jaguar's staff came up again, the end trailing fire once more. It streaked through the humid air with the heat of a lightning bolt and the infernal light of a forest fire, aimed right for the Shepherd's stomach.

Except, it never made it there, because -

Shift. A much smaller possum suddenly appeared, kneeling on the floor, her arms held towards the heavens. Her hands were filled with glowing light, which shone in the jaguar's eyes just before it detonated.

POOM!

The holy light exploded out, both knocking the jaguar into the air and masking the next shift in a cloud of dust. Draconicon flapped a wing to keep the debris from flying too close to him and Jaceb, and even he missed the transformation of possum back to -

"Ha ha! Dodge this!"

The kangaroo leaped from the dust pile, shooting straight up in the air. She managed a spin, somehow, and her tail swung up and around -

CRACK!

And it slammed right into the feline's head. The jaguar's trajectory shifted, changing from going straight up to going straight down. He slammed into the stone floor with all the force of a falling meteor, face-down.

Shift. The Shepherd was back, using her daggers again. They flew from her hand, pinging off the staff and the artifact, knocking them well out of reach, before -

Shift. The Doberman was back.

Shift. Now the Shepherd.

Shift. Doberman.

Shift. Shepherd.

Annnnd this is where the system breaks down...

He watched without commenting as the rapidly transforming duo fought over who was going to be in charge right up to the point where they slammed into the jaguar, who had just managed to flip himself onto his back again. Considering that it was a very hard, very firm dog-elbow that came down on his neck, he probably regretted that.

"Annnnd now we can approach," Draconicon said.

"...Did y-you k-know th-th-they could do th-that?"

"I guessed. You can't fit four people into one body without breaking a few laws of physics or without giving them a lot of pocket-space for different items."

Or, he supposed, one could, but it would be a lot less comfortable. Not to mention a lot harder to figure out how to handle the situation when you were put in it. He shook his head, not wanting to take that further than he had to.

There was no need to try and listen in. The Doberman and the Shepherd were quite loud about what they wanted to do, and they weren't exactly hiding it as they struggled to keep the priest pinned down as they kept changing from one form to another. Their growls echoed through the ruined temple, and every so often, when the Doberman came back out, his blades were pointed right at the jaguar's non-vital organs.

"He needs to hurt," the Doberman panted. "He needs to hurt."

"He'll hurt enough when he dies," the Shepherd said.

"Not how he'd hurt if I do it."

"We don't have time."

"We'll make time. He needs to learn. They need to learn."

The roo occasionally looked like she was trying to push forward, but whether she wasn't pushing hard enough or whether the other two were ignoring her, she never quite made it forward to speak.

Seeing them like this, he wondered how much it had hurt for them to be all forced together. The dragon looked down at the artifact, feeling the magic that was coming off it now that he was close enough. There was mighty power to it, more than he expected, and it sent a shiver down his spine to contemplate that much magical might being in the hands of someone like the jaguar. It felt not dissimilar to some of the magical levels of some of the archmages back home.

He made himself think of how it would feel. Not just the idea of having more than one mind in one body, but more than that, to imagine the feelings of self that had to be merged, to imagine the impossible to reconcile concepts of one self against three others, of feeling the constant grind, the inevitable jab (accidental or intentional) of another's mind and self against one's own. The idea of one constantly having to remind yourself who you were versus who and what all the others were.

And more than that, the constant sense of strangeness, the wrongness of being in a body that was not yours would be hitting you at every moment of your existence. You would feel the hurt, the inconsistencies, the reminder that something felt wrong, that something moved wrong, that it wasn't how you would move.

And then you got down to how things would not just feel, but how they'd sound, how they'd taste, how they'd look. Four different minds and bodies forced to try and find some acceptable agreement of what 'real' was, and whose idea of reality was true, and...

The dragon was giving himself a headache, and he had barely scratched the surface. The fact that the four of them were as stable as they were, even though 'stable' was just a bit generous, was amazing.

Whoever thought of this was a sadist, he thought, shaking his head as he knelt down by the artifact, shaking his head. If this is the only thing it can do...

"Hurt."

"Die."

"Hurt."

"Die!"

They were down to single-word arguments, then. That would mean that a climax of anger was probably about to ensue. The dragon lifted his head -

And saw the jaguar had managed to pull something from around his neck. Draconicon's eyes went wide as he saw the tip of a winged dragon poking out of the feline's fingers, jumping to his feet and extending his hand.

He didn't even think about it. The power jumped from his core to his hand, and he extended his will across the room. It wrapped around the Shepherd - then the thrashing Doberman - and he yanked, hard.

