How should I do this? I have an audience after all. I thought as I stared into the open, dazed eyes of the technically but not functionally conscious dark elf.

He moaned pitifully, his mind broken by my invasion and forceful theft of all of his memories, thoughts, and knowledge. His moan was the only other sound in the narrow space, aside from the sounds of combat training happening nearby.

The creature in front of me was not even really a dark elf at this point, he was basically a fetus. Unless I restored his knowledge, thoughts, and memories he wouldn't return to some shade of normalcy. He'd be stuck in his current state. It's a good thing, for him, that this is all I'm doing. Because if I wanted too... I could leave him like this. I thought, grimly aware of the options at my disposal.

I had already finished creating a modified copy of his memories, one wherein he and his family were my devoted soldiers, crusaders of mine within the city who proudly supported me. It was easy, really. Now it was just a matter of putting them into his mind.

"Qu'Ren, pay attention." I said, calling to my dark elf servant. The dark elven noble had kept her gaze on me the whole time but the corners of her lips edged upwards in a stifled smile after I commanded her to watch what I was about to do. I got off the nearly fallen elf's form, walked a bit away's and then readied myself for what would come next: a confused guard's reawakening.

"This power is the power of a god of minds." I said, allowing arrogance and pride to surge into my voice. And then I infected Antur with my modified memories, flooding his mind with them and restoring just about all of the dark elf's knowledge to him. The knowledge and memories invading his mind reawoke him and the dark elf's eyes regained their focus in an instant.

"What was-" The dark elf said as he took in his surroundings, his words trailing off when he noticed Qu'Ren. I heard his heart-beat begin to quicken and before my very eyes I watched blood rush to his face. And elsewhere.

"Qu'Ren!" He shouted, at the precise moment his mind recovered enough for him to remember his most recent "memories". He cupped a hand over his mouth and blushed for a different reason now: out of embarrassment.

After about a minute wherein of listening, where Qu'Ren and I entertained the falsified memories of Antur, we resumed our journey. Along the way Qu'Ren began to chat with me, in a way she hadn't in a while.

[That was pretty entertaining Althos, but why did he have that... "reaction" to me?] Qu'Ren asked, curiosity evident in her tone. I chuckled. The two of us were united in ignoring the idle chatter of the love-struck guard, who behind us was being unusually chatty for a dark elf.

[Qu'Ren it's because he has a crush on you.] I told her idly, grinning. I had decided to do that, make the guard have a crush on my witch, because it felt fun. I heard Qu'Ren make a "tch!" sound when she was alerted to what I had done.

[Because it felt like fun.] I explained, simply. She sighed.

[What? Oh, Althos... why?] She asked, annoyed. I had to stifle a laugh. And we reached the edge of the narrow space within the wall. The sounds of the metal striking spider-silk and metal striking metal were louder than ever. And Qu'Ren and Antur could lay their eyes on the sources of those sounds, something I had been able to do for several seconds already.

The area just beyond the wall was a large courtyard. Two dozen dark elves were either overseeing training or actively training. When we walked into it, I immediately stole away Antur's consciousness, targeting him with my own mindblast which left him standing but robbed him of the ability to perceive anything. It was one of the abilities I had gained as a consequence of my dramatic emergence into the public eye of Undermoon and the ten thousand plus worshipers I had gained.

I'm not going to let Antur be confused. I thought, knowing that allowing him to speak freely to his family members would confuse him. He was the only person here, for now anyway, whose memories had been modified. Qu'Ren didn't notice, which was unsurprising. She didn't like him.

I studied the dark elves who populated the courtyard. Their toned, muscular bodies, some of which were far larger than others, were protected by a number of different physical means. Not only were their muscles protecting their vital organs, but their bodies were covered in armor. And armor that was a lot more protective looking than Qu'Ren's spider-silk armor.

Some of them wore spider-silk armor pieces, but the majority of them wore metal armor. The metal armor they wore was unlike the armor worn by Qu'Ren and the handful of other spider-silk pieces I had seen to date: it was unadorned, lacking in any particular identifier or insignia. That's... useful. I thought, a sly grin on my face. I could envision marking that armor with a symbol to identify it as my own.

One of the few female dark elves present in the courtyard studied her family-members. She was one of the warriors who wore metal armor. Her eyes flinted from warrior to warrior, studying them as they sparred with each other. Her eyes were white orbs, no iris or pupil visible in them. Her eyes possessed a strange beauty, but they would have been eerie to many humans or even other members of her own kind.

The male dark elves were universally engaged in sparring practice. They were split into pairs, nine pairs in total. They wielded an assortment of weapons, some used lengthy clubs, others held sharp axes and more still used blades of various sizes.

I'll go ahead and... feast on their memories. I thought, as I slyly began the process of infiltrating their minds, starting off with two of the women present in the courtyard. To speed this otherwise lengthy process I took advantage of one of the idle abilities I had gotten from the first tier of influence over the mind-domain: the ability to absorb memories from two people at once.

Qu'Ren was behind me, and still. She warily watched the dark elves sparring with each other, noting their assorted physiques.

[I don't like the look of them. Or the smell of them. They smell of... rage. Like... berserkers.] She warned me, a whisper of anger in her voice. I smiled and was aware that she was focused on the bulkier dark-elves. Though the look in her eyes wasn't entirely one of disdain, there was a flicker of fascination there, she was still focused hawkishly on them. Her disdain for them made sense: when she was younger a berserker minotaur nearly killed her and her brother.

5 of them were males, but one of them was a woman, one who easily held a gigantic battleax in one hand, leisurely hoisting the thing over a single shoulder. That's not a bad sight. I thought, marveling at the woman. Her brothers weren't bad looking either, all of them wearing metal faulds, cuisses, and other pieces of armor to protect their lower bodies.

I didn't need to use any of my powers to identify what they were, their hulking frames and the gigantic weapons they held, coupled with a superficial analysis of their memories told me what a gaze at them made Qu'Ren suspect: they were berserkers.

I suppose I should do something to set Qu'Ren at ease. I thought, as I just finished absorbing the memories of the sixth dark elf, of twenty-four total. And so I made a move. I stepped forward and began to walk towards the next group of creatures to worship me, proudly announcing my presence to them without words.

[Stay back Qu'Ren.] I instructed my servant. At that same instant that one of the overseers, a sister, noticed me. Her eyes, an uncanny golden color, turned to stare curiously in my direction. Qu'Ren nodded, obediently deferring to my judgment. She was proud and she was fond of power, especially the act of showing off her power, but she wasn't a fool.

I crossed the large courtyard at a leisurely pace. I wasn't joined by Antur or by Qu'Ren, though I felt Qu'Ren's gaze on my back. Each step took me further and further into the martially oriented camp, and I liked the feeling of tension I felt as I drew closer and closer to two dozen holdouts, of over 50, in this noble house. They are all mine and they don't even know it yet. I thought, smirking at them.

10 sets of memories down. 14 to go. I realized as I felt more and more knowledge of theirs flow into me. And a quick scan of the memories at my disposal told me what I came here suspecting would be the case: this family was known for its tendency towards bloodshed.

There will be blood won't there? I thought, a smile on my face. I don't mind that. I'll just make sure I don't kill them. I thought, rationalizing the violence I knew would happen, even if it was a meaningless attempt to resist worshiping me.

Two of the elves closer to me had their hands on their weapons already. They had been sparring after all. When I didn't stop approaching them they turned to face me, their grips on their blades tightening. It was an attempt to intimidate me, but it didn't work. I continued my approach, unaffected by their testosterone. They're brave. I thought, with a smile.

"Identify yourself!" One of them, Droden Bloodcaller, demanded. He and his sibling, Quartz Bloodcaller, were practically twins. They were also arrogant and foolish.

"I'm Althos. And you're Droden. Oh and... you're mine." I told Droden, revealing that the young dark elf was basically already a tool of mine.

The tension in the air came to a head in an unexpected way. The dark elves who had been warily watching the god approach them, unsure of who he was or what he wanted, didn't have time to react to his declaration before he sprung into action.

Althos didn't lunge at the warriors in his way. Instead, he just separated them. The ground at his feet was abruptly seized by his "Earth Control" power, and began to quake ahead of him, separating the various elves from one another due to the power of the localized tremors at their feet.