It was barely enough. The jaguar exploded in a sudden burst of green light and gore, the feline sacrificing his life. Gusts of wind and the sound of beating wings filled the air as the Doberman went flying past him, and Draconicon shook his head, slowly looking up as the light tightened from a simple glow into a shining shaft that went up through a hole in the roof.

"I really hate gods..."

You stand before the Winged Serpent, the ruler of the Sky, he who sits upon thrones of clouds and mountains.

"...We were just talking, weren't we?"

We were. Thief.

"...Jaceb?"

"Y-yes?"

"Take them and get out of here. Now."

"...N-no."

"Jaceb. I really don't -"

"N-no. N-n-no more b-b-bad s-s-stuff. N-not anymore."

He heard the mole join him, and heard the scraping of metal on stone. That would be the Doberman, and he'd be lucky if he could explain what he just did later. Draconicon just hoped that he'd have back-up from one of the others when he told them that he'd guessed what was about to happen.

Looking down at the artifact, he reached down and picked it up. The magic inside bled through the gold it was made of, almost feeling like something ablaze with heat. It shimmered in his grip, and it almost felt like it was vibrating against his palm.

You stood against my priest. This will not be allowed to stand.

"Your priest hurt someone," he said, looking down at the artifact still. "Hurt them pretty bad when he didn't have to."

You speak of the thieves, the four in one? They deserved their fate for trying to steal from one of mine.

"Theft being punished by eternal agony. Wonderful choice..."

You question the justice of one of my priests?

"I question his sanity after he killed himself to summon you, for sure. And I certainly question your sense of justice."

A dragon touched by dark powers, and a mole that channels the dead. Hardly ones to critique the gods.

Draconicon shook his head, seeing the Shepherd moving around the edge of the temple out of the corner of his eye. He doubted that she could do anything against this creature, all things considered. Just glancing up, he could see the outline of the winged dragon circling above the temple, the god probably a good thirty feet long, if not longer, and thicker than he was tall. The wingbeats of the deity were loud enough to sound like thunder in the jungle, and he imagined that was only the physical power of the Winged Serpent.

If there was magic to match what was in the artifact in his hands, they were in deep trouble.

You have stolen from me, and brought harm to my priest. Will you hear my judgment before I enforce it?

"I'd like to ask a question, actually."

This is not your court to direct.

"Not sure that it's yours, either. It's kind of...what's the word...ruined?"

You are flippant.

"You live around people with the power of gods long enough, you stop having quite so much awe of them. Now, the question."

...You may ask.

"Is this one of yours?" Draconicon asked, holding up the artifact.

What?

"You specifically stated that the 'thief' tried to steal from one of yours. That implies that this artifact may or may not belong to or have been enchanted by your power. I am asking you. Is this yours?"

Jaceb looked up at him, then at the artifact. The mole didn't have to ask the question; he just turned to glare at the god.

"Y-you answer. G-g-gods create. Th-they m-m-make! Th-th-h-his..."

Are you judging me, mole? The one with the blood of children on his hands should not judge gods.

"Nnnnn...I s-speak...f-f-for th-the dead! I-I s-s-speak...f-for th-h-hose th-that can't. F-f-for th-the ones th-th-that hurt s-s-so bad, it w-was t-t-too m-much. Answer!"

You cannot force an answer from me, mole. There is no death to match my power. Be silent.

"Then answer me, Winged Serpent. Did you make this thing?" Draconicon asked, shaking his head.

Why does it matter?

"Two reasons, one personal, one not. The not-personal one?"

He tossed the artifact, a twisted serpent around a star, up and down on the palm of his hand. It made a rather satisfying click against his scales as he did so.

"I'm just guessing, but hear me out. Under your rules, all magic comes from gods. Is that correct?"

Of course. Thief.

"Then it stands to reason that all enchanted items are filled with the power of a god. Would you say that's also correct?"

...Yes.

"Then the point of asking must become clear by now, shouldn't it?"

...

"After all, if this wasn't made by you, then you would be completely happy for me to do something to drain it of all its energy. Considering it would have been filled by one of your fellow gods - who you doubtlessly compete with, if I understand pantheons at all - you would be happy to see it emptied out, all that magic put somewhere else. It's something that you could lord over them for a while.

"But if it isn't, if it contains your power, then I imagine the opposite is true. You would want to take it back, to drain it yourself and regain some of that power."

You think my status is so low that I would need an artifact to boost it?

"Ruined temple, dead cleric, threatening two people not from around here?" He shrugged. "Seems pretty low on the list of gods to me."

I assume you are attempting to make a deal. To trade the artifact for your freedom.

"Ah, you see...now we're at an impasse."

The kangaroo had reached the top of the temple, he realized. He could see her just through the hole, just past the edge of the Winged Serpent's head. The god didn't seem to be aware of her, and she had her claymore at the ready, almost like she was getting ready to chop off the god's head.

He caught her eye, giving the slightest shake of his head. Wait. Wait just a moment.

I am offering you a chance to make a deal with a god, tainted mage. You would turn down such a blessing?

"I never make deals with gods, first off, but that's not the problem."

Then what is.

"This."

Draconicon stopped throwing the little bauble up and down, and clenched it tight between his fingers. Even as he did, he felt the magic inside, felt the warping, chaotic, almost poisonous power within, and he knew the type of god that floated over him. The black dragon looked up, shaking his head.

"You see. You don't really understand what it means to have any amount of power."

I am a god. To be like me is to know power.

"No. To be like you is to use power. To know power is to know responsibility. Because anything else is a stupid child with spoiled parents, making everything it desires happen. And magic is the most indulgent parent of all...

"I asked you if this was yours, not because I want to make a deal, but so I know whether I needed to do something else."

You would stand up to me? Mortal, you may have a quick mind, but you have nothing else to turn against me. What power you have is nothing compared to what I may rain upon you. I have my temple, ruined as it is. I have my idol, far off as it may be. Your bauble is nothing compared to the might of these together. Your hubris has outstripped your sense.

"Perhaps. But it's not pride that makes me challenge you."

Then tell me, what gives you the courage to stand up to a god?

"Their pain."

"Awwww, that's sweet!"

The kangaroo's reaction drew all eyes up to her. She chuckled, her sword sheathed over her back as she clapped her hands.

"Real nice speech and all, love, but I got what you need. This whole temple's givin' the big guy power, right? Well." She tapped her foot on the stones atop the tallest standing spire. "I reckon one good hop will send this falling right through the ruins. How strong you think you're gonna be after that, you great big egg-sucking lizard-bonking evil assclown?"

You...how did...

"There's something to be said for delegating," Draconicon said with a chuckle. "Now, if you don't mind?"

"One falling tower, coming right up!"

And with that, the kangaroo kicked the side of the tower with a stomp so powerful that it set the whole ruin to quaking right then and there. He grabbed Jaceb, running for the nearest hole in the wall, and jumped right through, dragging the artifact with him.

"W-what about her?"

"Don't worry about that!"

Mortals! This insult will not be forgotten! I swear to you -

"Oh, just get out of here while you have any power left! Go, go on, get!"

The Winged Serpent glared at him as the stones of the temple continued to fall, but there was no arguing now. The god had two sources of power left, from his own bragging. The Serpent had his idol, and the dragon had the artifact. If a fight was forced, there was no longer a guarantee that the god would come out on top.

Gradually, the green light faded, leaving nothing but the ruined temple and all the debris around it. Draconicon heaved a sigh of relief, putting the bauble in his pocket before putting Jaceb back on the ground.

"Well...that went better than expected."

"Th-that was b-b-better?!"

"Well, we had a pretty good chance of dying, to be honest...anyway." He cupped his hands over his mouth. "Possum girl, mind telling us where you are?"

POOM!

"Thank you!"

They left the temple and made it about halfway back to town before stopping to rest in a clearing on the way. Draconicon sat down on a rock, pulling the bauble back out and rolling it between his fingers. The artifact still glowed with power as he stared at it, slowly shaking his head.

"Much as I want to say this would change you back, I don't know if it can," he muttered.

"Why?" the Shepherd said as she allowed Jaceb to bandage her. "You're a wizard, aren't you?"

"A mage, actually, but it isn't worth the distinction out here. The problem is, this was made for a cleric, and not really a very nice one, either, from the feeling of it."

"Are we stuck, then?"

"For now."

"...For now?" she asked, and he thought there was a tiny bit of hope in her voice.

"For now. I'm going to keep studying this thing. There might be a way to harness the chaos that the artifact represents, but considering that it's bonded with a poisonous nature and a focus on constantly creating a new sort of life, the chances of me using the artifact directly to give you back your old bodies is remarkably low."

Shift. The Doberman was out, his eyes narrowed.

"There's another option."

"Hmm?"

"The way you phrased that. 'Using the artifact directly.' That implies that there is a way to use it indirectly to achieve the same purpose."

"That's correct, and I was getting to that."

"Hmmm..."

The black dragon narrowed his eyes, holding out the artifact.

"If you don't believe that I will tell the truth, you can take this. I told you before; I will always be honest with you."

"..."