The deity gracefully moved forward, his eyes locked on Droden. There was a certain hunger in his gaze, but Droden wasn't able to stay on his feet, and fell on his ass. And that was when Althos lunged, when the dark elf he decided to bully was on his rear-end and couldn't even stand.

Althos moved faster than any of the dark elves present, even Qu'Ren had ever seen anything move. He was so fast that in leaping onto the dark-elf, his body was almost impaled on the guard's exposed sword. It was only by rendering part of his body incorporeal that he avoided being stabbed. But that didn't stop him, and the deity pinned the dark elf to the ground where he was seated.

"Heh." I chuckled, as I grabbed the blade that should have been inside of me and cast an alteration spell on the thing.

[Spell type: Alteration.

Spell name: Rust

Effects: This spell rusts the target, so long as the target is made of metal.

Spell costs: 200 magical energy per cast, per meter of the affected target.]

The dark elf was smiling at me, having believed that he got me until the metal on the blade began to darken. It got softer quickly, and in a matter of seconds, the part of it that I was grabbing turned to dust and crumpled in my hands. Now it was my turn to smile, as the heart of my enemy was immediately shaken by my display.

"Oh don't fret. Don't be scared Droden." I told him, gently. "I'm here now. You're mine." I said, simply. There was a slightly sadistic smile on my face, right before I moved very close to him, and when my face was centimeters from his I exhaled, my warm breath heating his face.

Countless golden spores exploded out of my mouth and flooded the air between us. They were my mind-control spores, a favorite tool of mine that I used to make my enemies into my servants. The dark elf was surprised by my actions and gasped. That was his last mistake. When he inhaled. what he inhaled were thousands of spores, which immediately overwhelmed his mind.

The elf began to cough uncontrollably. And then he fell unconscious. Heh... weakling. I thought as I looked at his fallen form. I studied his fallen form for a few seconds before I looked up at the other dark elves. They were scattered and fallen, and so I went on the attack.

The first thing I did was transform. I shed my dark elven form, my body immediately beginning to radiate darkness and change, and took on a more monstrous appearance.

I roared in delight, a bestial sound escaping my throat and lips, as my legs multiplied and took on a more monstrous visage. Two became four, which became eight. And they lost their hair, becoming smooth, blood-red, sharp appendages that could be used to climb, travel quickly, or stab into enemies.

My groin widened and changed colors, becoming the same blood-red color as my legs. It became my abdomen and my cephalothorax, while it pushed my humanoid torso upwards as if it were a sort of seat for me to be positioned on top of.

I was now a creature with the lower body of an enormous spider and the upper body of a dark elf. I removed my gaze from the dark elf I had just made mine, and up at his siblings. They were shocked and stared at me in terror and in awe. I opened my mouth and told them a simple truth. "You're mine." And then I smiled.

Althos in his drider form was a speedy force of nature. After he transformed and taunted the crowd, he immediately went on the attack.

He speedily made his way to the next closest dark elf, Droden's sparring partner. He towered over the elf, looking at the warrior curiously for a second, before lifting a single leg and lashing out at the warrior with it. The blow struck the elf in the chest, tearing through apart his armor and sending him sailing through the air. The elf crashed onto the ground, tumbled, and came to a stop, unconscious, after three seconds of unplanned gymnastics.

Althos smiled, even as he cast healing magic on the unconscious form of the elf. "He's not dead!" The god shouted, a cruel grin visible on his face.

In less than three minutes the dark elves who had guarded the courtyard were all scattered and shattered. None of them were dead, but they were all unconscious, their armor was shattered, and they were strewn about the courtyard. Each of them had gotten a face full of my spores, and their memories were all safely stored within me.

The ruined courtyard was covered in blood, bits of armor, and even shattered weapons. I'm definitely gonna try to forge something soon. I thought, with a wry smile on my face.

"I'll wake them up when their elders are mine." I said, to no one in particular, referencing the fallen dark elves in front of me. And with that I began a little skitter towards the manor that loomed large in front of me.

The manor was a barrack that stood on the other side of where I had entered their complex from, and it served as the home of the dark elves who made up the Bloodcaller noble family, one of the families who hadn't accepted my leadership. I'll correct that today. I thought, a cruel smile on my face.

Qu'Ren was hurriedly approaching me, working to keep up with my long legs. All 8 of them.