"But if you don't trust me, that's up to you. I can't make you believe me. All I can do is keep giving you evidence to believe me, eventually."

"..." Shift. The kangaroo was back, and she rolled her eyes before pushing the artifact back. "Oh, keep it. We can't do anything with it, anyway."

He nodded, and she turned her attention to Jaceb, thanking the mole for patching her up. Unlike the Shepherd, who'd been the one in front when they'd dug her out of the wreckage, the roo was completely bruised across the face and back, having taken the brunt of the damage during the fall. She'd apparently changed clothes while she was not in front, dressed in something that was halfway between a tunic and a smock, one that hung limp over her.

"So, what can you do with that thing?" she asked. "They're all curious." She frowned. "Yes, you are, and it's not a bad thing to tell him."

"...Uh..."

"Don't mind me, heh. So, the thing?"

"Right. Well, like I was telling our godly friend back there, it's entirely possible to drain all the magic from the artifact and repurpose it."

That sparked such a reaction that Jaceb had to step back for a moment. The kangaroo turned into the Doberman, who opened his mouth just in time to turn into the German Shepherd, who jumped up just in time to turn back into the roo, who stubbed her toe on a log due to the sudden growth, who turned back into the Shepherd just as she was tumbling head over heels into the mud, who turned back to into the Doberman as they rolled over and who ended up getting a mouthful of mud -

Well, suffice it to say that it was a rolling pile of chaos for a good couple of minutes, and it took everything that the dragon had in him not to laugh, mock, or otherwise comment on the misfortune that the four of them suffered. Well, three; the possum girl seemed more happy to stay out of that whole mess, and she didn't seem to suffer any of the consequences.

Smart girl.

Eventually, the German Shepherd managed to take full control again, though she was doused in mud by the time that she did. She glared down at herself, then at him and Jaceb.

"Not. One. Word. There's a river just over there. I'm going to get clean. If I hear so much as a chuckle..."

The dragon drew his fingers over his lips, and Jaceb mimed clicking his shut with a lock.

"Good."

Of course, that didn't stop them from having a soundless hiss and collapsed as soon as she was out of sight.

When she came back, they were able to talk again, and she looked moderately happier without being coated in mud. Draconicon held up the artifact again.

"This thing is stuffed full of that god's power. What goes into an item can come back out, and be turned to other purposes. However - however!" He held up a hand before she could leap down his throat. "The magic that I pull out is still affected by its source. That means that it's still going to have mutational qualities, and I'll need to practice before I can cast it like a spell.

"On the other hand, I can try putting it into another item, and making that into a channel for a spell. Sort of like a wand of healing or something like that. However, I still would have to experiment a bit before I knew how to make it work right, and I wouldn't trust myself to make it correctly the first time around."

"...You can do that?"

"What?"

"Turn one kind of magical item into another?"

"...It's pretty basic to modify the base energy and redirect it to another purpose. It's down at the core of how magic works. You affect the energy with your intent, which is the first step towards channeling it into a specific purpose. All energy changes as soon as it is affected by an outside source; magic is just more sensitive than most types."

"Do you know how much money you could make doing that?"

"I'm sure you're about to tell me."

"More than you could spend in lifetimes. People are always hunting the rarest artifacts, trying to find the one that will do a very specific thing that they need it to do. If you can repurpose them, take something that does one thing and make it do something else..."

The dragon nodded.

"I see where you're going with that."

And it was something that he would need, as much as he didn't want to think about it. He needed funds, and he needed contacts. More to the point, he needed magic, and if he was able to get people to bring him magical items to repurpose, it wouldn't be that hard for him to take a 'tax' of power out of each individual artifact. That could be held in reserve for when he figured out how to leave this universe, and more to the point, it would give him the power he needed to cast spells to defend himself, too.

He looked down at the artifact, shaking his head. This one would probably be too dangerous to leave as it was, or to try and re-sell. But there was enough magic in it for him to be able to experiment, to figure out how it worked. That was a start.

"Did you mean it?"

"Hmm?" he asked, looking up.

"Did you mean what you said, back at the temple?"

"Iiiiii said a lot of things. Which one did you mean?"

"Why you stood up to that thing."

Their pain. Draconicon smiled slightly at the memory, and he nodded.

"Yeah...Yeah, I meant it," he said.

"...I need some time. Some space. I'll meet you back at the village."

"Mind if I borrow some money to get through the gates?"

"Yeah...yeah, go ahead. I just...we need time to think."

He nodded, taking the coins she offered before walking out of the clearing, and Jaceb followed. If they needed space, he was more than happy to give it to them. Magic knew, he'd want more than that in their shoes.

The End